Consuming 1 watt continuously for a year costs you $0.639
Based on smart meter rates of $0.059kwh (off-peak), $0.089 (mid-peak), and $0.107 (peak)
So your skimmers and pumps are hurting you too badly.
Does that include taxes, delivery fees, debt retirement, etc...
My wife does notice a significant affect on our electric bill thanks to my tanks. She even called hydro about it to see what can be done.
Hey Njoyrid and others with monster tanks... did any of you guys get Police show up at your door to inquire about your high electric usage?
$0.64 is the base rate. You're out-of-pocket approx. $1.10/watt/year.
Thanks for pointing that out RossW.
Thats a lot. Ok i'm getting out of the hobby.
no, not yet.
I cant wait to show them my monster tank and my Huge sump room :)
Whats your point? :P We all are in the hobby for the sake of it being a hobby. With hobbies come expenses. If you can't afford it, then don't get into it. hehe
even if my tank was to run full blast 24/7 all year it would be less than $1000 for the year. I can think of alot of other hobbies that would be alot worse. Infact I paintball competatively and it runs be about $4000 for the 5 month season.
$1000 per year is less than 2 Second Cup coffees 5 days a week for a year. My old hobby cost me over $1000 per month...yikes and this is much more rewarding!
the only ting i would liek to chnage about my tank's hydro is my Mh
the rest is fine
I know my hydro bill 6 years ago was only about $98-100 per month now with the prices and tanks I have running it is upto about $300 per month.
I am cutting back! Granted hydro has gone up but I expect tanks are 1/2 of our hydro bill.
hobbies cost money....what is your enjoyment worth?
could be spending thousands more on that motorcycle or hot rod
keeping the expenses balanced with reality is the hardest part
Quote from: bitterman on October 22, 2011, 10:39:55 AM
I know my hydro bill 6 years ago was only about $98-100 per month now with the prices and tanks I have running it is upto about $300 per month.
I am cutting back! Granted hydro has gone up but I expect tanks are 1/2 of our hydro bill.
I can assure you that if you were running EXACTLY the same stuff you did 6 years ago today, it'd cost 2-3x more than it did back then.
I posted a spreadsheet a couple months back that showed what your tank is actually costing you, based on your schedule. Then it was added to by a few people. It can be used to help you to make some changes that will save you some money. (i think it was in the equipment section, and may have been called "cost of lighting" or something)
OK, so it was a couple months ago.. or a few even... :)
http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=51167.0 (http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=51167.0)
After having pondered the matter, and considering that my wife had just this past week raised the issue of the electricity bill, I decided upon a few changes.
The first thing that I am implementing is that I am changing the lighting schedule to run mostly (not entirely) during the cheaper rate times. Around noon I'll have the lights turn on for a short period (sunny), then in the evening I'll run the rest of the time. I figured that I don't really look at the tanks during the daytime anyhow, and usually enjoy the tanks in the evening, thus that's when I should be running the lights. So my tanks are now switched to go to bed after I do. Hope that a simple switch like this could save a noticeable amount on my monthly bill.
Same boat as you. My lighting schedule changed with the time of use billing. Actinics come on at 6pm, daylights on at 7pm and both off after I head to bed.
My problem is that I work from home, and my tank is 10 feet away from me. I'd get depressed looking over there at darkness all day.
This time-of-use stuff really doesn't work well for people with home offices - and stay at home moms.
Difference with a stay at home office is you can write off a certain percentage of your house bills / mortgage. So you still come out a head sometimes.
Quote from: JetJumper on October 26, 2011, 02:53:20 PM
Difference with a stay at home office is you can write off a certain percentage of your house bills / mortgage. So you still come out a head sometimes.
True... My wife is my accountant - she handle's all that. :) I've got all kinds of fun things that I write off. New computers for the last few years were 100% deductible.
I still hate to see hydro bills come in, though.
Besides setting lightings on during off-peak, I am now setting heaters (yes, the big hydro suckers!) on during off-peaks as well. Depending on the size of your tank and the sensitivity of your fish, this may or may not work for everyone.
As of now, my heaters are off between 11AM and 5PM each day during weekdays. On weekends, it's on 24/7. I am seeing a drop of 3 or 4 degrees during this period of time. The fish should be able to handle this (they better learn to adapt like we do :) ). Let's see how my hydro bill goes this month..
gotta say I'm glad I'm running freshwater ;)
Our hydro bill is the same as it ever was even with this on/off peak crap :P
I think my 55 we figured it cost like $40 a year to run? or something crazy low like that!! I don't run heaters except in the one tank in the basement because of course it gets cold in there! but everyone else gets nadda!
time to start looking into alternate energy sources if you want to run a billion tanks ;) when I have a fish room, I think I want it solar powered and heated! :D Big ideas...no $$ :D
Oh yeah...no heaters rocks!! I have lots of tanks and only 2 are heated. Unfortunately the pump I use for the 180's sump filter isn't exactly energy friendly...it's 200 Watts and running all the time. I was looking at a small solar power unit for the pond when the koi finally get their pond built!
Quote from: JetJumper on October 21, 2011, 11:35:19 PM
Whats your point? :P We all are in the hobby for the sake of it being a hobby. With hobbies come expenses. If you can't afford it, then don't get into it. hehe
This is a good point that SO MANY people don't seem to recognize. I can't count the number of times when I talk to a hobbyist who complains about not having money while I watch their aquarium set-up that's worth thousands. I had a neighbour like that. The guy had thousands invested in a salt water tank, yet his house was falling down around him (it was given to him by his parents). Then we found out that he had gone 10 years without paying his taxes, to the point where the house popped up on the city housing auctions for taxes owing to the tune of $34,000! The place was a DUMP! Some flipper bought it and gutted it.
Quote from: FishBuddy on October 26, 2011, 04:54:30 PM
Besides setting lightings on during off-peak, I am now setting heaters (yes, the big hydro suckers!) on during off-peaks as well. Depending on the size of your tank and the sensitivity of your fish, this may or may not work for everyone.
As of now, my heaters are off between 11AM and 5PM each day during weekdays. On weekends, it's on 24/7. I am seeing a drop of 3 or 4 degrees during this period of time. The fish should be able to handle this (they better learn to adapt like we do :) ). Let's see how my hydro bill goes this month..
Joe will be doing a show and tell at the November meeting about how he conserves heat in his tanks. He has no electricity running to his house and is solely running from solar electricity...and a generator for those weeks when the sun doesn't come out much. He successfully keeps discus and other "tropical" fish through the winter!