Problem.... Electricity Bill.......
- Thread starter Frisnog
- Start date
12 Volt Man;3029009; said:there is no way a 55g even at that temp/light is going to jump your electricity bill that much per month.
if that was the case this forum would have 4 members
try and see what else is running in your home that might be sucking the power.
yeah, my 300g doesn't even take that much of a toll on my electric bill. Lower the heater to about 80degrees and don't leave the lights on for so long.
best is to have pre heated room at 80 degree. and get minimum required heaters, buy eco light bulb. i think it should cut your bill in half. or at least 25% less
Ok, I'll try to chip in here. Around here, we're charged 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Here's how you figure out the cost of something electrical.
Watts the item draws multiplied by hours it's on. That total divided by 1000 (to get to kilowatts) then multiply by .10 (10 cents).
Here's an example. My TV draws 300 Watts. If it's on 5 hours, then I compute my watt hours to 1500 (300 x 5). That then becomes 1.5 kwh (kilowatt hours). I then take that at .10 per kwh and I get 15 cents to run the tv. (1.5 x .10)
I do this lab with my students and they're amazed how cheap most of the electrical stuff is. Basically, your big bill items are things that draw large amounts of wattage. If you look at their rating, you'll get a good idea of it. The high draws are mainly things with coils in it because they aren't closed loops for electricity and they convert the electricity to heat. Toaster, hair dryers, expecially your heater if it's electric, your range and oven if electric. These are what makes the spike.
Oh yeh, forgot about a raise in your rates. If it's only a 2 cent raise, that's still about a 20% increase.
Hope that helps.
Watts the item draws multiplied by hours it's on. That total divided by 1000 (to get to kilowatts) then multiply by .10 (10 cents).
Here's an example. My TV draws 300 Watts. If it's on 5 hours, then I compute my watt hours to 1500 (300 x 5). That then becomes 1.5 kwh (kilowatt hours). I then take that at .10 per kwh and I get 15 cents to run the tv. (1.5 x .10)
I do this lab with my students and they're amazed how cheap most of the electrical stuff is. Basically, your big bill items are things that draw large amounts of wattage. If you look at their rating, you'll get a good idea of it. The high draws are mainly things with coils in it because they aren't closed loops for electricity and they convert the electricity to heat. Toaster, hair dryers, expecially your heater if it's electric, your range and oven if electric. These are what makes the spike.
Oh yeh, forgot about a raise in your rates. If it's only a 2 cent raise, that's still about a 20% increase.
Hope that helps.
We have all electric, the items which cost the most to operate is the furnace, hot water heater and refrigerator. When the furnace is not used, our electric bill is $100 less per month.
We have 3 aquariums, 30, 55 and 150. Single heaters in smaller tanks and (2) 300 watt heaters in the 150 gallon. Lights on average 8 hour per day.
We have 3 aquariums, 30, 55 and 150. Single heaters in smaller tanks and (2) 300 watt heaters in the 150 gallon. Lights on average 8 hour per day.
Electric heaters are sky high to run. Do not heat the room to 80 if your using electric heat its the equivalent of using a hair dryer to heat your house. If your using gas forced air it will be worth it especially if you have a zone system and a few tanks in one room.
Partially closing the AC duct/vent to the room with the tank (really for bigger tanks and fish rooms) in the summer so that the room is a bit hotter. Just don't make it uncomfortable. You may also want to look into getting a top for your tank and minimizing heat loss even more by lowering spray bars into the water, raising your water level so that any HOB outputs are not creating a "waterfall".
I do agree with everyone that a 55 gallon tank (even at that temp.) could not cause such a spike in your bill. Filters are pretty irrelevant unless you're running a pressure biased pump (they eat electricity) or a very, very large flow biased pump. Lighting should not be too high unless it is a planted tank and you need bright lights on 14 hours a day. So it all comes down to heaters, your's being set a bit high, it could draw a decent amount of power, but still not $100 worth.
To raise your bill (assuming $0.10 per KwH) it would take roughly 1000 watts. That is more than your entire tank, with heaters running constantly, could ever draw. My guess is that your bill got raised (ours has been about 3 times in the last year), they added on some BS surcharge, you are just using more power (e.g. new appliances, new computer, too much MFK, etc.), or you have a faulty appliance or wiring fault. While the latter is highly unlikely to cause this type of problem, a compressor (fridge or AC) that is going bad could indeed raise the bill.
I do agree with everyone that a 55 gallon tank (even at that temp.) could not cause such a spike in your bill. Filters are pretty irrelevant unless you're running a pressure biased pump (they eat electricity) or a very, very large flow biased pump. Lighting should not be too high unless it is a planted tank and you need bright lights on 14 hours a day. So it all comes down to heaters, your's being set a bit high, it could draw a decent amount of power, but still not $100 worth.
To raise your bill (assuming $0.10 per KwH) it would take roughly 1000 watts. That is more than your entire tank, with heaters running constantly, could ever draw. My guess is that your bill got raised (ours has been about 3 times in the last year), they added on some BS surcharge, you are just using more power (e.g. new appliances, new computer, too much MFK, etc.), or you have a faulty appliance or wiring fault. While the latter is highly unlikely to cause this type of problem, a compressor (fridge or AC) that is going bad could indeed raise the bill.
You bring up a good point my power bill spiked a while back and I discovered that the weather stripping on my freezer was not sticking so it had to cycle the freezer way to oftenTropical Dude;3048735; said:
That added 60 dollars on the regular bill. Check all appliances and unplug ones that draw power while sitting.As mentioned above, magnetic seals on fridges can go bad. I think I seen that on DIY as a power saving tip one time.
Also, many things decrease in efficiency as they age. Everything from electrical motors to the capacitors in your computer or other electrical device.
My suggestion (meant to add it before); get a KillAWatt or similar device. They can be had for under $20 and plug into the outlet and then give a reading on how many watts the device is pulling (real time) as well as being able to count KwH over the entire time it is plugged in. Plug it into the outlet your GFCI or Outlet strip is plugged into and let it stay there for a day, then without unplugging it, read the KwH your tank took and multiply that by 30. You should now have a rough average of how many KwH your tank uses. You can of course use it on anything that plugs into a normal outlet and you can leave it on your tank for a full 30 days to see exactly how much power it uses.
Also, many things decrease in efficiency as they age. Everything from electrical motors to the capacitors in your computer or other electrical device.
My suggestion (meant to add it before); get a KillAWatt or similar device. They can be had for under $20 and plug into the outlet and then give a reading on how many watts the device is pulling (real time) as well as being able to count KwH over the entire time it is plugged in. Plug it into the outlet your GFCI or Outlet strip is plugged into and let it stay there for a day, then without unplugging it, read the KwH your tank took and multiply that by 30. You should now have a rough average of how many KwH your tank uses. You can of course use it on anything that plugs into a normal outlet and you can leave it on your tank for a full 30 days to see exactly how much power it uses.
Got my reality check a few weeks ago; long, cold snowy winter on lake huron, heating primarily electric baseboards with supplemental wood stove heat. Running about 6 heated tanks( 150w to 300w) with low wattage pumps. Ontario Hydro bill, 1 month worth, $690. Looking for someone in Cali to adopt me.
