# Heater - Cost to Run it?



## Poi (Nov 5, 2008)

Hi,

I'm just wondering if anyone has an idea (or guess) of what it costs to run a 100 watt heater.

I had the power company come out to my house a while back to do an analysis of our electricity and when he saw my fish tanks he made a quick comment that it costs a lot to run the heaters. I should have asked him for more specifics but we moved on to the next topic quickly and I forgot.

Thanks!


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

Hey Poi..over there..as in big surf and long boards???
I think a watt is a watt is a watt, 100 watt light bulb, 100 watt heater both use 100 watts.. 
I bet a short trip to google would give you an answer to cost per watt per hour.
que no?


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## sbernstecker (Oct 11, 2007)

I would think it would be hard to tell as it really all depends on how often the heater turns on. If it only turns on for 10 minutes every day I guess it would cost the same amount as a 100 watt bulb being turned on for 10 minutes, if it runs 10 hours a day the cost would obviously be much more


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

sbernstecker said:


> I would think it would be hard to tell as it really all depends on how often the heater turns on. If it only turns on for 10 minutes every day I guess it would cost the same amount as a 100 watt bulb being turned on for 10 minutes, if it runs 10 hours a day the cost would obviously be much more


Yeah, then it would be the same as a 100 watt bulb on for 10 hours. Its that simple.

Obviously power costs are different in all areas, but based off of a few calculators...

.10 cents for 100 watt heater for 10 hours for one day. That is 3 dollars for a month. That would be 6 dollars if runs for 20 hours a day for 30 days.

A 275 w heater at 87 Kwh is about 6.75.

Just google "energy calculator"

If you are really concerned, a device called kill-a-watt will go between your device and the wall plug and will tell you how much power it draws during a specified time.

Of course, it costs what 3 months or more would cost to run the heater.


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## Poi (Nov 5, 2008)

Thanks for the reply's. Do heaters typically run up to 10 hours a day?

As an example, I have a 100 watt heater, a 29 gallon tank, and we keep the house at about 78 degrees. Let's say I want to keep the water at 80 degrees. Do you think the heater will have to run up to 10 hours a day?


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## atp777 (Feb 26, 2007)

Well I have a 55g with a 300w heater set to 82Â° and my electricity bill is only $$35-$50/mo. I live in a 3 bedroom house, have a 42" TV, 3 computers (1 of which runs 24/7) and a stay at home wife and daughter. I'd say collectively my heater runs for about 2 hours a day at the max.


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## Grey Legion (Apr 11, 2005)

To try to get a exact amount that a heater cost to run per day is near impossible and really not worth it at all, if you tank is in a area with no real drafts and you keep your dwelling heated it really should only cost pennies a day to run. The best advise I can provide it to keep your tank as tightly sealed as possible and top up with water as close to the tank temp as you can. Buy quality products as well will help to keep cost of ownership to a minimum.


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## wheatbackdigger (May 11, 2008)

Poi said:


> Thanks for the reply's. Do heaters typically run up to 10 hours a day?
> 
> As an example, I have a 100 watt heater, a 29 gallon tank, and we keep the house at about 78 degrees. Let's say I want to keep the water at 80 degrees. Do you think the heater will have to run up to 10 hours a day?


If you keep your house at 78, I dont think you need a heater at all


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

wheatbackdigger said:


> If you keep your house at 78, I dont think you need a heater at all


 :thumb:


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## Fishbulb2 (Sep 23, 2008)

As mention above, a kill-a-watt device will let you know exactly how often you heater is turning on and how much power it's drawing. It's a fairly useful device to have around for more than just tank equipment.


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## 18fisher (Mar 2, 2006)

were would you get one of these meters at. My electric bill has gone through the roof had them come put new meter in and test the old one but they said nothing wrong it. I dont belive them and would like to see who is using all electric. my wife says its my tanks i say its not.I already took two down a 60 and a 30. I dont want to take any more down the two 55s and the 220 are staying By the way my bill is 3 to 400 a month. and i only have a 60 amp service with the old screw in fuses i dont think i can even pull that much electric in my house :x :x :x :x thanks 18 fisher please help i need more tanks


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> were would you get one of these meters at.


Google kill-a-watt. They're available at quiet a few sites online.


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## punman (Oct 24, 2003)

Tank Electrical Costs â€" Especially Heaters
Note â€" If you donâ€™t want to read through all of this, just skip down to the second last paragraph.

