Electric Bill- Old Post, new question!

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lyquidphyre

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Messages
3,548
Location
McKinney, Tx
I need to start a 2nd aquarium to separate my goldfish from my tropical fish. I found a 40 gal aquarium that includes everything that I am tempted to buy. When I mentioned this to my roommate her response was if I get a 2nd aquarium, I should pay more on the electricl bill (which I personally think is rather petty). Anyways, I tried to use the calculator but I don't know the watts of my aquarium now and I won't know the watts of my 2nd one until I get it. Can anyone give me a good estimate?

I have a 29 gal, with a tetra whisper filter, a heater,an under gravel filter system and an air pump. I am assuming the tank that I am getting has the same but is a 40 gal. I turn off the lights at night and my heater turns itself on and off.
 
Because NYC has one of the highest electrical rates in the nation, the power cost involved in keeping an aquarium initially concerned me.

I typed "aquarium electrical usage" in Google and was able to glean the estimated monthly operating costs for various sized aquariums from the websites of several regional power companies. For tanks bigger than 20 gal, I found an almost linear correletion between gallonage and energy usage!!!

Size (gallons).........KWH/month

30.............................45
40.............................60
55.............................92
125...........................191

So, if you pay $0.075 per KWH, that comes out to monthly costs of about $3.40 for your 29 gal and $4.5 for your 40 gal. Of course, these are estimates that depend upon your tank temp, lighting, etc.

In all likelihood, if you treat your roomate to lunch once a month you'll be all even!!![center:196aa8f380][/center:196aa8f380][center:196aa8f380][/center:196aa8f380][center:196aa8f380][/center:196aa8f380]
 
Awesome!! Thank you so much. I found out that it costs .08 so it would be less than $10 bucks. Yay! Ha, I was about to pay $20 to appese my roommate. Once again, thank you!
 
Does your roommate have a computer? His computer uses far more juice then your aquariums. I think you should insist that he pays for more of the powerbill if he has a PC 8)
 
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/calcs2.php?type=electric

Enter the specific peramiters here including the cost per kilowatt. The wattage of your lights and how long the lights will be on. The heater wattage and use something like 4 hours to approximate heater usage unless you like your room cold then bump that up some more based upon how often you see your heater on in your current tank.
 
I have 4 computers, 6TVs, 4Aquariums and two Window AC units.


I don't think I'm picking on you and your one or two computers :p :wink: :lol: :lol:
 
Like I said, I don't know that watts of my heater or my filters.

My roommate and I have a good amount of money issues (I end up paying for more than I have to due to knit-picking). So im just gunna tell her it costs me 10 bucks *nod*
 
Heh. I can't take silence... I have to have something to lull me to sleep, if its dead silent like in a blackout I stay awake all night.
 
I know how you feel. We use to have a fan running in the room before I recently put the 75 gal tank in there for "white noise".
 
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