electric bill

lol for now, im hoping to move out in a yeaer so it wont be for much longer

 

before my tank, my winter bill was around $30-35 but now it's around 45. in the summer i have to keep my AC on to keep the ambient temps low so my tank doesn't fry and i usually pay around $60-70 a month.

i only have one 150w halide to push and i live in an apartment so it doesn't take a lot to heat or cool it

 

Mine is always around 100 bucks. Last month it was 150 because of the super cold wisconsin weather. Anything around 100 is good to me. Before my tank it was about 70-85. So I figure 20-30 on the tank.

 

My total electric bill is usually only around $100. In FL it would be around $200 usually.

 

My tank costs about $30-40 a month to run. However, in the summer it goes up b/c the way we pay for electricity. In the summer, the first 1000kw (about, not exactly sure what the number is)are a given price, then anything over that the price per kw increases. In the winter, it actually decreases, so it's much cheaper to run in the winter.

That seems like an awful lot to increase. Did you add anything other electrical appliances? Pumps? A watt is a watt. If you are running 324w of T5, then upgrade to two 250w mh, you will be paying more b/c there is more wattage, but it's not that great of a difference. You may be using up to an additional 10% with the MH b/c they are as efficient as T5s, so you may be using exactly 324w with T5s, but really using 520w for the MH.

 

$200? $400? Luxury...

My OCTOBER bill was $550. During the heat of summer it approached $700. And it's going to get worse on my new tank as I run 2x400W halides and a bunch of T5s...

Wife: What is going on with our electric bill?!!?!?!?! I thought the new insulation and gas hot water heater was supposed to lower it!

Me: We've been running the pool pump too long. ;D

 

Where are you located?
I'm in Dallas which has the 3rd highest power rates in the country.
I'm at 11.5 cents per KWH now... and that's after I shopped around it was 17.9
Moving to Virginia soon and I'm excited about the low electric rates. It varies throughout the year from 3.1 to 6.2 cents per KWH. That's so low I don't know if I'm reading it right.
http://dom.com/dominion-virginia-power/customer-service/rates-and-tariffs/pdf/vab1.pdf

 

I have a "kill-a-watt" on the main powerstrip (i have one powerstrip running to 4, so i can kill lighting, pumps, heat, and skimmer/sump with one button each) and it figures my tank draws 492 watts continuous, max its has is 800ish. My 175 MH by itself draws 210 watts when running and 380 for the first 5 minutes.

In a month the tank plug runs me 40 bux...but if you cant afford the juice, you cant afford the reef

 

I know that the electric company here bills you an estimated bill and reads the meter every three months, so every third month you get a corrected bill, so if you increase your electricity output and they estimate your bill based on previous usage, it can take three months to show and increase then they bill you for the difference (actual vs. estimated). Therefor you get a much bigger bill. This might account for the big difference if your utilities do billing this way.

 

I agree with that, this entire hobby is expensive and so are the electric bills, you can try using efficient lights (T5) and pumps, but a watt is a watt and you need a lot to run a reef tank.