Electricity Costs

[smudger123]

Hi all,

When I was researching getting an aquarium it didnt even occur to me to check the electricity costs - Im totally shocked. My partner started to notice his electricity being eaten really quickly at the prepay meter and it actually caught us out this week. I just used the practical fishkeeping electricity calculator to see what the actual running cost is - £125 a year to run the 125 (weird!) and £255 to run my 240. Thats WITHOUT pump and powerhead. To make things even more shocking we are are on the lowest tariff from lowest cost electricity supplier.

That is so so SO basic im furious with myself for not considering it, especially as now I realise we cant afford both tanks with the credit crunch hitting us so badly - the extra £10 electricity a week on top of normal aquarium costs is simply too much

Ok.... right, if you lot confirm it really is this pricey to run an aquarium we have a cunning plan....

How about setting up the 240 at my partners with a view to transferring what we have in the 125 over once the biggy has cycled? We can position the 240 alongside the 125 and fishless cycle as usual. My 240 has laterite and sand in already but I havnt filled it up yet. When cycled transfer plants over then cherries, empty 125 and sell it using money from sale to buy a small quarantine set up and the rest can go in the electricity meter for future running of 240? We worked out with our ridiculously tight budget these days we could only keep one tank and the 240 is the obvious choice. One issue I have is the eco complete substrate in the 125, we paid a fortune for it! Im wondering if there is any way of slowly over time getting it under the sand in the planted areas of 240 to boost laterite?

Any thoughts peeps? Im in a small state of shock

 

[Mikaila31]

No way it costs that much to run a tank! I mean how much are you paying for electricity? Did you actually add up how much watts of power your filters, lights and, heaters use. Keep in mind lights are not on all the time and neither is the heater.

 

[smudger123]

Electricity is 12p a kWH with Equipower. I did use the calculator wrong, I added the wattage of the 2 lights for 12 hours and the wattage of the heater for 24 but you're right, the heater isnt on all day. Didnt add the pump and powerhead though because I didnt know what to put. We have definately noticed a huge jump in electricity usage though which was why I checked, we spent £7 more in 10 days than usual and that was just running the 125 - I have a 240. We are being financially annihilated by the failing economy at the moment, an extra £7 is just about manageable but an extra £14 at least for both tanks will be impossible.

EDIT: Prepay meters are really expensive and dont give night discounts hence costly tank running for us no doubt. We were on quarterly which is cheaper but the meter got changed to key when crunch hit. Just read other posts about running costs - didnt consider bigger water bills either

 

[5teady_2012]

most powerheads are 5W - and pumps, (not talking about large ones)...

5w pumps = 840W, run for 24 hours a day 7 days a week, = about 9p a week for one of them.

25W light (just example) =2100W, run 12 hours a day for 7 days a week = 24p

200W heater = say its on for 1 hour a day in total, 7 days a week = approx 15p

20w fiter = 3360 run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week = 36p

so this is basically 1 tank a weekly cost of - 84p (£3.36 per month) - (if use twin lights just double the light cost, add another 24p per week)


This is how much a general 3ft tank would cost a week roughly.

 

[Mikaila31]

OK I did my 55gal.

rena xp3 canister filter- 28w x 24hrs/day = 672watts
lighting(its planted) - 110w x 14hrs/day= 1540watts
heater (guessed on hours)- 300w x 6hrs/day= 1800watts
total watts/day= 4012watts
Total kW/day= 4.012

We pay $.101637 per kWh. (no idea what that is in pence)

Costs
Day=$0.41
week=$2.85
month=$12.23
year=$148.84


I found this page helpful.

