How much power $$$$ do tanks cost us

seaduck

New member
Anyone have a ball park on how much more their power bill is because of the tanks power usage???? I havent really been paying attention to it but would like to know..
 
You can always get a little device called a Kill-A-Watt (costs about 30 bucks) and measure it then calculate it out.
 
on reefcentral home page about 2/3 of the way down is a calculator to figure out what the cost is. I figured my 40 breeder at about $15/month
 
Multiply the watts per each device times the number of hours it's running each day, x30 for a month and divide by 1000. That's your kilowatt hours per month. Teco charges 5 cents per kwh I think.

My 40 gallon costs 10$/month if the heater is on 12hours/day 7.50$/month if it doesn't turn on at all. My 10g tank costs 2.70/month.


That help?
 
my 300 costs 12 dollars a month...... at least thats what I tell myself:) Check the calc on the home page but keep in mind a lot of power companies do a bracket fee system. one rate for the first so many killowat hours then another fee for additional. Some can be a substantial difference. The kill a watt is a decent investment though, can use it all over the house to see what is costing the most.
 
Back in the summer of '06, oh I will never forget it, it was a warm summer, don't get me worng here, it was not into the 110's yet, but we did have a couple days over 105. We had just finished the upgrade from the 55 to our 90, oh and she was a bute'

In the evening you could see those atinic bulbs glowing from 1/2 a mile away, what a sight. Anyway back in may that year our power bill was $184, and that was high! But Good ol So Cal Edision sliped us a mickey in June. Yea, they went an upped their fee structure and they also put in place a bracketrd fee schedule, so those of use with reef tanks would payy our our... well you get the picture.

In July when our bill arrived I yelled ant the misses to shut off that ac andd to get the fans out, our bill had jummped to $545. Needless to say I was not a hppy reefer that afternoon, sad thing was, we were only running the AC for 4 hours a day, and that was only when the house was unbearably hot... Sigh it was not a good summer that. Oh yea, that was the last summer I spent in California. Now I live in the land of the flat rate $0.10 per KWH. What's that, what was my cost per KWH there... well I used 1852 KWH in June... almost $0.30 per KWH I guess... oh they raised the rates again since I have been gone. Now the big reefs are paying $0.45 per KWH, I can not wait to see those power bill threads this summer. Got that 1/2hp chiller ready guys?
 
thats unbelievable... something aint right. My chiller runs 4x per day and my bill has never been over 350.00 in the middle of summer.. my house is 2200 sf
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9596691#post9596691 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by poknsnok
thats unbelievable... something aint right. My chiller runs 4x per day and my bill has never been over 350.00 in the middle of summer.. my house is 2200 sf

That was in Southern California. Enron, Deregulation, El Paso Gas and corrupt CA officials all contributed to the situation with the California power prices. All that corruption is now being passed to the consumer in artificially high power prices so that the utility companies can pay down the debt they incurred when the cost of the gas they depend on went through the roof.

Even in a free society, some things are better left regulated.
 
I'm pretty sure the biggest cost by a long shot for most everyone is heating and cooling of the entire house. They say weather stripping the doors windows and electrical outlets will save 10% or more on your powerbill. I think switching from halides to T5s will save electrical cost and reduce heat/watt but not anywhere near as much as addressing the whole house. That's how I think of it anyhow.
 
I worked in systems at a gas company in New York (Keyspan) and I know they DID have a set price for the first cubic meter or 6 cubic meters of gas + delivery charge as a standard price every month. Weather you used it or not that is the price they charged. I don't think it works that way for electricity though. I'm guessing my 90 costs us about 60/month
 
Back
Top