How much electricity does my tank use?

gmiller1122

gmiller1122

AC Members
Jul 6, 2005
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In the last three months, we have noticed a 50% jump in our electric bill. We have been thinking and thinking what could have caused such a jump. The only thing that's increased our electricity usage since then was our tank. In fact, many other things have been used less since then.

I know that running a tank will cost something, but this is ridiculous, if true. I just can't imagine it being so costly.

Here's what we have, in addition to the filter listed in my signature: 14w flourescent light (on 12 hours/day), Tetratec 50 air pump, running one airstone, and a Penn Plax Therma-flow PC Plus Heater (packaging is from the late 80's! Could it be that it's so old that it's not working properly?). That's it? This can't cost more than a few dollars a month, can it?!?!

We are having the electric tested soon, to determine what's using all this juice, but I figured I'd ask here. Thanks, everyone.

G
 
It should be fairly easy to find out how much electricity it uses. Look on the pump, heater, filter for their power rating. For now just assume the heater runs 24/7 although thats more likely not the case.

Just for fun an example (your heater, pump etc probably use more or less):

Filter: 10W
Heater: 100W
Air pump: 10W
Lights: 14W

10+100+10+(14/2)= 127W x 24 (hours a day) ~ 3050W/h = 3kW/h.

Multiply by the price per kW/h in your area (on your power bill) and you know what it costs you to run it each day.

If you are still worried - they have electronic devices for sale that you plug into your outlet - and then plug your stuff into and it tells you their power consumption. They are handy and not expensive. I even saw one in the DrsFosterSmith catalogue for 35$.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...ll&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=2004&Nty=1
 
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I was getting outragous electricity bill this summer, so I went and calculated how much my tanks actually cost me.

Electricity for my 4 tanks costs between $25 to $30 per month.

I got one of the electricity Meters also. It's called Kill A Watt. Bought mine at Amazon.com. It's not a bad thing to have.
 
Check your bill and see how many more kw you are using... Our electric and natural gas bills are supose to rise 70% over the winter so it may be an increase in your bill but not necesarily your usage. Check your bills from before your tank and after.
 
Hannys_Papa said:
It should be fairly easy to find out how much electricity it uses. Look on the pump, heater, filter for their power rating. For now just assume the heater runs 24/7 although thats more likely not the case.
Click to expand...
As Hannys Papa said work out the power rating on your equipment and find out how much 1kw/h costs and go from there. It should not be that much, but then again you sound like you don't use a lot of electricity.

With all my tanks I run, my electricity bill just for the tanks is about $300-$500 bucks in winter, summer is usually about $300 or there abouts.
 
expensive :)

I just did the calculations for my new tank (in theory)

(2) 250 watt heater on for 12 hours a day
(1) 25 watt filter on for 24 hours a day
(4) 96 watt light on for 12 hours a day

250 x 2 x 12 = 6000 watts
25 x 24 = 600 watts
96 x 4 x 12 = 4608 watts

11.208 kilo watt hours x 0.07 (my current electricity rate) = 0.78 per day

About 23 dollars a month just for the big tank. That would increase my monthly electricity bill by 33%.
 
You might want to check if your cost per kilowatt has gone up. You could be using the same amount of electricity but paying more for it. Also, do you happen to be on an electric plan that charges more for electricity in the summer months (for example, those with electric heating)? Even if the cost of electricity hasn't gone up, your "delivery charge" might have. I'd check that out and even call the electric company and have someone go over your bill with you. If the bills are getting too out of control, you might want to ask them to send someone out to check it out. They can also do something called an efficiency audit (or something like that) where they send someone out who will analyze your usage, check your insulation, lights, etc., and make suggestions to increase your efficiency.


Jackie
 
Thanks, everyone, for the insights. This is very helpful.
 
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