out of the blue

[RedShark]

Does anyone know if the more/bigger aquariums you have the higher your electric bill will be?? Just curious...

 

[shuhu]

well, if you have more or bigger lights, then yes, maybe just a bit more, it depends on were you live though and also on how big you are upgrading. The same goes for other equipment (filter, heater...), but I don't think it would increase too much

 

[annka5]

No-one will be able to give you an exact answer. Big user would be the heater, and that is going to depend on how much above the temp of the room the tank water has to be.
The lights would use very little, the filter slightly more - I think generally heat and movement are the biggest users of electricity, also the most difficult in a fish tank to specify, as there are so many different types of filter etc.

 

[Morrgan]

The lights would use very little, the filter slightly more...

Just a little comment. In all but one of my tanks, the lights drain more than the filters, even though I have double filters in most tanks. For example, the Asian 26 gal tank has 2x18W fluorescent tubes, whereas the outer canister filter drains 8W and the inner filter 6W. Even the overfiltered 34 gal has 18W in lights and 6W+8W in inner filters.

 

[Jen]

I did the maths not a month ago.
I had a 35 gal tank with a HOB filter, a 150 watt heater, and 60 watts of lights. When I figured it out, it was costing like $7CAD a month.

I upgraded to a 90 gal with canister filter, 150 watt heater and 220 watts of light and it came to 7.65 CAD. A very minimal difference.

I'll post the link to this awesome calculator one of the members has... as long as you know the price per kilawatt hour you'll be able to figure it out. If you don't know that value, just plug it in with the number it gives you and you'll see if it's a big difference or not.

Here is the link, click on 'Aquarium Electrical Cost Calculator'.
Electrical Calculator

 

[annka5]

Maybe am misunderstanding, but your lights are not on 24 hours a day - when they aren't then they aren't using the power.
Also, the way I see it is that the heater will be plugged in all the time, but will not be heating the water constantly - at least, mine comes on when the water drops below the specified temp and switches off when it reaches it. So, it could be actively heating the water for very little of the time in a warm room and far more of the time when it's colder. Therefore, it won't use a set number of kW per hour every hour. Is this wrong?

 

[shuhu]

ohh, btw I saw at this website a formula to calculate aproximatly how much you spend:

Watts x hours x kWh cost x 30 = monthly electrical cost of the aquarium from this website: http/www.algone.com/energy_consumption.htm B)


EDIT: oh, nevermind, canoechiq link is much better and "accurate"

)

 

[WILDER]

Best not to no,lol.

 

[RedShark]

k, thanks. Man you guys are great.