 

[smudger123]

Its very possible ive been a bit thick with all this so bear with me lol

I keep forgetting my partner is a couple of weeks into the switching to Ebico so the 125 has been running with British Gas at 16p kWH. Ok, back to calculator..powerhead and pump now added at 5W each, lights are 2x28W for 12hrs, heating at 100W. Right, if you put the heater as 1 hour a day it works out as £55 a year, at 24 hours a day it comes to £190 - so its the heater that controls the price big time. Are you absolutely certain the heater only runs for 1 hour a day? At 18 hours a day for heating the maths is spookily spot on with our increase in electricity usage. There is absolutely no doubt at all this increase is a result of the tank, we haven't done anything at all out of the ordinary and my partner is so routined its bordering obsessive lol.

I spoke to my grandmother about this on the phone this evening and electricity bills for their 400l angel tank were the reason they packed in the hobby in 2001 apparently?

Ok, putting in my 240 stats at my lower 12p rate and 18hr heater shows I will be looking at £208 a year and will have similar electricity increases as my partner. Again though, put in 1 hour of heater and its only a 16p increase a week

EDIT: I just put in my grandmothers 400l stats at 16p kWH with an 18hr 300W heater and got a whopping £405 a year. Thats £30 a month and would add an extra £90 to her quarterly bill. That would explain her 'it were £100 extra on our bills mind for the one tank' comment..

 

[Tolak]

I've found the heaters in my fishroom run about 1/3 of the time. Checking several times different days showed that at any given time 1/3 were running. I did this during the summer, when there is no gas heat to the room. This is at 3-5 wpg of heaters. Granted, the fishroom is a little warmer than most rooms, but I keep most tanks at 82F to 86F, which is a little warmer than most tanks.

Heaters do use a lot of electricity. Put a thin sheet of styrofoam behind the background. Make sure the top is sealed as tightly as possible. Anything you can do to insulate the tank to reduce heat loss will help.

If you can keep the tank in a warmer room do so. I cut a heat register right into the main trunk for my fishroom, it hardly uses any electric heat in the winter, when my room is the busiest. I shut down tanks whenever possible during the summer.

 

[smudger123]

Hi Tolak, you have made an excellent point there and it explains a lot - the weather has changed dramatically over the past week and I have noticed it getting much colder in the house. I've even had to turn the tank heater up twice in the past two days to keep it at 26 in there!

I'm going to warm the room up right now and monitor the situation over the next few days. Will also follow your advice about some styrofoam

EDIT: Is it possible a better heater could cut down on electric? Mine is in the juwel filter tower, perhaps an outside placement would be quicker to heat up the tank? hmm..

EDIT 2: (sorry things keeps occuring to me lol!) Thinking back my grandparents kept their angel tank in the conservatory and it was always really cold in there because they always left the door ajar for the dog to nip in and out. It could be their heater was on a lot more than it needed to be and sent bills soaring - it reaches £500 a year at the high heater usage levels for a 400l, thats £40 a month!!

 

[Tolak]

Water heaters don't vary much on efficiency, the better heater hold a more constant temperature, and last longer. Size doesn't matter, a 300w heater will run half as much as a 150w, but will draw double the current when it is running.

It is cheaper to heat with natural gas than electricity here, this is the reason for the heat register. The room itself is well insulated and is nearly sealed, I need some air to get in to replace the humidity I vent out. I've seen other fishrooms that use styrofoam for tank tops, which makes sense since heat rises.

You could insulate 3 sides if you don't mind the look.


***Edit To Add***

I have a 150 gallon tub outdoors, since early spring. A buddy of mine got 50 assorted African cichlids for free, neither of us had tank space. I had planned on setting it up in May, it was still around 35F at night. We wrapped it in about a dozen layers of old moving blankets, put a couple of wood skid tops over it, and an old thick quilt. I didn't have a controller yet for the 1000w heater, so it was either wide open or off. It would only lose about 8F while I was at work all day with the heater unplugged.

 

[smudger123]

Well thats the answer then, I need to insulate the tanks as much as possible and get my heater usage down to the 6hr mark. Thats about £1.80 then, a big improvement on £7 but with the increased water bill still tempted to have the 240 only. Both tanks have a large top made from layers of wooden flooring to support the weight of my cats. I could glue styrofoam under it to insulate the lid. I will also put styrofoam behind the background as you mentioned and see about it on the sides - maybe something to have on at night and remove during daytime viewing? Will be very aware of the heater now and will do my best to help it out a bit!

