Try bringing the temp on the tanks down a degree or two. Take towards the low end of what the fish thrive in. Not tolerate, but thrive.
Solar panels
- Thread starter dgsxdad
- Start date
We are a family of 6, with other family always coming over, so theirs always someone in the house doing laundry or whatever. Don't judge unless you have a similar situation
+1, no way your 2 tanks can cost $350 in electric a month. Hell $350 prior to them is a lot, turn your lights off once in awhile
Before you go investing in solar, I would find out the culprit if that huge increase in your electric bill...unless there some sort of malfunction, there's no way your tanks would result in an increase of $350.
Below is a breakdown of the monthly cost to run what you listed, using PG&E's highest tier of $0.36/KWHr:
Two XP4s - $16.08/month
Eheim III- $7.78/month
25W UV- $6.48/month
36W UV- $9.33/month
1200W heaters- 38.88/month (assuming they come on 3 hours per day)
The equipment you listed only draws 218KWHRs/month, which comes out to a monthly total of $78.54 to run.
Unless you are running 1,000W Metal Halide lights that you didn't mention, there is something else drawing lots of juice.
In order to see an increase of $350, you would need to use an extra 972KWHrs! That's the equivalent of running a device that draws 1,350Watts, 24/7!
I would contact PG&E and have them do an energy audit...I believe they will do that for free.
I feel your pain...PG&E rates are some of the highest in the country...the rates are ridiculous.
Below is a breakdown of the monthly cost to run what you listed, using PG&E's highest tier of $0.36/KWHr:
Two XP4s - $16.08/month
Eheim III- $7.78/month
25W UV- $6.48/month
36W UV- $9.33/month
1200W heaters- 38.88/month (assuming they come on 3 hours per day)
The equipment you listed only draws 218KWHRs/month, which comes out to a monthly total of $78.54 to run.
Unless you are running 1,000W Metal Halide lights that you didn't mention, there is something else drawing lots of juice.
In order to see an increase of $350, you would need to use an extra 972KWHrs! That's the equivalent of running a device that draws 1,350Watts, 24/7!
I would contact PG&E and have them do an energy audit...I believe they will do that for free.
I feel your pain...PG&E rates are some of the highest in the country...the rates are ridiculous.
I think when most people in other parts of the country (except maybe for Hawaiians) see what we pay in the Bay Area, it's a shock. I don't think it's that we use so much more electricity than people in other areas, it's that our rates are insane.
I like researching this stuff (it's interesting to me) so I pulled up Penelec (PA) rates and it looks like they charge 2.979 cents per kWh for all kWh. Compare that to our highest tier rates of 35.949 cents per kWh and you can see how it's easy to run up a high electric bill when our rates are twelve times as high.
If we paid PA rates, dgsxdad's bill would be under 60 bucks! Kinda crazy to think that there's such a huge disparity in rates.
I like researching this stuff (it's interesting to me) so I pulled up Penelec (PA) rates and it looks like they charge 2.979 cents per kWh for all kWh. Compare that to our highest tier rates of 35.949 cents per kWh and you can see how it's easy to run up a high electric bill when our rates are twelve times as high.
If we paid PA rates, dgsxdad's bill would be under 60 bucks! Kinda crazy to think that there's such a huge disparity in rates.
