how do you guys afford the electricity?

[srfisher17]

Originally Posted by turtle66

My tank is in our front room and our house has windows up near the ceiling. Needless to say, at night, the house glows a purplish-blue color and if we open the tank lid - WWWWHHHOOOAAA!!!![/ We did have a couple of neighbors ask us what was up with that.... But the law hasn't shown up...yet.

Wait till they discover the hallucinogenic mangroves growing in your fuge!

 

[mbnum2]

My wife takes care of all the budget and bills in our house,

so I have no clue how much mine costs. I have had it up since we moved in though...so she has no idea either

 

[bkoz]

Some of these #'s seem to be waaaayyy outa wack??? I pay 8 cents a Kwh. To run my 29g reef its $11.00 a month and my 55g Cichlid tank is $14.00 a month.

 

[green machine]

i can attest to Laz's electric bill. It really is $900 a month minimum. BUT he does keep 4-400w mh under most of his tanks. chillers and extra ac units. lol his house is insane, better than a trip to the aquarium.

 

[jonthefishguy]

My system is 4 250watt MH, 2 HD 70's, 8 32watt pc's , 1/2 hp chiller, 4 moonlights, 2 mag 7's, 1 65 watt pc for the refugium, 1 mag 5 for extra current, various controllers and 1dedicated laptop to run the show. So yes 250 a month just on this system is not an error and the per klwat is 12.9

 

[jmpowie]

I know my 75 gal tank was costing me about 100 a month because when I moved to my new house. I was moving stuff out little by little over a few months we were living in the new house and I would only stop by the old house just to load up the truck and feed the fish. So I had about 2 months of not living there and the bill was 140ish a month. I took down the tank and it dropped to 43.00 and stayed there untill I rented it out 6 months after we moved and could not sell it. That is why I have a 24 nano now just 70 watts of light, heater and a small pump very cheap to run under 20.00 a month.

 

[srfisher17]

Originally Posted by jonthefishguy
My system is 4 250watt MH, 2 HD 70's, 8 32watt pc's , 1/2 hp chiller, 4 moonlights, 2 mag 7's, 1 65 watt pc for the refugium, 1 mag 5 for extra current, various controllers and 1dedicated laptop to run the show. So yes 250 a month just on this system is not an error and the per klwat is 12.9
OK here goes: 1.)Daytime lighting4X250)+(2X70)+(8X32)+(65,fuge)=1461 watts X 12hrs/day X 30 days =525960 watt/hrs or approx.526 KWH
2.)moons, 4X65 =260 watts X12hrsX30 days+93600watt/hr or94KWH
3.)2 mag 7, 70watts ea.+ mag5,45 watts=185 wattsX24hrX30day=133200watt/hr or approx 133KWH
$.) Chiller 1/2hp= approx 373 wattsX12 hrs (guess)x30days=134280 watt/hr= approx 134 KWH
5.)526KWH+94KWH+133kwh+134KWH=939 KWH X12.9 cents/KWH= approx. $121 per month. I didn't count controllers, etc; minimal cost. I'm also guessing on the chiller and lighting times, but should be close.Could be a few $ off, I did this pretty quickly.Y'all sure pay plenty for elec, being so close to all that energy production! Should be about $121 a month. Sounds like a great tank!

 

[fedel castro]

Originally Posted by srfisher17
Some of the elec bill amounts being attributed to fishkeeping are sure starting another dreaded "Aquarium Myth". These high numbers are absolutely impossible, IMO; and if I'm wrong, I'll apologize. If someone really wants help please post 1.) your equipment, including "watts", or even ". HP" 2.) The hours you use each device each day 3.) The cost per kilowatt hour from your elec bill or company. Someone on this site will do the math. Powerheads, small pumps,etc use so little elec, you don't even need to count them. I haven't taken the time to figure my bigger tanks. But, my 55 gal, "small fish", no frills tank uses under $8 a month. 3-40watt bulbs, HOT skimmer, 2HOT filters, 2PH, and a heater that is seldom, if ever used. I even add a buck for the PH & heater in my water change system. I pay 7.4 cents per KWH.

