Multiple tank power consumption

[murmade]

Not that this would account for all of your bill but I worked at a car dealership...we had leaky hoses on the air compressor, after we fixed the leak, it reduced our power bill by a sizeable amount! Just another idea to look into. But like I say it wouldn't be like 500 bucks or anything. By the way I have 2 tanks with 8 filters and 4 heaters (600 watts)and 2 flourescent canopies...and my power bill is only 39.00 dollars a month, so relatively you have 10 x more tanks than I do... you should only be looking in the range of 300.00ish not 700.00!

[Sam Chicklets]

My last power bill just came a couple of days ago. I have 21 runnuing tanks in the fish room most of them heated 8 assorted power filters, 2 canisters, a fluval 4+ and the hiblow air pump, main floor has 3 tanks heated and 5 power filters. Upstairs I had 1 tank with toads running 2 fluval 2 internals, as well as 3 computers that run a lot.

My power bill is $236.38

[a1foxes]

:boom:

Back at it again... We've been having an ongoing "discussion" :cuss: about our monthly power bill. I say my tanks can't be using THAT much power, other half claims it's my tanks :tongue: . Our monthly consumption is in the order of 3,000 kwh ($700.00+) :shock: .

So, pleeeeease, anyone with 20+ tanks, could you please let me know your monthly consumption - along with possibly size, number & water temp. of tanks, and set-up (i.e. fishroom, tanks spread over the house, ambient room temp. etc.), so I can judge for myself if just maybe, it is my tanks????? Sure would appreciate any input I can get!

Edited to add that we have had a parallel meter installed to check for acuracy; the meter readings were the same....

Wow I thought I had problems.... my bill averages $500 a month, sometimes a bit more. Its and older house,

2 levels, 5 bdrms and the fish are in the 'rec room' in the basement. We dont have electric heat, or anything, its

all gas even the dryer. My fish room is about 20x26, and crammed FULL - about 70 tanks in all. Theres everything

from 2 1/2 gal to 70 gall, lots of 20 and 33's. They all have heaters in them, and most have their own HOB. About

a dozen powerheads, and 2 large airpumps supply the small tanks with their mini filters, and the larger tanks use

undergravel as well. My water temps I keep around 80-86, house temp averages more like80. I have about 4 other

larger (55 gal) tanks scattered about the house as well, with HOB, UG, PH, Heaters, lights etc. I do pretty well

considering theres 4 kids and 2 adults in this house.

All I can suggest is making a list of your equipment, each should say on it how many watts it takes to run,

for example the average AC70 only uses about 5 watts, vs say a light bulb at 100 w. I did things like swap out

all light bulbs for the florescents, fish lights are all on timers, when I do water changes I use warm rather than

cold(keeps the heaters from coming on) and keeping the room temps up helps. Heaters use alot more energy

than anything else. Good luck

[Aquatic_Addiction]

Well I'm currently running 2 - 55 Gal, 1 - 33 gal, 4 - 20 Gal, 1 - 10 Gal and 1 - 5Gal, I have 2 fluval 204, 1 Fluval 103, 1 Via Aqua 750, 2 powerheads, 8 heaters ( 100 - 300 ), 5 HOB, 3 air pumps, and 5 canopy lights. Tanks are spread out around the house with 3 on top floor, 5 on main floor and 1 in the basement. So with tanks and everything, plus a computer that runs 24/7, my power bill runs about 160 a month. So even with 20 + tanks I can't see it being as high as 700.

~~Ray~~

[k9outfit]

:shock:

my bill averages $500 a month

2 levels, 5 bdrms and the fish are in the 'rec room' in the basement. We dont have electric heat, or anything, its

all gas even the dryer. My fish room is about 20x26, and crammed FULL - about 70 tanks in all.

Tanks are spread out around the house with 3 on top floor, 5 on main floor and 1 in the basement. So with tanks and everything, plus a computer that runs 24/7, my power bill runs about 160 a month.

1500 sq. ft, walk-out basement...

