$300 Electric Bills ???

[Ricochet]

Like many of us here at AC, I have quite a few fish tanks. I was told recently that my fish tanks are responsible for $300 in electric bills a month.

That really doesn't sound right?????

There's three things that need power - Filters, heaters, and lights.

Filters - Let's assume that in NY electricity costs 15 cents per KWHour (KWH) (unless someone knows offhand). My AC500 filter uses 14W of power. That translates into 336WH a day, or 10.08KWH per month. That's only about $1.50 per month.

Heaters - I have no idea how to arrive at a rough calculation at how much energy heaters use, on average. Anyone know how to calculate costs for a 200W heater in a room where the average temperature is about 50 degrees F?

Lights - One of my tanks has 2 x 55W Compact Flourescents, and the others have standard flourescents, but I'm not sure how to calculate for either one. My first thought is that if you have a 40W bulb, it consumes 40W per hour, but can't be that easy.

Can anyone help?

[slipknottin]

Its too hard to calculate how long a heater is on a day, just 'assume' (yes I know you shouldnt assume) that its going to be some 6-12 hours a day.

For lighting using the bulb is a resonably close estimate, youd need to look at the ballasts efficiency to get closer.

Heres a nifty little calculator to save you the math trouble. (unless you enjoy that sort of thing :p )

http://reefcentral.com/calc/tank_elec_calc.php

[Ricochet]

Thanks slipknottin. It's been a while since I've been here (formerly as Filter), nice to see that you're still surfing this site during the nights.

BTW, off topic, but would you know how much energy an average 36" TV uses per hour?

[slipknottin]

Say 100-120 watts or so

[Slappy*McFish]

Wow...my electric bill was around $60 last month as well as the month before.

[GT3050]

A 40 watt bulb uses 40 watts of power per second, not per hour.

[andruboz]

in 2 years, ive gone from no fish tanks to 5 and my electric bill has maybe gone up $20. my house stays closer to 70 so my heaters arent on that much.

either you have an entire 30-40 tank fishroom youve forgotten to tell us about or the person complaining about the electric bill is
1. exagerating
2. trying to discourage you from adding another tank
3. looking for a little help paying the electric bill.

i'd think about switching some tanks over to cold water fish just to see if the heaters are the killers. if i had a room that stayed 50 degrees i'd try to keep a lobster.

[dethjam316]

GT: a 40w bulb does use 40w per hour not per second. if that were true, it would that would mean a 40w bulb used 144000w per hour, or 144kw, which at the theoretical $0.15 per, would mean $21.60 for every hour that light bulb is left on. clearly this is not the case. a 40w bulb DOES consume 40w per hour. it's that easy.

does your room really stay 50 degrees?? if that is the case, i would expect a 200w heater to be on almost 24/7...

so, assume your heaters are on 24/7, calculate your lights, filters, etc...and make a projection. here's an example from what you've posted, assuming lights on 12 hours a day in a 30 day month.

2 55w lights-- 39.6kwhr=5.94
1 40w light--- 14.4kwhr=2.16
200w heater-144kwhr=21.60
14w filter------10.1kwhr=1.51

add it up and it's about 30 for this equipment alone.

[ChilDawg]

Originally posted by GT3050
A 40 watt bulb uses 40 watts of power per second, not per hour.

Even if that is true, and I don't know for sure, the measurements used by the electric company are Kilowatt Hours, which are the equivalent of leaving a device rated at 1000W on for an hour, so the definition of W ratings is irrelevant at this time.

[dethjam316]

chil-- i ASSURE you that is not true.

[ChilDawg]

And I believe you. I checked.

We are all a little off, though.

A Watt is the use of 1 Joule in 1 second.
Thus, a Kilowatt is the use of 1000 Joules in 1 second.

A Kilowatt*Hour is the use of 3.6 Megajoules.

Thus, to get a 60 W light bulb to use 1 Kilowatt*Hour, you need to run it for 60,000 seconds, which is 1,000 minutes...16-2/3 hours.

[dethjam316]

basically, power is relatively cheap. saying one watt per second made it sound expensive to an unholy degree. so, running a light bulb all day long, while not exactly a bright idea (shazaam!), isn't going to break the bank.

painful physics flash backs! i took an copout physics class to fufill a gen. ed. requirement for my history/anthropology degree a couple years back. joules....eek. scary.

[ChilDawg]

A Watt per second is not anything that I can find...it does make it sound like a lot, but a Joule is relatively nothing...there are 4.186 of them per calorie...and mind you, that's not Calorie as in food, which is actually Kilocalorie

[dethjam316]

ack, more physics, make it stop! :)

i remember learning about how a refrigerator left open will actually heat up a room, not cool it as conventional wisdom would suggest. this was based on the increased energy used in an attempt to maintain adequate cooling.

so don't try lowering the temp in those tanks with open refrigerators during the hot summer months, people!

[ChilDawg]

Unless you have a heat sink connected to it...and the heat sink leads way far away from the room!

[dethjam316]

even with the heat sink...........i think that would use a lot of joules...a WHOLE lot of joules!!

[ChilDawg]

More than an air conditioner, I should say...

[AikidoGuy]

my electric bill is 260 a month. thats in a 2 year old 4000sq ft home with 740gallons worth of heated fish tanks in Northern New Jersey.