Electrical cost of running a tank

[BigSteve]

♂ In a previous post there was some discussion of the electrical cost of running a tank or tanks. Just for fun, and having an electrical background, I decided to calculate what I'm paying for running my 15 gallon, per month. I won't bore you with all the electrical calculations, but here's what I figured...

* 6 watt power filter, on 24 hours a day.
* 75 watt heater, on 8 hours a day total (on average all year round. Rarely on in
the summer, on quite a bit during the cold winter here).
* 15 watt flourescent hood lamp, on 10 hours a day

Assuming you have a heater, it will always be your major electrical load.

Our electrical costs here are about 8 cents per killowatt hour (KWh), which I believe is probably about average here in the U.S. based on surveys I've seen.
In the end, I calculate that I'm only paying about $2.40 in electric to run this tank
for a month. 60 cents a week. Yeah, most people have bigger tanks and will be paying a bit more, but for most that cost isn't going to make or break them.
Well worth it for the joy of fishkeeping.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

A bigger tank wouldn't be too bad as the water would take longer cool down tot he point of the heater having to come on.

I'd be interested in how much I pay for mine. I'm not even sure how much I pay for electricity to start with though.

 

[Def]

Interesting. Can you do a dummies guide to calculating it? My local shop told me it would only cost a pound or 2 a month to run my 27 gallon.

 

[Jimmy927]

it costs is over £50 a month to run my 1.5 footer and my dads whopping 5 footer but my dads is marine.

James

 

[CathyG]

Jimmy, £50 in electricity costs just for those tanks?? That Marine set up must have every gadget going!

 

[Discomafia]

what kind of lights does he have? And for a 5 feet tank, he'd need a lot, depends on his set up of course.

 

[Aquascaper]

Oh dear.........

I run:
2 x 150w Heaters
2 x 300w Heaters
4 x Cold Cathode Light Tubes
1 x 8w Light
3 x 30w Lights
2 x 36w Lights
1 x 400w Metal Halide Light
1 x Fluval 3+
6 x Assorted Powerheads
1 x Eheim External Filter
1 x Berlin Skimmer
1 x Air Pump

No wonder my Electricity bill has gone up to £35/month

 

[canarsie11]

Thats alot of equipment...

 

[Aquascaper]

4 tanks

One of which is marine

 

[Paul_MTS]

i'm just waiting for my parents to start asking for dosh for the extra electricity!!

they keep on moaning about having room lights on etc

 

[Jimmy927]

he has deltec metal hilides (doubles).
5 pumps
T5s
2 deltec skimmers
1 deltec calk stirrer
1 deltec calcium reactor
4 tunze turbo`s
1 Cooler
5 300w heaters
gizmos (controlers and stuff)
thats all i know i know he has a lot more stuff in there but i dont realy take much notice i have my own fishtank to run.
and i said over £50 a lot over.

Takes up half the room i will post some pics tommorow.

and my tank has:
1 T8
1 airpump
1 50w heater

and my mom says you have to get rid of your tank as the electricity bill is too high
(my tank will make it go up £2 max)
I say yeah right my fish stay.


James

 

[CathyG]

Oh dear.........

I run:
2 x 150w Heaters
2 x 300w Heaters
4 x Cold Cathode Light Tubes
1 x 8w Light
3 x 30w Lights
2 x 36w Lights
1 x 400w Metal Halide Light
1 x Fluval 3+
6 x Assorted Powerheads
1 x Eheim External Filter
1 x Berlin Skimmer
1 x Air Pump

No wonder my Electricity bill has gone up to £35/month

What size is your own house, and is this an increase you have noticed since keeping fish? Everything in my house is electric, (except the gas central heating) and I pay £48 per month for both. So £35 a month for electric sounds reasonable to me

 

[Def]

£35 a month is cheap... I was paying that before I got my tanks, but I was running a whole bunch of servers and pc's 24hrs*7 days...

 

[bunjiweb]

My parents already started asking for a contribution to the electricity bill as with 8 tanks im using a lot now...

I Worked it all out and It isnt costing more than £5 for my entire room for a month, so im giving them £3 a month... lol

Ben