punman Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Tank Electrical Costs – Especially Heaters Note – If you don’t want to read through all of this, just skip down to the second last paragraph. I have seen posts where people want to know the cost of running their tanks for a month. Lighting is easy because the wattage is listed on the lamps and we can estimate the hours per day that the lamps are on. Filters are on continually so it is just a matter of checking the specs for the filter wattage. The trickier part is the heater because it goes off and on. I tried watching my heater in my 45 gallon tank while I worked at the computer. I tried to record the time it went off and on for two hours. Sometimes I’d miss it though and would have to estimate. I came up with ON 22% of the time. I have 5 tanks so I needed a better idea. Over two weeks I randomly walked by the tanks and checked off on a piece of paper if the heater was on or off. I tried to do it randomly, not every 10 minutes in case a heater was running say, an 8 min. off, 2 min. on cycle. I did this about a 100 times over many days but it took less time than sitting watching a tank for two hours. The 45 gallon tank was on 20.3% of the time so I feel my method was fairly accurate. The chart below shows my results. 180 gal. – 250 W heater = 1.4 W/gal. On 31.4% Cost per month is $5.21 90 gal. – 250 W heater = 2.8 W/gal. On 35.6% Cost per month is $5.91 45 gal. – 200 W heater = 4.4 W/gal. On 20.3% Cost per month is $2.70 33 gal. – 150 W heater = 4.5 W/gal. On 36.4% Cost per month is $3.63 23 gal. – 50 W heater = 2.2 W/gal. On 100% Cost per month is $3.32 All heaters were set for 77-78 F and room temperature in all rooms was 70-71 F so we are looking at 7 degrees heating (about 4 degrees C) above room temperature. All heaters but one were Ebo-Jagers (the other a Visi-Therm). All were installed in the upright position. What amazed me was how efficient large tanks are at conserving heat. The watts/gallon figures are not used in calculating dollar costs but make for interesting comparisons. You would think that the more watts per gallon you have, the less the heater would be on. Surprisingly, that is not always the case. I was worried about heating a 180 gallon tank with a 250 W heater (would it be enough heat output?) but it is on less often than the same size and brand heater on my 90 gallon. I surmise that this is due to the larger volume of water retaining heat better and the fact that the glass is thicker. Also my 180 gallon is my only tank with foam insulation underneath so maybe that makes a difference. Other factors that could affect your heating are: the location of the tank (by a window, wall, open door), the type water movement in the tank, location of heat vents in the home, and the type and amount of covering for the tank. [so tell the spouse you need a bigger tank and it won’t cost any more to run it!!! (At least the electricity part)]. In case you wonder how to calculate the cost of the heater, I will give you an example. My 200 W heater is on 20.3% of the time so that is 20.3% out of 24 hours so .203 x 24 x 30.4 days in a month = 148.1 hours a month. 148.1 x 200 Watts = 29,620. I am paying 9.1 cents per kilowatt hour so that is 29,620/1000 x .091 = $2.70 per month. You can calculate your lights and filters the same way. I am calculating in Canadian dollars. I don’t have live plants so I have single bulb lighting and the lights are only on an average of 6 hours per day (so for me I multiply watts of lighting by .25). Examples of filter energy use are: AquaClear 110 – 14 Watts, AquaClear 70 – 6 W, AquaClear 50 – 6 W, and Eheim 2217 – 20 W. Amongst my five tanks I have 9 filters. I calculated that the cost total for electricity for the 5 tanks I have, to be $29.91 per month, which averages out to $6 a month per tank. 70% of that electrical cost is for heaters, 22% for filters, and 8% for lights. If you live in an area where your home is above 70 degrees F much of the time because of the warm weather, your heating costs would be less. If you are heavily into lighting, that portion will be more. Other costs would be costs of the water (I am on a flat rate at the moment, not a meter), and the cost of heating the water as you do water changes – most people would not be adding it cold from the tap but trying for tank temperature around tank temperature. That calculation is for another day. So there you have it. If you are too lazy to do all this math and recordkeeping, you can use the $6 a month per tank average for light, filter, and heater expenses if your electricity rate is around 9 cents per kilowatt hour. A 12 cent/kwh rate would be $8 a month per tank; 18 cents works out to $12 a month. I have been back into fish keeping for the past five years. I have put off doing these calculations because I really did not want to know the answers. The costs were not as expensive as I had thought. You might think I’m crazy to go to all the trouble math-wise, but I must confess to being a math teacher. Say, I think I might use this as a bonus question on next week’s quiz!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nandopsis Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 WOW! Do you want to do my taxes? Thanks for all the info....now for me to try and absorb it all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 Thats great Dwayne. Thank you . After getting a $800.00 plus bill in jan. the wife was saying it was all my tanks that were costing us so much. After checking things out we found out that the stock heaters in the outside water tanks are real power eaters. Also the cords that are left pluged in when we drive away are also still eating up the power even when not pluged into a car or truck. Best to unplug them from the outlet also. So this really helps the cause. Also shows that I was right went I sold all the small thanks and started getting bigger tanks. Bigger is cheaper..lol also summer is coming so the heaters will be off most of the time . It is amazing how much heat my tanks put out. we have infloor heat in the basement and it is shut off all the time because it is so warm down there from the tanks. And warm air rises so this should help heat the upstairs somewhat. In the summer and even now I have to check the heat in the tanks every day to make sure they do not get to warm. In the heat waves of summer I sometimes have to shut the heaters right off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatureNut Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 That's JUST the sort of thing that I do... I get a question in my head and have fun calculating the answer. Yep... I'm a math addict. I haven't done it for my tanks because I didn't want to know the answers. LOL Thanks for posting it... mine probably aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slough Shark Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 Hehe, nothing I need to worry about! Interesting though, thank you for posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parachromis1 Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 thats kind of weird. my power bill is $300 or more a month, and the only thing on all day besides my tanks is my tv, my grandpa is home all day and watches it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snaggle Posted April 21, 2008 Report Share Posted April 21, 2008 thats kind of weird.my power bill is $300 or more a month, and the only thing on all day besides my tanks is my tv, my grandpa is home all day and watches it. is that tv a plasma? they tend to use more power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkangel Posted April 21, 2008 Report Share Posted April 21, 2008 That is very strange, I shut down 17 tanks just before Christmas and my power bill jumped $35.00 a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punman Posted April 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 That is very strange, I shut down 17 tanks just before Christmas and my power bill jumped $35.00 a month. Maybe they finally read your meter!!! Also, be aware that electricity is a commodity like oil, or peanuts or whatever. It can fluctuate. In December I was paying 10.3 cents a kwh; this month I am paying 9.1 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parachromis1 Posted April 22, 2008 Report Share Posted April 22, 2008 yes Brad the tv is actually an LCD. maybe thats why? what is the average everyone pays on here a month for power? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Chicklets Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 About $350 per month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parachromis1 Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 mine is about $300. and i only have half the tanks you do Nick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Chicklets Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 Would these figures not also be affected by room temperature versus tank temperature? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parachromis1 Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 very true, maybe that has to do with temp fluctuations in my fish room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snaggle Posted April 23, 2008 Report Share Posted April 23, 2008 I averaged $150/month when it was cold out.. I use almost 100% CFL lights around the house and most of time there is only one room on at a time. when I had no tanks I was around $50/month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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