FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Hello

I'm wondering what the Aussies out there might pay in electricity to run their tanks. I have a 165 Litre and a 75L tank. I've only had them since January. We received our electricity bill for the last quarter (3 months). My husband says our bill has gone up by approximately $60 for each & every week during the billing period. I just can't believe that my tanks would cost $60 a week in electricity to run.

What do other Aussies think? Would they really cost that much?

Each tank has a heater, filter & lights. Lights in one tank run 10 hours a day, the other tank, only 4 hours a day.

Hope to hear what your tanks cost to run.

Cheers
TW

You can add up the electricity consumption of each piece of equipment per duration each day, extrapolate and find out approximately how much electricity they use. Then just add that up using how much electricity costs in your area, and you can get a rough estimate of how much they cost. I doubt 60 bucks a week, that's very very high.

Simple way to figure this out yourselves is to find our the watts (volts and amps) each piece of your equipment uses (should be labelled somewhere) and the amount of hours it's used. Then, find on your electricity bill how much they charge you per kilowatt hour (kWh or something).

http://www.super-grow.biz/Electricity.jsp
Here's a calculator where you can input your findings and figure out how much it costs you per day/month. (It's just your kWH x hours x cost per hour)

edit: how dare you reply before me timmay...

Hi Tankwatcher,

I live in W.A. and i am currently running two aquariums, 1 x 4ft and 1 x 2ft both with lights, heaters and filters and have done for nearly 6 months now. I haven't noticed any drastic difference in the electricity charges.

Maybe its your air conditioner thats bumping up the charges?? Just a thought, its been a hot summer down under

---

Those who say they cant, Never will !!!

I have never bothered to calculate the cost of running my tank and I can assure you if my wife thought it cost that much "No Fish Tank"
One easy way to test is check the meter just before you are going out for a day but make sure nothing else is opperating pull all plugs out. Read it when you come home this should give you the reading for the number of hrs you were not at home using any power. Divide by the number of hrs this will give you an hourly rate. The cost could be cheaper at night as the light is not on but again the heater could be running longer.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Thanks everyone.

I'll try to do the sums. I'm going to have a hard time convincing my hubby though, that it's not the tanks, whatever the calcs add up to.

Cheers
TW

If you do what I suggested there can be no argument the figures will be accurate.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Thanks Keith. Good idea. Thanks to everyone else who made suggestions on how to work out the costs

Cheers
TW

Hi Tankwatcher,
Is it your hubby that is the accountant??
I have a 298L and a 50L tank. I can honestly say I never noticed the difference in our electricity bill since having them. When the summer hits Perth and the air con goes on.......yep I notice our electrity run high
Tell him it's prolly his beer fridge
BubbleLover

---

My Fish like swimming all day long,
They love my bubbles 'pop' on their bum!
http://photos.yahoo.com/shedevil_90

Yep Bubblelover, you've read some of my earlier posts about the accountant. The problem is we don't have an air conditioner, by order of the accountant, so I can't blame that. We do have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms, so I'm going to blame them. They have been running all night, most nights in 4 bedrooms. They also would have been running most days in the school holidays in one bedroom. If not them, I don't know what else it could be though.

Cheers
TW

there is no way to tank could cost you 60 weekly i do not think it would cost you that much a year. tell your husband that a licensed master electrician says that is not your problem. if you have one of those meters that has a dial that spins around when using powerthen you just shut off one breaker at a time and keep going out to see witch one has the heavy load on it.that wiil tell you were your power is going. that much power is usally going into a bad water heater or a bad wire under ground .