How much electricity $ would I use?

[jvr1102]

Just an opinion with my first full bill coming I have the following:

ASM G1 protein skimmer
T-5 lights, two actinic, two daylights
Mag drive 7
1300GPH pump (don't have brand handy)
Temp controller
titanium heater
JBJ 1/5 HP chiller
Small light for refugium

I think that may be all...maybe

Lights on 12 hours off 12 hours. Chiller probably comes on 2-3 times a day due to the heater being near the tank. I was thinking maybe an extra 50 bucks a month....sound close??

[yellowslayer13]

may be around 50-60$

[papagimp]

I'm running a 75g, 55g, 20g, 42g and my Electric never goes over $150. Surprising too with a poorly ventileated house and only a window AC and clip on fans to keep the tanks cooler. 3 of those tanks are run with full reef setup the 20g is only a minimal setup. Chiller is the only piece of equpiment I don't use right now that you have in your list (brands are different of course but i have more powerheads and lighting as well) just to give ya an idea. I tried the electrical usage calculator here on RC but the amount it told me was about twice what my electric bill is so not sure on the accuracy of that. Maybe somebody else got better results than I>

[marduc]

You need to first figure out how many watts you will be drawing. All electrical devices will either tell how many watts they are, or list amps and volts (often listed as VAC). To convert amps and volts to watts you simply multiply amps X volts.

Once you know how many watts each device uses you can then total these all up to come up with total kilowatt hour per day usage.

This is done by multiplying how many watts the device is listed by how many hours the device runs per day, then converting to kilowatts (divide by 1000). As an example lets use a 250 watt metal halide running at 8 hours per day.

250 watts X 8 = 2000 watts per day

2000 watts per day / 1000 = 2 Kilowatts per day

The next step is to look at your electric bill and see what the charge is for electric per kilowatt hour (sometimes this is listed as 2 separate charges). If you have trouble finding this simply divide your total bill by the Kwh used for the month to get your charge per Kwh.

Just for examples sake, lets say this is $ 0.16 per Kwh, so using the figures we have for our 250 w MH light:

2 Kwh a day X $0.16 per Kwh = $0.32 per day

$ 0.32 X 30 days = $9.60 per month.

For your total usage with all electrical devices running, just figure each devices Kwh / day usage, total all these figures, and then multiply this by your electric cost per Kwh for cost/ day.. whcih can then be converted to cost per month.

Electrical charges vary widely across the nation, so just going from what someone else says they are or are not paying for electric is not a valid indicator, unless they are on the same utility company as you.