I have seen posts where people want to know the cost of running their tanks for a month. Lighting is easy because the wattage is listed on the lamps and we can estimate the hours per day that the lamps are on. Filters are on continually so it is just a matter of checking the specs for the filter wattage.

The trickier part is the heater because it goes off and on. I tried watching my heater in my 45 gallon tank while I worked at the computer. I tried to record the time it went off and on for two hours. Sometimes Iâ€™d miss it though and would have to estimate. I came up with ON 22% of the time.

I have 5 tanks so I needed a better idea. Over two weeks I randomly walked by the tanks and checked off on a piece of paper if the heater was on or off. I tried to do it randomly, not every 10 minutes in case a heater was running say, an 8 min. off, 2 min. on cycle. I did this about a 100 times over many days but it took less time than sitting watching a tank for two hours. The 45 gallon tank was on 20.3% of the time so I feel my method was fairly accurate. The chart below shows my results.

180 gal. â€" 250 W heater = 1.4 W/gal. On 31.4% Cost per month is $5.21
90 gal. â€" 250 W heater = 2.8 W/gal. On 35.6% Cost per month is $5.91
45 gal. â€" 200 W heater = 4.4 W/gal. On 20.3% Cost per month is $2.70
33 gal. â€" 150 W heater = 4.5 W/gal. On 36.4% Cost per month is $3.63
23 gal. â€" 50 W heater = 2.2 W/gal. On 100% Cost per month is $3.32

All heaters were set for 77-78 F and room temperature in all rooms was 70-71 F so we are looking at 7 degrees heating (about 4 degrees C) above room temperature. All heaters but one were Ebo-Jagers (the other a Visi-Therm). All were installed in the upright position.

What amazed me was how efficient large tanks are at conserving heat. The watts/gallon figures are not used in calculating dollar costs but make for interesting comparisons. You would think that the more watts per gallon you have, the less the heater would be on. Surprisingly, that is not always the case. I was worried about heating a 180 gallon tank with a 250 W heater (would it be enough heat output?) but it is on less often than the same size and brand heater on my 90 gallon. I surmise that this is due to the larger volume of water retaining heat better and the fact that the glass is thicker. Also my 180 gallon is my only tank with foam insulation underneath so maybe that makes a difference. Other factors that could affect your heating are: the location of the tank (by a window, wall, open door), the type water movement in the tank, location of heat vents in the home, and the type and amount of covering for the tank. [So tell the spouse you need a bigger tank and it wonâ€™t cost any more to run it!!! (At least the electricity part)].

In case you wonder how to calculate the cost of the heater, I will give you an example. My 200 W heater is on 20.3% of the time so that is 20.3% out of 24 hours so .203 x 24 x 30.4 days in a month = 148.1 hours a month. 148.1 x 200 Watts = 29,620. I am paying 9.1 cents per kilowatt hour so that is 29,620/1000 x .091 = $2.70 per month. You can calculate your lights and filters the same way. I am calculating in Canadian dollars.

I donâ€™t have live plants so I have single bulb lighting and the lights are only on an average of 6 hours per day (so for me I multiply watts of lighting by .25).

Examples of filter energy use are: AquaClear 110 â€" 14 Watts, AquaClear 70 â€" 6 W, AquaClear 50 â€" 6 W, and Eheim 2217 â€" 20 W. Amongst my five tanks I have 9 filters.

I calculated that the cost total for electricity for the 5 tanks I have, to be $29.91 per month, which averages out to $6 a month per tank. 70% of that electrical cost is for heaters, 22% for filters, and 8% for lights. If you live in an area where your home is above 70 degrees F much of the time because of the warm weather, your heating costs would be less. If you are heavily into lighting, that portion will be more.

Other costs would be costs of the water (I am on a flat rate at the moment, not a meter), and the cost of heating the water as you do water changes â€" most people would not be adding it cold from the tap but trying for tank temperature around tank temperature. That calculation is for another day.

So there you have it. If you are too lazy to do all this math and recordkeeping, you can use the $6 a month per tank average for light, filter, and heater expenses if your electricity rate is around 9 cents per kilowatt hour. A 12 cent/kwh rate would be $8 a month per tank; 18 cents works out to $12 a month.

I have been back into fish keeping for the past five years. I have put off doing these calculations because I really did not want to know the answers. The costs were not as expensive as I had thought.


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