What is Your utility bill?

[Coleus]

my $500 includes gas/water/electricity and I only have one 155 tank going. Before, it was a little bit under $300 without the tank

[Funky_Fish14]

Originally Posted by Coleus

Now you bring this up. I was always wondering so for a 98% rejection rate. If I am collecting 120 gallon of good water per month. Does that mean i waste 6000 gallon of water(well i tried to use some for watering plant)


Hahah good idea Kien, if you are getting those new Koralias, sell me your Tunze 6105s ok?

You certainly are not tossing that much water. The R/O membrane is rejecting 98% of the dissolved solids, not the water. Depending on the pressure of the feed, your getting anywhere from 2:1 (Waste/product) to 10:1 ratio. I run very high PSI and dual membrane in paralelle so my waste is actually lower than 2:1.

[kien]

Hmm I wonder.. Is it free or is it rolled into your taxes?

[Lampshade]

Water could be free, in surrey it's not metered. so yes, we pay an avg. in property taxes, but, it doesn't matter really how much we use. I was actually thinking of making a waste water cooling system by running tap water through a coil in my sump, then down the drain :S... i don't know if i hate the enviroment enough for that yet though :S

as for the hydro bill, mine before the tank was 80 a month, after i'm at about 100. Calculating it out, seemed to be just about right. This was in the summer when i wasn't heating my house, that makes nubers go all over the place, especially with our recent february spring time.

but heres the numbers i found for my 55gal tank anyways:

175W MH x 8 hours = 1.4KW/d
2x54W T5's x 10 hours = 1.08KW/d
Rio 2500 Pump = 49watts x 24 hours = 1.2KW/d
Rio 1100 Pump = 23 watts x 24 hours = .55 KW/d
4 x aquaclear 201 powerheads = 6x4x24 = .58KW/d

and heaters... but can't say how long they're on, and it's not wasted heat, since it heats my house? right? Thats what i tell my wife anyways.

So overall i have 3.73KW/d, and rounding up up for PLC, LED moonlights, etc, 4KW/d x 30 = 240KW of energy at $0.0637 is $15.23 a month, so seems about right.

It's easy to see how some nice lights on a big tank could really pull that up, but to get a $700 bill something's wrong, unless you have a nice big house, poorly insulated, and a chilly wife who turns up the thermostats whenever you're not looking. Mine does too, and i have a $250 bill for a townhouse through the winter