well since i have tooooo many tanks in my home, and my lowest bill is 900.00 a month to 1300.00 a month in the summer, its hot ass hell in Florida.
I'll get down all equipment for each reef tank, and post, and see what estimate some one comes up with.
when i called Teco (my electric company) for a audit, and the man came to my house, he was blown away, first thing he said was , I'm going to be here ALL DAY, and he wasn't kidding.
They suggested that i get a power upgrade , it would had cost me way more money than just putting more in other house's,lol.So other Family members can enjoy the reef tanks.

 

[srfisher17]

Castro's home only gets a few hours of electricity; on the good days. But Fidel, probably has a generator for his cigar humidor.

 

[mach03infront]

Originally Posted by PerfectDark
Ditto ^^^
However running 3 room air conditioners and a pool filter all summer long made me think I was running a 1000 gal reef tank with 5 250W MH and a chiller. My bill was $400 a month for 3 months.... YIKES

i'm in the pool business. unless you have a Olympic size swimming pool you only need to run your pool pump maxium 8 hrs a day
if your heating your pool..... thats a different story of where you $$ is going.

 

[jonthefishguy]

yes we seem to pay a lot here in corpus for electricity and gas even though we produce them both.

 

[jkcrumb]

Originally Posted by PerfectDark
I agree seeing as though it gets used about 5 times out of the 4 months its open for. I am a beach person myself and often wonder why I open the pool to begin with, I am never in it.
Can u even fit a pool in rhode island????????

 

[fedel castro]

Originally Posted by srfisher17
Castro's home only gets a few hours of electricity; on the good days. But Fidel, probably has a generator for his cigar humidor.
That's why I moved to Florida,

Teco to me is a privilege , for those of you that don't know, srfisher17 quote said it on the nose, they cut the power off at different times through out different cities, that's sad, talk about communist, also my Father was in the Military, army, etc, once he went to the so called black market to get a 8lb roast pork, and they through him in jail for 8 month, 1lb per month, what the h*ll is that, so for some reason my father didn't want me get into the Cuban military and came here from the craziness, lol.
you only get certain amount of food per month, there's not a 7 eleven, a walmart, a gas station on every freaking corner, they still drive, old cars from the 50's, 60's, no later, unless your a Doctor, some one working for Fidel, etc,,,

But the other thing is that the people there are happy, why, because money isn't the same there, people find a way to stick together, work together, help each other, that make them love each other more, stay close, just pretty much have a crazy fun Family life. I have a sister there that i never met personaly, has two kids,and is happy.
Well here, we all half to work to stay alive, lots of us work so much that time flys too fast and never gets to spent real time with the Family, cause we all know we, our self's gotta pay the bills to keep thing's rolling. and some times thats SAD.

 

[srfisher17]

I know my 75 gal tank was costing me about 100 a month because when I moved to my new house. I was moving stuff out little by little over a few months we were living in the new house and I would only stop by the old house just to load up the truck and feed the fish. So I had about 2 months of not living there and the bill was 140ish a month. I took down the tank and it dropped to 43.00 and stayed there untill I rented it out 6 months after we moved and could not sell it. That is why I have a 24 nano now just 70 watts of light, heater and a small pump very cheap to run under 20.00 a month.[/QUOTE
This just isn't way any to figure what a tank costs to operate, IMO. There are so many things that can use elec, even in an "empty" house; AC, fridge, heat, etc, and so many variables with elec bills. The ONLY way to determine what a tank costs to operate is to add the wattage of what you use and calculate KWH. I don't want to beat this horse for ever; but we could be needlessly turning off beginning hobbiests. A basic 100 gal (or whatever size) tank is not going to be a budget buster for anyone who has the $ to get the tank set up in the first place. (The mandatory newer, bigger, and better tank might be