How much does it cost to run your tank?

[littlerob904]

Nice work, I do want to point out that I'm still not sure about the heaters running all the time. I would expect them to be temperature controlled to some extendt They should only turn on when needed (temp. dips below a certain point) they would not be running at full power the entire time they are plugged in. If you are trying to keep your tank at 80 degrees and the ambient is 70, the heater will only need to turn on in short increments to keep the temperature stable, say when it begins to dip below 78 and it heats the tank back up to 81. It'd be a total long shot but I would figure it necessary to introduce a diversity factor in that equation. Assuming the the heater is only on say... 50% of the time?

Originally Posted by asudavew

Here's a spreadsheet I created to calculate electricty cost.

Anyone can change it and I can't lock the cells... So please only change numbers in blue. The rest of the cells are formulas... so any changes to black numbers will screw up the spreadsheet.

Good luck! My cost for one tank is $19.09 a month.


http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...e7JLpuUw&hl=en

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by B.Sedore

*cringes*... im running 9 150 watt lights for 12 hours... a 300 watt rack heater for 24 hours and 8 black lights at 100 watts for 12-24 hours.... thats without aquariums.... im leaving this thread

-Brad

I don't blame you!

[Brad.Sedore]

before it was worse... instead of having a rack system i would run 3 of those little area heaters all day long... brutal

-Brad

[asudavew]

Originally Posted by littlerob904

It'd be a total long shot but I would figure it necessary to introduce a diversity factor in that equation. Assuming the the heater is only on say... 50% of the time?

You are right.
But everyone would have different adjustments to make.

If your house is kept at 72 and you keep your tank at 72.. it probably rarely runs.. but if your house is 68 and your tank is 80....

I figured it was easier for everyone to make their own adjustments using the number of hours per day.

I would guess, though, that most heaters run around 30-50 percent of the time.

And chillers.. I would have no idea.

But it makes for a nice rough estimate.

Now I just have to multiply by 5 tanks~
YIKES!

[asudavew]

Hey Brad. Do you use all those lights on your 40 gallon?

dave

[Brad.Sedore]

nope. i keep a fairly large collection of reptiles.

ive got a 125 tank that has a trio of bearded dragons

a 90 that has a huge colony of Occelated skinks

another 125 that has a trio of ackie monitors

a 90 with a Blue tongue skink

the racking system if for my leopard geckos (all 25 of them)

plus i have extra tanks running right now for offspring from my pairings.

the 40 gallon has 2 tube florecents in it lol

-Brad

[asudavew]

wow! That's quite a collection.
I was trying to figure out how the heck you had all of them running on a 40 gallon!

I thought you had some crazy plants and lights on the top, sides, bottom, etc. lol

[Brad.Sedore]

that much lighting would likely boil the water in the tank lol... maybe ill have to try that :P

-Brad