# Aquariums and your electricity bill??



## idle0095 (Jun 2, 2007)

I was curious what some of us are spending on their electricity bill... and if any of you can give me a ballpark figure on how much aquariums affect the bill itself.

For Example... my electric bill for my big 2 bedroom condo is $75 to $89. depends how much i use the ac. now we have two computers running 24/7. our plasma tv in the living rm is on alot. then the lcd tv in the bedroom is on at night for a few hrs. we also run a fan at night all night. from about 10pm to 7am. my 120 gallon tank is running two cnasiter filters the light and a sponge filter. when i lived in my duplex my bill was $80 a month and i had a 125 gallon then


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## CVV1 (Oct 7, 2005)

IDK, MY parents pay the bill


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Well when we got an electric heat pump to cool/heat the basement the electric jumped a lot. There was a thread on this before with how to calculate how much your fish cost. You make a spreadsheet of every plug-in thing and its wattage and multiple by hours on (usually 24 * days in month). Calculate kilowatt hours and multiple by $/kw hr on your electric bill.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

For example a 40W light (or heater or pump) on 24hrs a day for 30 days takes 28.8 kw hr of power. (40 * 24 *30 / 1000). @ .075 $/ kw hr that $2.16 a month. A 400W computer or 10 40W fish devices would be $20.16. So the cost is real and adds up.


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## Danh (Feb 19, 2007)

My electric bill over the winter was $100-$150. This is a 3500sq ft house with the basement. We began using the a/c the same month I set up my 450g. The basement was heated during the winter, but is not being cooled right now. I had to add four new circuits in my basement for it since the 2 800w heaters pull 9amps a piece. So now I have three 20amp circuits and one 15amp for the lights just for the one tank. After we turned the a/c on and set up the tank it's now $300-$350 a month.. Since I can't get rid of the fish, we'll see how no a/c works out... lol. I still have 6 other tanks in the basement, 180, 75, 2x10, 20 and 55g. Upstairs we have 2x30g and a 90g that isn't heated.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I sympathize I have 1 bank of tanks running on an extension to the other side of the basement. If I plug them in to the closest outlet, it blows the fuse. And this is after we added a circuit.


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## Danh (Feb 19, 2007)

I forgot to add my wife stays at home, so her or the baby are watching the 61" for a good part of the day. 

I tried running my 18amps of heaters and two 3600gph pumps on an extension cord from the other side of the basement.. I almost burned my house down! Then I realized how much they pulled and had a friend come in and add the circuits. I paid for the breakers, he had EVERYTHING else... I gave him $100 and got the entire thing done for about $112.. CHEAP for all of that electrical work... I wish the bill was that cheap.


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