# Electricity



## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

Damn electrical bill! I'm a hundred bucks more a month. <sigh>


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Wow, how many tanks are you running?

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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

More than what?


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## Rmwbrown (Jan 22, 2009)

That is insane, my entire bill for September was $25.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Rmwbrown said:


> That is insane, my entire bill for September was $25.


That's also insane.


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## Rmwbrown (Jan 22, 2009)

We just got our first place that wasn't all inclusive and i went a little nuts - high efficiency appliances, eliminated any vampire sources by putting the stereo and entertainment center on accessible power bars, switched over most of the bulbs, put the hot water on gas and set the tank lights on off-peak hours. 

I also needed to justify dropping 130 watts on a 25 gallon tank.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Mine went up a bit too... I was told it has something to do with sept billing D:


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

ameekplec. said:


> That's also insane.


totally agree


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

It's not just the fishroom. I run about 1800 gallons most on trickles. The heaters have been turned on in the unheated part of my basement since September. Moving everything to its own room but it's taking longer than I thought. I also have a home shop where I do my fabrication. I have been working lots of late nights burning a lot of juice. It jumped from $225 to about $315. Oh well, sure beats commercial rent...


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

Rmwbrown said:


> That is insane, my entire bill for September was $25.


How you manage that? Maybe my smart meter needs calibration like an Aqueon heater...


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## arc (Mar 11, 2010)

> That is insane, my entire bill for September was $25.


Holy..that's one efficient place.

Are we talking about just the cost of electricity or the final bill with the taxes and delivery fees? We pay about 100/month (40 electricity) with all the fees and taxes included for a house downtown with 5 tanks and AC(sparingly) over the last two months.


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## Rmwbrown (Jan 22, 2009)

That is without taxes and delivery. 50 in electricity over two months, 30 for delivery then another 20 or so in taxes. No air con and i have just turned on the furnace now. I'm only running two tanks as well. Ten gallon planted shrimp tank, and a 25 gallon planted celestial pearl danio tank with a total of 160 watts in power compacts. Nowhere near the 1800 gallons that Kev is looking after! That, however, is amazing in itself - well worth the 100 bucks.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

kev416 said:


> It's not just the fishroom. I run about 1800 gallons most on trickles. The heaters have been turned on in the unheated part of my basement since September. Moving everything to its own room but it's taking longer than I thought. I also have a home shop where I do my fabrication. I have been working lots of late nights burning a lot of juice. It jumped from $225 to about $315. Oh well, sure beats commercial rent...


A thoguht came to mind on the saving heat/money and power.

http://greenterrafirma.com/solar-air-heating.html

Taking that design with easy to find pop cans and spray paint and you can jazz up the exterior look to look more clean if you want but a modification to that is to add copper piping inside the heater and then inside your fishroom have a heavily insulated tank with lots of thermo mass in there (ie rocks). Then have a small pump (or use air lift technology with an airpump) to pump the heated water from the heater to the insulated tank and from the insulated tank run the piping to say a long thin PVC tubing with water in it but capped off so that the copper pipe runs into the PVC tube then U shapes back out into the insulated tank and back to the solar heater. That capped off PVC tubing is just to protect the copper piping from releasing any copper into your tank should you have inverts that are copper sensitive.

If you have thermo mass and an insulated tank it'll slow the heat loss and keep the temps stable for a long time before the sun comes up again and your heaters will come on less and only come on to make up a little difference should the temps drop some. There is a Newfoundlander that is making such commercial solar heaters with a more slick look and charging a mint for them asI've seen on Daily Planet and on youtube/online.

Just an idea as heaters IIRC are second to lighting in terms of power sappers.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Rmwbrown said:


> That is without taxes and delivery. 50 in electricity over two months, 30 for delivery then another 20 or so in taxes. No air con and i have just turned on the furnace now. I'm only running two tanks as well. Ten gallon planted shrimp tank, and a 25 gallon planted celestial pearl danio tank with a total of 160 watts in power compacts. Nowhere near the 1800 gallons that Kev is looking after! That, however, is amazing in itself - well worth the 100 bucks.


Ah. But, still crazy - I think our hydro (not delivery) alone is around $30 a month. But then again, I have ~250wT5HO and probably around 250w in heaters scattered throughout 8 small tanks, so I use a bit more juice.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

You guys must all be energy hogs. My bill per month, with taxes and delivery is still under $30.

It only goes up in the winter time, when I start paying about $50-60.


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

AquaNekoMobile said:


> A thoguht came to mind on the saving heat/money and power.
> 
> http://greenterrafirma.com/solar-air-heating.html
> 
> ...


I saw that show too... of the guy who makes those pop can solar heaters. Interesting. The contained room I am building will trap most of the heat thrown off by ballasts, pumps, and the dehumidifier as well as any heaters I'll have running. I think the new linear piston pump on order will throw off even more heat. I am more worried about the summer though. A friend's top tanks in his fishroom always climbed above ninety each summer. Anyways, I bought an air exchanger and need to install it to clear the room any humidity or excess heat. Thanks for your green suggestions. Always interesting to read and view stuff like that online. Kevin


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Darkblade48 said:


> You guys must all be energy hogs. My bill per month, with taxes and delivery is still under $30.
> 
> It only goes up in the winter time, when I start paying about $50-60.


Well, in the winter it's about $60 - $70 a month, but during the summer it's almost the same anyways. I think this summr was bad though because the AC was on a lot (the reef doesn't fare well with continued temps too high) 

Also, delivery must be cheap for you - our bill is like 60% delivery + admin charges.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

kev416 said:


> I saw that show too... of the guy who makes those pop can solar heaters. Interesting. The contained room I am building will trap most of the heat thrown off by ballasts, pumps, and the dehumidifier as well as any heaters I'll have running. I think the new linear piston pump on order will throw off even more heat. I am more worried about the summer though. A friend's top tanks in his fishroom always climbed above ninety each summer. Anyways, I bought an air exchanger and need to install it to clear the room any humidity or excess heat. Thanks for your green suggestions. Always interesting to read and view stuff like that online. Kevin


Something that came to mind. If you have dig rights on your property a modified approach to this http://lifehacker.com/5335024/how-to-build-a-diy-dorm+legal-ac is something to cool off the room.

Get a bunch of tubing and run it parallel on the ceiling with some large fans up there and a pump pumping water from the tubing into the massive (but cheap) tubing underground to cool that water down to help lower the heat in the room. It works on IIRC on that design much like hanging wet clothes inside the house for evaporate cooling.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

ameekplec. said:


> Also, delivery must be cheap for you - our bill is like 60% delivery + admin charges.


Nope. Delivery costs more than the amount of electricity I consume.

I just checked my previous month's bill; I paid $17 for delivery, and $9 for the actual electricity.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

kev416 said:


> IThe heaters have been turned on in the unheated part of my basement since September.


You could try insulating the backs and sides of the tanks with styrofoam. Also, if your tanks aren't covered, covering them will save a lot of heat lost to evaporation, as well as reducing humidity and condensation problems.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Darkblade48 said:


> Nope. Delivery costs more than the amount of electricity I consume.
> 
> I just checked my previous month's bill; I paid $17 for delivery, and $9 for the actual electricity.


Do you cook a lot? I use the stove (electric) a lot, so that probably eats a fair amount.

Just checked - bill last month was $62.99, of which $24.73 was electricity.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I cook everyday. I also use an electric stove.


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