Not sure what's going on; was up in the 120-140 kilowatt/day range, now suddenly (since I'm monitoring the meter every 12 hours! :shock: ) I'm reading 40-50 during the day (8:30 am-8:30 pm), 30-35 during the night (8:30 pm-8:30 am.). Basically, we're averageing right around 80 kilowatts per day. Does anyone else's power consumption concure, or are we still way out in left field? My entire life seems to be scheduled around power meter readings.... .

Unplugged the compressor this pm; will know by 8:30 am how much that's consuming....

[Sam Chicklets]

How many $700 power bills have you received, sometimes they estimate for a couple of months and then hit you with an actual reading.

[Wibber]

Along the same lines as Sam Chicklets question....

Did $700 bills just start happening suddenly?

Or did you build up to it?

[k9outfit]

Started innocuously enough, since we were on the payement equilization plan for YEARS. Then we got a bill for around $1200.00, and since then, every bill has been in the order of $600.00-$1,000.00. Not sure why or exactly when everything went to Hell in a handbasket, since the Epcor bills are incredibly difficult to decifer, with their "credit" and then their new charges. Also, there were months & months where the meter was "estimated" rather than an actual reading taken. Anyway, we've been getting hit with these whoppers for around 1.5 years now. Can't really think of anything we did back then to warrant the change in power consumption, just like I can't think of anything we're doing right now that would be cutting down our consumption - other than it's warmer (no furnace) and lighter (less lights on per day); that alone shouldn't be cutting our consumption by almost 1/3 (going by 12 hour meter readings). Our last bill was still in the $800.00 range....

:well:

OK; the results are in for the last 24 hours: used 31 Kilowatts yesterday from 8:30 am-8:30 pm, then used 37 from 8:30 pm - 8:30 this morning. Was a 68 kilowatt day though, lower than have been getting. Question is, why was the consumption higher during the night than day???? I unplugged the compressor yesterday evening, right after the 8:30 pm reading....

Have been consistantly around 40-50 during the day, and 30-35 nights (around 75-85 Kilowatts per day). What happened???? :well:

[fairdeal]

I have 22 tanks running right now - from 10G to 255G. Every tank has a heater, some have 2, lots of aquaclears and canisters, lights and most have an air pump running bubble bars. I also have 2 older freezers, a computer that hardly ever gets shut off, a t.v. that runs all the time and 2 kids still living at home that don't know how a light switch turns the light off.

Power bill runs from $190 - $210 monthly. I think the idea of using larger heaters than is required has some merit - don't seem to be on as much once the temperature is reached.

I would vote for the faulty meter after everything I have read on this post.

[Wibber]

The other half has been going around checking circuits with an amp meter, but unfortunately, I'm not convinced the numbers shown are necessarily correctly interpreted, since and at every circuit, breaker, or power bar, there's a MAJOR outcry over the X# of amps currently being drawn by whatever.

This is a clamp on ammeter that's being used in the electrical panel on the feeders? It's indicating a large draw on the circuits pointing towards the aquariums?

What are the large (240V) draws in this house?

[Wibber]

You are NOT on the rate equalization program at this point, correct?

Semi's power consumption has been assessed, checked, and taken into account.

Just want to know if we can take what happened in the winter out of the discussion when talking about recent bills.

Your last bill was based on an actual reading, or a questimate on Epcors part? It was still high - but where you monitering the meter during that period and getting lower demand readings?

In other words, "something"'s sucking massive quantities of power; something that's being used regularily, but instead of using what it needs, it's drawing possibly 10 times as much? A short circuit? Would faulty wiring cause this? Would it be possible to wire something incorrectly to have an insane draw, without burning the house down?????.

"Faulty wiring" can certainly cause excessive loads, but it's a) designed to cease to function under many of them typically shows up from the start c) usually isn't intermittent.

[NatureNut]

Higher consumption at night could possibly be due to lights being on, TV useage etc? Also sometimes people have water softeners that cycle at night and things like that.