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Home      Reply		Viewed: 729 -- Replies: 20
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Posted	Running costs!?
23-01-2008 20:28 by Woz	Just a thought at the minute, but does anyone have an idea of what it costs to run a tank per day/week....for arguents sake ill say a "average" sized tank is 5ft long with standard dimensions and runs with a heater, light and a normal sized external filter. I just dont have the slightest idea what it would cost to run one and would be intrigued to find out as im planning for one or two more bigger tanks in the near future
23-01-2008 21:20 by Fry Lover	i worked it out once in great detail mate, the hardest thing to get a clear figure on was the heater, as you cant tell how many hours per day its on. Apart from that once you know the wattage of the appliance, how long its on for and what your eleccy tariff is, its easy to work out. I will tell you this, with a standard tank, say anything from 2 foot to 6 foot with normal heating, lighting and externals, it's probably cheaper than some peeps realise per tank per week But obviously if a peep got several tanks, you notice it on eleccy bill, especially in winter, but that will also depend how much central heating you use per day. I wish i kept the stats i had on it. You got me thinking now, might do another research into it and come back with some hard facts
23-01-2008 22:16 by Fry Lover	ok, assuming a reasonable eleccy tariff that averages £0.08 KW/h over the course of a year I am really guessing with the heating though, i am just going to assume to the heater is ON 15% of the time (about 4 hrs per day) i have no idea how close this is to actual time a heater will be on for. Haven't included air pumps, which are quite low wattage anyway, so wont make a big difference if you do use one. 2 foot tank - 15W bulb (lights on 10hrs/day) - 15W starter unit - 5W int. filter(i.e. Fluval 2+) - 100W heater COST: £0.46 per week 3 foot tank - 30W bulb (lights on 10hrs/day) - 15W starter unit - 10W int. filter (i.e. Fluval 4+) - 200W heater COST: £0.84 per week 4x20x24 (Rio 300 tank) - 2x 38W bulb (lights on 10hrs/day) - x2 15W starter unit ?????? - 15W int. filter - 300W heater COST: £1.47 per week 5x2x2 - 2x 58W bulb (lights on 10hrs/day) - x2 15W starter unit - x1 50W FX-5 filter - x1 25W Eheim 2028 - x2 300W heater (less time on than above, as more stable water temp) COST: £2.50 per week
23-01-2008 22:17 by Fry Lover	oh there is a calculator on PFK not sure if you need to register, i have http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/electrical_costs.php
23-01-2008 22:23 by Fry Lover	I'm running x5 tanks, i reckon it costs me £8 a week. Going to be reducing to x3 tanks soon though
23-01-2008 22:56 by Woz	thats some great info youve got there fry,ive always been interested in knowing but ive never found anything. Excellent work and thanks for sharing!
23-01-2008 22:57 by Fry Lover	no probs Woz, this will interest anyone with a tank running i guess (to some extent anyway)
23-01-2008 23:42 by stuart	just for an example i run quite a few tanks. My elec is paid weekly and worked out roughly it costs me £45 a week for the fish equipment, this is to run: 25 lights 22 heaters 2 large air pumps and 1 small 1 fx5 2 xp3 3 medium internals 9 u.v's 6 pond pumps so i dont think £45 is to bad considering whats running
23-01-2008 23:58 by robert.pope	i have 3 tanks and to be honest i dont care what they cost!......as i dont drink or smoke..... i did have a think earlyer this week what i have spent this month ... £30 on fish £50 on a PH meter £16 on Discus wormer £ 8 light tube £ 6 on tub of food thats £110 before electricity:o perhaps smoking is cheaper i must add that £50 of the above was christmas money so its not all so bad
24-01-2008 00:23 by telboy	NO WIFES ALLOWED TO READ THIS THREAD
24-01-2008 00:40 by Fry Lover	gonna e-mail Jane
24-01-2008 10:03 by Alan	I'd agree with that my wife insisted that I worked it out as she pays the lecky bill. I have to chip in £25 a month now. Freshwater tanks are not to bad it marine tanks that are a nightmare especially when running metal halide lighting!
24-01-2008 11:25 by saz	We are running about 35 tanks at the moment ranginging fom 12 inch up to 8 foot and we use about £35 a week in electic but that is including all household electric too.
24-01-2008 12:08 by Woz	how you running them all saz, individual heaters/heated room? individual filtration, airpump etc?? im in the process of a new garage which is going to have a room for the tanks( its just going up slowly due to alot of things i just need some ideas basically because i dont know anyone who runs that many tanks
24-01-2008 12:35 by saz	There are 3 tanks in the living room which together run 4 lighting units, 4 heaters, 4 tetratec 1200's and an internal filter, the fish house is run by an air pump running sponge and box filters, 5 x energy saving lights and an oil filled rad to heat the room.
24-01-2008 14:07 by perky	Whats it to do with you Wozzock...
24-01-2008 14:25 by Woz	cheers saz...and thanks for the wonderful contribution perky
24-01-2008 14:58 by saz	If you are going to be running a fair few tanks then an airpump and space heating are definately the way to go, let us know how you get on in your garage (id be using the whole garage lol)
24-01-2008 18:08 by Woz	im going for an airpump for certain, im just not sure on heating yet.Ive got a good sized bit of the garage anyway, it will get me all the tanks i want anyway, im wanting a few 6footers for tropheus and frontosas and alot of smaller ones for catfish and malawis etc, at the minute its only 5foot high so along way to go yet
25-01-2008 14:31 by Jessica	Stop whinin, imagine what your wives would say to losing £20 every 2-3 days just to heat ONE viv (iguana)
25-01-2008 16:09 by telboy	been there jess,i used to keep corn snakes + various lizards + amphibians the missus cottoned on to the costs, nightmare

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