help with energy usage

lucy.lou.glass · #1 07/12/2006, 11:42 AM

hello everyone,
i'm wondering if anyone knows about how much extra you spend on a fish tanks in just energy usage.
right now i have a 20 gallon tank with 1 protein skimmer, 1 water pump, 1 filter and 2 florescent lights. i keep the lights on about 10 hours a day. 8 hours for the bright light.
our energy bill has been a little higher then we think it should be and i feel like it's due to the central air (duh) and they are wanting to charge me more for my tank. it doesnt seem like the tank uses up that much enery even though there all all these deciving plugs and cords coming out of it. does any one have an idea of how much energy i'm using on this tank??? do my roommates have a good reason to be upset.

Ti · #2 07/12/2006, 11:43 AM

there is a wattage/cost calculator on the site here.
Anyone have a link for it?

lucy.lou.glass · #3 07/12/2006, 11:45 AM

hmmm i'll see what i can find

exacta123 · #4 07/12/2006, 11:48 AM

its on the home page (bottom left column under calculations)

lucy.lou.glass · #5 07/12/2006, 11:49 AM

i found a tank cost calc. but i just don't know how much kilo wats i use. thats what i'm trying to find out. i don't have the hand books for all my equipment because its all hand down from my big brother

Ti · #6 07/12/2006, 11:52 AM

wattage should be listed on the items themselves.
Or on sites that sell the stuff.

exacta123 · #7 07/12/2006, 11:54 AM

most of your pumps should have the wattage use written on them if not just go online and look the products up on a online vendor under description that should work

jonbro6956 · #8 07/12/2006, 12:26 PM

It should be between $20-$30 a month to keep it running. But I would think that it would be closer to $20.

cstires · #9 07/12/2006, 12:40 PM

If you don't know the watts then:

Amps x Volts = Watts
1000 Watts = a Kilowatt

One you know the above information you can then determine how much a particular component costs to run by using the following formula:

Watts x Running Time / 1000 x Price per kwh

Let me know if you have any other questions and I will try to help you out. I just did this for my 90g and realized that my tank is costing me aroun $50-$75 a month, depending on how many times my chiller needs to kick on...

jonbro6956 · #10 07/12/2006, 06:48 PM

The most power consuming parts to the aquarium are the heaters/chillers and lights. Everything else should only be a few watts.

An average 400gph powerhead - 20 watts
lights - 60 watts
heater - 150 watts
120 gph bio-wheel filter - 14 watts

Even running 24/7 (which your heater and lights do not), it adds up to about $21 a month.

funman1 · #11 07/12/2006, 06:56 PM

Just buy a kill-o-watt device off ebay for like 20 bucks and it will tell you EXACTLY how much you are using, then multiply by your KWH rate on your bill.
mine is .07 Per KWH so may nano tank costs about $5 a month to run.

DO NOT read the labels on the devices, I found they are WAY off, the only true way to tell is with a kill-o-watt mettering device.

I bought a new fridge after I found out it was costing me like $70 a month!!!

lucy.lou.glass · #12 07/12/2006, 07:19 PM

fun man, what all do you have running in your nano. my tank is only about 8 gallons more than yours.

lucy.lou.glass · #13 07/12/2006, 07:22 PM

i didn't see any Kill-o-watts on ebay, is that something i could find at any hardwear store

D-Rod · #14 07/12/2006, 07:26 PM

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

here's one on F&S

lucy.lou.glass · #15 07/12/2006, 07:47 PM

ok nevermind i placed a bid on ebay. they are a little bit cheeper on ebay. what a wonderfull device i'm going to be cheking the watts on everything in the house now.

justin42279 · #16 07/12/2006, 08:20 PM

I run a 55 gallon tank with 260 watts of lights, a heater, 3 powerheads, and I hardly notice an increase in my electric bill. Maybe 10 bucks.

I checked with the water department a few days ago and found out that it would only cost me 3.00 extra a month to use 325 gallons of water a month extra for an RO/DI filters. Right now, I'm paying .25 cents a gallon at the fish store.

Its my opinion that fish tanks become really expensive when your running the huge 100 gallon + tanks with MH that things would become quite expensive. I love this hobby but not enough to bleed my bank account.

lucy.lou.glass · #17 07/12/2006, 08:39 PM

yeah i just don't feel like my tank is all that expensive. i can't wait to find out exactly what's going on. i think that the high energy bill is because of the central air., and not from my little 20 gallon reef tank.
does any one else know how much their tank costs?

funman1 · #18 07/12/2006, 10:33 PM

Sorry it's a kill A watt
http://search.ebay.com/search/search...saprchi=&sass=

>lucy.lou.glass
I just have the standard 12 G nano 24 watt split lighting, the stock pump, and a 50 watt heater.

Marinemom · #19 07/12/2006, 11:13 PM

Tanks do use a little bit more of the energy that we consume but it looks like your setup is pretty basic. I can't imagine that it is your tank, but I would almost bet that it is the central air in which case everyone has to pay for it.

Marinemom

jay24k · #20 07/12/2006, 11:38 PM

All depends on your rate per kilawatt from your electric company. I'd be willing to bet your heater rarely if ever comes on in the nano. The pump that comes with the 12 gallon nano is about 16 watts if I recall. I'd say your tank might possibly run around 10 bucks a month if that. It's about equal to two light bulbs running.

My 180 gallon runs me about 60 a month.

funman1 · #21 07/13/2006, 12:50 AM

Like I said mine is about $5.00 a month

gabegmonkey · #22 07/13/2006, 01:11 AM

My Gas and Electric together at my Apartment runs about 70-80 dollars per month and I have 3 55 Gallons, 2 20 Gallons, and a Ten all running... So ballpark I guess I'm spending about 37 cents per Gallon give or take... but that's a high estimate since the Bill is for my whole apartment not just my tanks... But if it was right then my 20 Gallon tanks would cost roughly $7.40 per month... But those are high/rough figures and obviously not every tank has the same equipment

serpentman · #23 07/13/2006, 08:51 AM

I just ran my setup through the calculator and verified with my electic company to double check. Total monthly electrical cost to run my 180 is about $100-120/mo.

ricks · #24 07/13/2006, 09:11 AM

My 500 gallon runs about 225.00 to 250.00 per month....

old salty · #25 07/13/2006, 10:30 AM

I can give you almost every assurance that central air is sucking up more juice than a 20 gallon fishtank!! I run a 125 gallon tank on about $30 a month; of course electricity costs are different in other areas. The central air costs about $100 a month, and it set at 77 degrees.