Well here is the thing my roommate is making a huge fuss about me having a 75 gallon fish tank and our bill going up, he seems to forget were in the middle of summer with the a/c going, anyways i want to settle this by finding about about how much extra i should pitch in to our electricity bill.

I have an:
Air pump = 3.5 watts (runs 24 hour)
Filter = 11 watts (runs 24 hours)
Lamp = 67 watts (about 4 hours a day)
Heater = 200 watts (which stays on for about 2 minutes and turns on every 7 minutes)

now i understand every location charges different amounts on electricity
but how much am i looking at? also can u include the formula so i can add the price per watt once i find out how much it exactly is...
thanks for the help

Welcome to the site....

I can't help with a formula or anything like that. I can just tell you to run my tank costs me about $40 extra a month. I have 120 gallon with 2 air pumps, a tank light and a sump filter and a 30 gallon with 1 air pump, a tank light and a HOB filter - all running 24 hours a day. Currently my heater does not run because it is Florida and it is HOT !

Not sure if that helps but its something!

Brooksie

you could figure out how many kilowatt hours your tank uses a day and multiply that by 30 days (a month). Add up all of the watts that your tank uses taking into account the time the lights and heaters are off. Then look at the bill and find out how much the power company charges for one kilowatt hour and multiply that by total tank kilowat hours and that is what it costs per month for the tank. I did this for all 6 of my tanks and the pond and it came out to a litte over 3 bucks a day. Thats 90 a month but it sounds better if you go by the day

u can get a little kw/hr meter which u can put inline with ur tank, that way u wont have a bitchy housemate and when u get the bill take out ur part of it then half the rest. easy

my electricity bill for last quarter (australian resident, living with a mate, no a/c, no heating) was $400AUD

BLEEP BLEEP BLEEPin electricity companies.....

Shinc where would you get one of these? like Dick Smith or something? I need one for that very reason of people whinging saying my tank uses too much power, and at the same time having nothing to say about the 2 fridges and 2 freezers we have running, plus all the other power hungry devices throughout the house

exactly my point i am going to look into one of those.. ebay perhaps? home depot?

get one of these:
EBAY FTW!


put it in one of these:


clipsal enclosure


plug lead coming out one end, socket lead out of other end.

hey presto!

im an electrician so thats what i'd do anyway....

also, there may well be pre-made ones of these im not sure, but regardless id do that, which i am contemplating doing. I should do it and sell them!

Couldn't care less how much the tanks use to be honest lol... I just pay the bills and forget about it...knowing how much im being ripped off would just piss me off further to be honest.

STAFFIE wrote:


x2, i only know my electricity bill was raised by 40 Euros a month, when i got my 6 footer running.
but i got my baby girl at exactly the same time as i did get my tank, so the extra cost in electricity due to baby-care, is responsible for a part of that bill...
But as a guestimate, it will do in my case.

Mind you i do not use any heaters on the big tank, just very good insulation, which saves me quite a lot of money on the long run.

Eddy_lbc wrote:

based on your data, your aquarium consumes 1.576KW/day that will
give you a 47.28KWH/month. now get that damn bill, get the total
amount, divide it with the total kwh consumed and that would be your
multiplier.... in my place... having an P8.27/kwh, that would give me
P391.00 additional cost for my electric bill (roughly US$8.89)

I would hate to think what mine costs to run. the bill is mental. I can't believe what I pay per month. its not the tank more like kids leaving everything on in the house. even the cat watches tv in my house cos its the only thing in sometimes and the light and tv is on. ))