Outrageous electricity bills - Calgary

[levi1803]

My place is 2800 sq feet on four floors, two furnaces and two water heaters. I'm pretty much screwed no matter what I do

[my2rotties]

Yup I have two furnaces and two hot water tanks as well. I never have the furnace on in my place to my hubby's dismay. I put on a sweater and slippers if it's cold in the house. One furnace runs the main floor and one the upstairs. If we are not on one of the floors the furnace is off. Sometimes I will be in bed and hear the furnace kick on downstairs and I won't sleep unless I go shut it off...

The fish tank must run at all times, but I am already looking at how long the lights run for and how long they should run for. I like the halides on all day but that won't be happening anymore.

Originally Posted by levi1803

My place is 2800 sq feet on four floors, two furnaces and two water heaters. I'm pretty much screwed no matter what I do

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by my2rotties

Yup I have two furnaces and two hot water tanks as well. I never have the furnace on in my place to my hubby's dismay. I put on a sweater and slippers if it's cold in the house. One furnace runs the main floor and one the upstairs. If we are not on one of the floors the furnace is off. Sometimes I will be in bed and hear the furnace kick on downstairs and I won't sleep unless I go shut it off...

The fish tank must run at all times, but I am already looking at how long the lights run for and how long they should run for. I like the halides on all day but that won't be happening anymore.

You would actually get much better coral growth by NOT having the halides run all day. There seems to still be a big debate about how long is best but it has been determined that its certainly NOT 8-12 hours a day like many people do but much less. I think one of the last few TOTM on RC was running his 5 hours a day. I am at 6 hours a day now.

[my2rotties]

I need to do some homework about this or I will have a conniption when the next bill arrives...

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

You would actually get much better coral growth by NOT having the halides run all day. There seems to still be a big debate about how long is best but it has been determined that its certainly NOT 8-12 hours a day like many people do but much less. I think one of the last few TOTM on RC was running his 5 hours a day. I am at 6 hours a day now.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by my2rotties

I need to do some homework about this or I will have a conniption when the next bill arrives...

Search RC for the threads. Basically there is only so much light corals can use in a day. The rest of the time, its wasted light and in some cases, not even good for the corals. Many people are seeing nicer color with a shorter photoperiod.

[my2rotties]

Thanks Justin it is much appreciated.

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Search RC for the threads. Basically there is only so much light corals can use in a day. The rest of the time, its wasted light and in some cases, not even good for the corals. Many people are seeing nicer color with a shorter photoperiod.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by my2rotties

Sometimes I will be in bed and hear the furnace kick on downstairs and I won't sleep unless I go shut it off...

OMG I'm not the only one! I'm exactly the same way. Everyone I know tells me I'm crazy for turning the furnace down so low (15) at night. All I know is that I can't sleep with the noise it makes.

[spreerider]

you can calculate each devices cost and your entire tank cost by taking the watts of each device and dividing by 1000 to get Kw then multiplying by how many hours they are on per day, then multiply by the number of days in the month then by the KWH (KiloWatt / Hour) rate
EG
250W MH
250 / 1000 = .25KW X 11 = 2.75 X 30 = 82.5KWH X (rate) $.069 = $5.69 per month roughly