Electrical Cost for Reef Tanks?

[the plumber]

I have a 150 gallon Reef tank powered w/2mag 350 pumps and lit w/4 96w power compacts and a 350w heater.
My problem is that my utility bill is $200/mo higher than any of my neighbors... who have the same lifestyle and size house... everything... except the TANK....
Can anyone tell me what my average electric monthly bill would rise because of the tank... Is the power co. overcharging or is my tank causing me to go broke?
Thanks in Advance for your replies.
Dave

[npaden]

I've calculated the cost of running my 415 gallon reef tank w/ 2,500W of light and various pumps providing flow of around 10,000 gph or more and my electricity useage for the tank is around $65 per month at 7 cents per kwh.

Something else must be causing your high electric bill. Usually your electric company will provide someone to do an energy audit for you to help you figure out what is using all the juice.

FWIW, Nathan

[Doug1]

I have a 75 with 55g sump, 440 watt VHo 12 hrs a day , Mag 18 return, Hagen 802 running skimmer and about 350 watts of heaters. At $.0586 per Kw/h its costing me about an extra $15 a month. For $200 you can run an awful lavish setup, Ask the power company to check, HTH

[the plumber]

Thanks guys for the info... I have been online with my power company and I requested they send an auditor out to check out the situation.
Thanks again

[Rick O]

It doesn't sound like your tank is much of an energy hog.

I'm in a lot of houses on a daily basis and sometimes I'm called out to check someone's AC because of a high electricity bill. I see a lot of energy waste. Most of it is little things that add up. Here's some of the biggest things I see.

Air conditioners not serviced/nasty dirty stopped up filters/improper refrigerant charge.

Lights being left on all over the house when no one is in the room.

Poorly insulated attics.

Old leaky windows.

These are some of the things that an energy auditor will look at.

[mojoreef]

I have a couple links to a few tank calculators. Thier is a electrical cost calculator on it.

http://mojoreefs.homestead.com/files...atorlinks.html

Hope it helps
mike

[etcetera]

About a year ago our refrigerator burned itself out (and almost the house down) and it cost about $20 in electricity to do it. The thing was actually HOT inside.

Not related but an interesting story.

$200 seems like an awful lot. Just curious, what do you pay per KW/h?

[the plumber]

My Electric Company is First Energy and the rate is 4.9 cents per kWh.
Another Fact of Interest is An average house hold uses 10,000 kWh a year.... My average is 24,000 kWh a year????
Any suggestions on why?

[Mrs Smith]

I also think that it is awfully high - we run a 3 x 250W MH, plus 2x55w PCs plus 2x 120W VHO, a slew of pumps, heaters, and other accessories, and ours is nowhere near that high. (Of course, we also live in a cheaper part of the country, but still...) I don't have a bill in front of me, and I don't remember our KwH usage, but yours seems exorbitantly high.

How many people at home? I mean, 8 kids will tend to run up the utility bills (although I'm guessing that's not it...)

Hm...
Danielle

[Mnemic]

Man, My little 75 G is going to run me about 62 a month....

but a kw/h (I think) here is like 16.02 cents :/

(I am assuming this, I looked at my bill, and they don't have KW/H listed, just "UNIT" which after I did the basic math got to the point where It costs 16.02 cents Per Unit, which I assume is a KW/H)

[etcetera]

Something sounds fishy. Even at 24,000 KW/h, your bill should be about $100 a month at $.049 per kw/h. Is your electric company penalizing you for using more than average?

I really need to move, you pay less than 1/3 per hour than me, and if I use a little more my rate goes up to $.26 per kw/h.

Hopefully you don't run into too much red tape in solving this.

[semajftw]

hey plumber

where in sw cleveland do you live?
shoot me a PM if you want

a fellow clevelander here

-James