help with energy usage

My Gas and Electric together at my Apartment runs about 70-80 dollars per month and I have 3 55 Gallons, 2 20 Gallons, and a Ten all running... So ballpark I guess I'm spending about 37 cents per Gallon give or take... but that's a high estimate since the Bill is for my whole apartment not just my tanks... But if it was right then my 20 Gallon tanks would cost roughly $7.40 per month... But those are high/rough figures and obviously not every tank has the same equipment
 
I just ran my setup through the calculator and verified with my electic company to double check. Total monthly electrical cost to run my 180 is about $100-120/mo.
 
I can give you almost every assurance that central air is sucking up more juice than a 20 gallon fishtank!! I run a 125 gallon tank on about $30 a month; of course electricity costs are different in other areas. The central air costs about $100 a month, and it set at 77 degrees.
 
ok so i'm going over all this with the roomates today. i feel i have enough info right now to plea my case. my tank is probably 5-10$ tops.
did i mention that we also have a washer and dryer hooked up and a dehumidifier running 24/7. also looked at the volts * amps on our culligan water and that may be costing us over $40 a month!! can you believe that?? i guess that's the price you pay to have extremely cold or very hotwater at all times.
 
You can't always go by the wattage the device lists. My pumps are supposed to use 110 watts each - they are only drawing 90 :D . It cost me $85 a month to run my 180 with halides. The cost per KWH here is $.17.
 
An electric dryer will suck up some juice as will a water chiller/heater. Electric water heater, dish washer, oh the list goes on. A small fish tank with flourescent lights is probably the least of your worries.

What you all CAN do is go around the house and change every single lightbulb with those 13 watt power compacts. I purchase them at Dummy Depot at $10 for six bulbs. Sure, it took over 20 bulbs to get the entire house, but I started saving money after about 2 months.
 
Electricity cost $.063 per Kilowatt hour over here and using the calculater my 150 gallon which will run 830 watts of light, 360 watts of circulation and some other random stuff so it should cost me $40 a month.

BTW the most expensive thing for me regarding energy in the tank is the circulation pumps
 
hey thanks every one!!! this post has been extremely helpful. i did buyone of those "kill o watts" last night for like $25. i'm gonna be metering everything in the house, this has gotten me very interested in the energy that we've been wasting in the house. it's not an option to loose the tanks (just as much as i can't kickout their cat and dog) but i'm sure there are tons of little things we can do to decrese the amount of energy we use every day.
last night i went and saw "an inconvienient truth" and... WOW. i mean i've always known about global warming, but now's the time to start doing something about it. it's starting to be to late. if anyone hasn't seen it... go and see it and take a friend or two.
 
hey there lucy. your going to have to let me borrow that sometime. I have always been curious about my power consumption.
 
i just got it yesterday and have yet to try it out. i'll let you know what happens. i'll bring it down the next time i come home. probably the last sunday in july!!!
 
ok for all that were curious about it. it turns out that my fish tank costs about... (drum roll please)......
$4.73 per month!!! in 25 hours it used 1.58 kilowatts.
pretty interesting.
 
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