How Much Energy is Your Aquarium Using?

[Mrramsey]

So I have been conducting my own energy audit for my home. I geeked out the electric panel with a TED Home Pro unit to monitor my electric usage. Why you ask? Well partly for giggles but I am also considering adding solar panels.

I am identifying where I can make reductions in electric usage. During this process I have come up with some costs for my aquarium using a Kill a Watt meter.

The Aquarium which is a 120g, Sicce syncra pro pump, 2 jebao rw-8's, skimmer and heaters is running an average of 160 watts. That equates to about $0.49 per day. I am still running he meter on the light which is a reefbreeder photon 48 LED. First glance tells me its about $0.14 per day. I will wait till the end of the day since the light is on a ramp up and down schedule.

It should be about $232-ish bucks per year. Just curious how much others are using?

There are some assumptions to be made here though. My Electric rate is $0.126 per kWh on the average. So looking at it sley from a wattage perspective I am about 220 watts on average or about 5 kWh per day.

 

[kmbyrnes]

My numbers are not scientific, just financial.
I was worried about costs when I started this hobby 2 years ago, so I started tracking my water and electric use closely.
I went from 0 tanks in August 2013 to 4 tanks as of December 2015. I run 6x 85w pumps and 10x < 8w wavemakers, and 9x 165w LEDs.
So that is roughly 12240 watt hours for pumps, 14850 wh for lights and 1920 wh for other equipment for a total of 29 kWh per day.
My average cost per kWh for 2015 was 11.19 cents so that works out to about $3.25 per day for the tanks.
When I check my bills for pre-reef days, my average daily cost for electric was $8.05. For 2015. my average daily cost was $9.17.
Why the difference? Changing out the multitude of incandescent lights for LEDs throughout the house.
Water use was another concern. I now have 600 gallons of tanks between salt and my wife's freshwater 55. That's a lot of RO/DI.
My total cost per 1000 gallons of water/sewer/taxes/fees is $10.00, or a penny a gallon. So water cost doesn't even make a blip in the water bill. Call it $4.00 a month
I use about 200 gallons of salt water a month for water changes. I use IO which I get delivered for about $40 for a 200 gallon box.
To recap my monthly expenses:
Electric 98.00
Water 4.00
Salt 40.00
Total 142.00
Daily 4.74

Not bad for the enjoyment I get from watching the tanks.

 

[Ron Reefman]

With 4 tanks, 2 sumps, 2 chillers, 7 led fixtures, 3 DC12000 pumps, 8 powerhead/wave makers, 2 big skimmers, a CL and a 4-500gpd RO/DI with a huge booster pump... I don't think I want to know! :fun4:

 

[Mrramsey]

I have yet to really calculate the water but thats next on my list. After a 24 hour cycle on the lights the daily cost to run my reefbreeder photon 48 is $0.09. That brings my total Electrical expenditure to about $0.58 per day.

 

[Mrramsey]

With 4 tanks, 2 sumps, 2 chillers, 7 led fixtures, 3 DC12000 pumps, 8 powerhead/wave makers, 2 big skimmers, a CL and a 4-500gpd RO/DI with a huge booster pump... I don't think I want to know! :fun4:

It's an eye opening exercise for sure! It is fun to do. I have been able to identify several areas that need improvement. I have a server that i run 24/7 that costs me about $22 per month to run. Not a lot but when I measure that against how much I access it it paints a different picture.

 

[Indymann99]

APEX makes it easy to see

 

[1MP3R1AL]

Total 4 Amps when everything is on.

 

[AZRippster]

a GOB! I don't even like to think about it! :headwally:

 

[Ron Reefman]

It's an eye opening exercise for sure! It is fun to do. I have been able to identify several areas that need improvement. I have a server that i run 24/7 that costs me about $22 per month to run. Not a lot but when I measure that against how much I access it it paints a different picture.

I switched from eight 250w MH and fourteen t5 to all leds. Between lower usage by the fixtures, less running of a 1hp and 1/3hp chillers and less need for house A/C for 8 months (SW Florida), my electric bill went down over $400 for the year. And it was about $40/mth when the A/C ran and $20 when it didn't!

 

[Mrramsey]

SO I got a closer look at my tanks usage. I now track all of my electric usage at the electric panel. I was able to determine that I use almost 13kWh per day for the tank alone appx. $1.63 per day or about $565 per year.

Since I am looking at going solar I am trying to shave off as much as possible where I can.

 

[Brieninsac]

I have my power unit plugged into a Kill-a-watt electricity monitor.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Kill-A-Watt-Electricity-Monitor-P4400/202196386

I have it programmed to the highest tier for our power company. I haven't looked at it lately, but on average I'm running around 200 watts when the lights are on and around 70 watts when off. I did notice our power bill a little higher last month, which could be attributed to our Christmas tree lights and the aquarium heater going on more often during the winter. Plus the shorter days equates to lights used more often although I've completely retrofitted our house and all the lights are LEDs running at about 7 watts each. So I don't think that makes too much of a difference.

 

[garyinco]

My 105 with a 25gal sump runs from 2.5 to 4.5 amps depending what is on, according to my Apex. That does not include the main light though, but it is an LED so it doesn't use much. My elec bill doubled once the tank was up and running. I'd have rather run metal halides but didn't want to deal with the heat and I thought the circuit in my 1967 house wouldn't handle it.

 

[champion6sigma]

i say ignorance is bliss

 

[oh207]

6 Amps on my 120g when everything is on, including 300w Heater in winter.

 

[pufferlicious]

For a year i had just the dual emperor at 9.3 watts on the 75 gal, along with two solar powered daytime air pumps w/ 5 fish at the time as an experiment. Now with more circulation, is closer to 50w with still 5 fish. Utilize indirect daylight for fish only tank, and the fish like the slow rise, fall, and spectrum. Whilst the royal gramma keeps to the darker side of the tank.

 

[gone fishin]

All I know is my tank is cheaper to operate here in Wisconsin than when I lived in Connecticut.

 

[ericarenee]

Can we NOT Think about this... I stopped counting Coins when i forgot how many tanks We have....

Sheesh make me feel bad for Global warming .. Boohooo I cry now

 

[fixingstill]

Apex tells me about 193.56W on average. That is 193.56/1000x24x30 = 139KWH a month.

PG&E charges me $0.403 per kwh on Tier 3 so I am paying about $56 per month for just the electricity thru my EB832.

I have a 65G tank with 500W heater, 300W LED light, 2 WAVs, DC return pump, Int-150 Skimmer.... and some minor things not even on the APEX EB832.

At least weather is mild here in SF area California and the 500W heater runs about 15 mins per hr and I don't need a chiller (yet). Imagine if I have to run it 90% of the time in winter and 100% on a chiller in summer.

$56x12 = $672 a year. I wish I have known that.