 

[STEVE2493]

just seen this!

Plug-in Electricity Cost and Usage Calculator

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Down from £25 to £10
Product Features


· Monitor energy consumption from any appliance plugged into a socket
· Great for seeing how much power your appliances are consuming
· Can display the cost of electricity and power used
· Large LCD display
· Set up in less than 2 minutes
· Up to 9 different types of data displayed
· Memory function
· Maximum current 13A / maximum power 3120W

By simply entering the unit cost of your electricity and plugging an appliance or extension lead into the power monitor, the LCD screen enables you to easily see the cost of the plugged in appliances. It allows you to see useful data such as: cost generated by a socket, tariff, power factor, kilowatt hours used (as found on your electricity bill), active watts consumed, apparent power, voltage from the socket, amps used and frequency of the electricity (mains power is normally 50Hz).

Technical specifications:
Ratings: AC 100 V-240 V / 50 - 60HZ / maximum13A
Range of the measuring power: 0.2W - 3120W;
Range of the measuring voltage: 90V - 250V (tolerance: (1%+1))
Range of the measuring current: 0A - 13A (tolerance: (1.5%+25))
Range of the measuring frequency: 50 - 60Hz (tolerance 1)
Range of the displaying amount of electricity used: 0.001 - 9999kWh
Range of the unit price setting: 0.00 - 99.99 / kWh
Operating temperature: -10 to +40 °C
Humidity: 85%RH
IP rating: IP20
Up to altitude of 2000m (indoor use)

link here

 

[Miss Wiggle]

pre pay meters are a right old rip off. i appreciate it's not possible for everyone but if you can change onto a standard meter with a monthly direct debit it will be cheaper for you.

the temp drop will definately have made a difference.

for us though we only noticed leccy bills going up significantly when we set up the marine tank, with loads of powerheads and super high lighting on it was costing us a fortune. never had any tangible difference in bills from setting up one or two tropical tanks, however i'm not that obsessive about checking and our bills vary month on month anyway.

top tip for saving money on your energy bills..... buy a new fridge freezer...... your fridge uses around one quarter of the total energy consumption in your house, an old fridge/freezer can make a massive difference to your bills, obviously it's a speculate to accumulate thing but if you get a new one that's super energy efficient it will make a difference on your household bills.

 

[Bigpig]

electricity is going up 30% in N.Ireland

Care to explain why prepaid is a rip off? Just we got one in have we made a mistake?

 

[Corleone]

Higher rate in exchange for flexibility, most likely. Like pre-paid cell phones, cable cards, and pre-paid just about everything. I'm in the US, so I don't know the specifics, but generally, pre-payed plans for other things are lighter on the fixed costs at a higher per-unit costs. Sometimes makes sense with a cell phone, where you can have $50 to $80 in fixed costs, but energy is mostly those per-unit costs.

Can't be as bad as the alternate payment methods available in the US. My power company will let me pay a flat monthly rate instead of per-unit. It would have cost me an extra $700 a year, AND would have given the power company the right to cut off my gas if I go over during the winter.

 

[paulypaul182]

Ive got pre pay electric and gas. Ive got a 100l tank with heater, lights and internal filter. I usually pay a fiver a week on my electric and about a tenner a month on gas. I always top up my electric on a Thursday and did so again yesterday with about 25p left to run. I havent noticed a difference in costs but Ill keep an eye on it for a bit.

Although, presently, its nice to have a pre-pay account (I know how much I am paying without a nasty shock every 3 months) I will definately be looking to get a standard tariff in the future.

I agree about the fridge freezer as well. They are electric gluttens. I didnt have a fridge for something like 3 weeks and that fiver I put in my electric box lasted and lasted. As soon as I put it in, my cost went back up!

Sometimes keeping a hamster seems more suitable pmsl!!!