Power Consumption and Wattage Calculation

It maybe minimal to the electricity, but when you are taking out that much water you need some good equipment that costs $$.  Although in the end it's all worth it for the prize winning fish.

Bob, How can he forget? He has a aqua reminder now!!!

and i have about 800 gallons in use with about 25% weekly WC.

weekly?  You sure about that Captain Water Change? 

Water is usually tied to waste removal and billed multiple months at a time. My last water bill was under $50 for 2 months and i have about 800 gallons in use with about 25% weekly WC.

water is minimal versus the $200 electric bill for 30 heaters.

Wait a second, we don't just use watts but gallons of water too.  How much is that a month?  I know it's differen't for everybody, but at around $.15 a gallon that adds up with 300gallons+ fish rooms.  So if you add all those to the bill it probably costs around a dollar a month, just a guess.

Thanks for the info

Nice info.  After reading this I heard this in my head "The more you know" followed by three tones.

Over the last few weeks I have had quite a few discussions with other members of A-T and the GCCA forum about power consumption and usage. It got me to thinking.... What does our great hobby cost on a regular monthly basis?

Lets start off with a few basics you may already know. Your power provider measures your usage by the Kilowatt hour (kWh). I know out by me Commonwealth Edison charges $.08275 per kWh. All of our equipment has listed on it the wattage rating. With this info we can easily calculate what the cost of running a certian item will be.

Here is the formula for figuring out the monthly cost of an AC110. A few things to keep in mind here are 1. this formula calculates cost of running an appiance 24/7 for a month. We all know our heaters don't stay on all day and night. 2. This formula isn't 100% accurate as there are many variables that can have an effect on the outcome. 3. This formula will however get you into the ball park as to your costs.

The formula is: Wattage/1000 X your cost per kWh X 24hrs X 30 days per month.
So I looked up the AC 110 power filter and it uses 14 watts.
14 / 1000 X .08275 X 24 X 30= $.8341.

Thats only 83 cents a month to run an AC110. I was quite supprised and the cheapness of running one of these. I looked at some heaters and a 300w heater comes out to be about $17.87 a month, and that is if it stayed on 24/7, which we all know they don't. Some 48in light bulbs run about 32 watts each. That comes out to $1.90 a month if they are on 24/7.


Keep in mind that this forula won't be 100% accurate as there are too many variables involved. I have found and known that the majority of our expenses are tied to heating costs. Which is why if you have multiple tanks in a well insulated room you can heat the room with 1 heater and save yourself a bundle of cash.

Incase your equipment dosen't give you a wattage rating but instead it gives you a amperage rating you can multiply the Amps X Voltage (120V) to get your wattage.


Any comments are welcome.
Keeper