The electric bill

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I running 10 tanks and 5 ponds in the winter and maybe 23 and 11 in the summer $$$$$$

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My electric bill tells me what my average cost per day during the billing period is - for me it's just over $3.50 per day.

Depending on where you live, your kilowatt billing may be different because there are On Peak, Mid Peak, and Off Peak. Off Peak for me is the entire weekend, plus every weekday from 7pm to 7am and holidays; On Peak in the winter is 7am to 11am, then Mid Peak from 11am to 5pm, then On Peak again from 5pm to 7pm.

Each one is a different price with the most savings being during Off Peak of course. This is why it's best to do things like laundry, vacuuming, baking etc during Off Peak which will cost you less than if you waited to do it during the weekdays.
 
Our pricing used to be tiered, the price going up after the first 500kwh. They ended that a while ago though.

I'm in PA and have peco as an electric supplier. They're creeping up the bill though as an incentive to get people to switch electric providers. They want to get out of residential billing, but all power will still be coming from them.

I can't imagine 40 cents per kwh, that would put my electric bill in the thousands every month! I use between 3000-3500kwh total which outs me between $240-300. At 40 cents my electric bill would be 1200/mo minimum. I'd have to reevaluate my electricity usage at that point.

Any half hp pump I've seen has been in the 750w range, 1hp at 1200+w. I'm thinking that 8x turnover will be plenty but My desired fish are pretty delicate, I wouldn't want them to suffer due to water conditions. I'm having a tough time finding the glass I need though so we'll see what happens.
 
You won't know the exact power consumption of your heaters because they turn on and off all day. So even if its a 300w heater, its not actually using 300w all day because it turns off when the water temp reaches the right level.

I think in any setup probably the moat expensive thing to run are the heaters (unless you're running a big pump, but you are not). If it was me, I would turn up the heating in the house up to 75 so your heaters don't have to work so hard. Gas is always cheaper than electricity so if you use your wall heater or whatever to heat your house, your total electricity bills will probably be much lower. Some guys I know who keep massive tanks in the garage have $300 electricity bills because the garage doesn't get enough heat in the winter and sometimes it overheats there in the summer.
 
I don't think you need a pump that big either. 8000 gph is overkill. You could do fine with a reeflo dart and a fx5. It just depends how your tank is stocked.
 
nasomi said:
I've only been doing this for 4 years now, I have 3 tanks and I'm planning my 4th, the largest yet. While I was doing it, I got to thinking, what is this going to do to my electric bill?

As of now I have a steady bill of about $250-300/mo. Not solely due to tanks, but still, I'd have to think they're a contributing factor. As a kid, I remember my parents constantly saying "TURN OFF THE LIGHTS". As a parent, I find myself saying the same thing. But is it really a big deal to leave a 60w bulb on for a half hour, when compared to the power consumption of a tank?

So I thought I'd break it down...

On my 135g tank I have two rena xp3 filters, two 300w heaters, and a powerhead. And lets not forget the dual 160w ballasts. Now, I know not everything is on all the time, but it's pretty easy to see how much things are on. The filters run 24/7 @19w each. The heaters are on a lot as well, as I keep my house at 64f in the winter. When the kids complain I tell them to put on a sweater or stand outside for a few minutes, and then they can come back in and it'll feel very warm. So I'm estimating 12hr a day the heaters are going to keep the tank at a steady 79 degrees. Obviously this will be less in the summer. The powerhead runs around the clock at about 80w. My lights are on, two 10k bulbs and two actinic bulbs on different schedules. The 10k are on from 5pm-9pm and the actinic are on from 9pm-11pm, in addition to 6am-8am.

It's math time!

Filters: 19w * 2 = 38w * 24hr = 912 watt hours per day or 27360 watt hours per month
Heaters: 300w * 2 = 600w * 12hr = 7200 watt hours per day or or 216000 watt hours per month
Powerhead: 80w * 1 = 80w * 24hr = 1920 watt hours per day or 57600 watt hours per month
Lights: 160 * 1(at a time) = 160w * 8hr = 1280 watt hours per day or 38400 watt hours per month

All that is the same as leaving 5 100w light bulbs on, 24 hours a day, 30 days a month, all the time.

Currently my electric bill is $0.0869 per kilowatt hour. This will be going up March 1st, 2013.

Filters: 27.36kwh * 8.69 cents = $2.37 per month
Heaters: 216kwh * 8.69 cents = $18.77 per month
Powerhead:57.6kwh * 8.69 cents = $5.00 per month
Lights: 38.4kwh * 8.69 cents = $3.33 per month

Added up that's $29.47 per month to run a 135g tank. The biggest hitter is obviously the heater, which will all but disappear in the summer months.

My 75g is about half of that since it has one heater, one filter, lesser lights, and no powerhead, so roughly $15. My 15g is probably about a dollar to run. Still, added up it's about $45 for the two tanks, which is a decent chunk of change.

I'm designing a 560g tank built into the wall as I finish my basement. Big tanks require proportionally big filtration. To achieve 10x or greater turnover, I'm looking at a 1hp 8000gph pump that will go into a refugium which will house 6 300w heaters. The pump alone will be 1250w 24 hours a day 30 days a month, that's $78.21 per month for the pump. A 1/2hp pump rated just under 4000gph is 759w, 24 hours a day 30 days a month, that's still $47.49 per month for the pump only. Add heaters, powerheads, lights, and this could easily come near $100/mo in electricity only.

So for those considering big tanks, these are constant charges that you will have every month in addition to the cost of other aquarium maintenance.
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thats a lot of wattage...I RUN 6tanks 40gal-90gal. for about $50 per month ...total,,, t-8 lighting... TOTAL175 WATTS......hob's 6 watts perx6...+2 14 watt hob's... 1 20w powehead 1x12watt P.H.....3X6WATT P.H.... 2X20 WATT HOB'S....13 CENTS AVE. (time of use...varies)=50 bucks for 6 tanks ...total:) almost forgot the heaters 950 watts total (they get turned off for about 5 months a year ... at wich point it costs about 20 bucks a month,,, total
 
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