electricity use

[andycook]

The biggest use of electricity on my setup is....my heater. I assume lights and heater are on 12 hours a day and everything else is 24 hours a day with a rate of $.065/KW. Does this match everyone else's experience?

metal halide $149.47
lights $21.64
heater $227.76
skimmer $96.80
circ pump $82.56
refug pump $62.63
return pump $96.80

[Benny Z]

um...

please tell me this is calculated for yearly totals and not monthly?

:o

[andycook]

It is an expensive hobby...


Yes, yearly.

[panaboy95]

when you consider how much it cost to heat and cool your house and what you pay the power company a year that is a drop in the bucket. i live in a hundred year old two story house. in the winter i pay 400 a month for power and gas i would say that halides are worth the cost.

[andycook]

I'm not looking to rationalize it. :)

I was suprised by the 800W heater if run 12 hours a day accounts for the majority of my fish tank electric bill. I have a 180g in my basement with 160g more in sumps/refugiums. The basement stays cool so the heater does run. I will put my watt meter and see what it comes to.

[seldon]

Id be interested to see, but I wouldnt think your heater would run that often so maybe it will be less than expected.

seldon

[andycook]

It seems like every time I check my tank the heater is on. I used 12 hours as a worst case scenario.

[panaboy95]

my tank is in the basement. it stays about 67 down there all year round. my heater is almost always on too. it goes off during the day wene the halides are running but that is about it.

[andycook]

My basement stays about 67 also. I run the halides (3x 175W) from 5 PM to 5 AM but they don't do much to the water temp. I'm running 1 800W Jali heater.

[Benny Z]

andy, can you post some current tank pics?

[andycook]

I'll try to get to it tonight. For a while all it was over-run with macro.

[Benny Z]

cool...

i've seen the pictures on your www link...would just like to see a full tank shot and possibly some recent closeups of your corals.

[hcs3]

i hate threads about the costs of our aquariums. that should be a banned topic. religion, politics, and costs.

[andycook]

You can't handle the truth! :)

Actually, I think I'll use more internal pumps and benefit from the heat transfer. A mag 18 or two to circulate water should also reduce how often my heater kicks on.

[lglamb]

Does that 800 watter keep it pretty precise, or does it
go thru mood swings?

[andycook]

Mild mood swings 79-80. I have it on a Medusa controller.