just curious of what others are paying per kwh of electricity around the country. when i take the total dollar amount on my bill and divide it by kwh used it is $.07 per kwh. i found this link to a pretty neat tank electrical calculator. Reef Central Online Community (http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/tank_elec_calc.php)

I pay .16 KWH!

i dont know why ours is that low. i guess it's pretty regional. i don't understand how the power company can charge different regions more when we are all on the same grid. we have a lot of wind generators within a 30 mile radius of where i live. i don't know if this helps us out any with lower costs.

Ours is .09/kwh

i was just reading that the national average for 2007 was 10.65 cents per KWH at the DOE website. i've just been debating in my head about using MH lighting and running up the KWH lol. I already have 3 250 watt mh lights that i was using and i have a coralife fixture with 2 175 watt mh. I sure do want to try out the led's. i know they are just going to get better and better. i dont know when to get in the led game lol. im considering waiting for the next line to come out. i don't want to split this thread but i did read a while back that there are dimmable mh lights. i have been looking for that thread all night at rc but cant find it. i was listening to the latest podcast tonight and the section about dimming mh. it's driving me looney that i cant find that article lol. i have found so far tonight on manufacturers websites that the 400 watt icecapp ballast is dimmable to 50%. But that's about all the info i've found.

i just made a new thread about the dimmable mh lighting in the lighting section with my findings so i dont split this one up.

this is a good site to look at for energy savings. there are some useful articles.
ENERGY BOOMER (http://www.energyboomer.typepad.com/)

I have the new Kill-a-Watt version that lets you input your KwH rate and it will tell you how much you are paying to run that equipment for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year and so on.. here are my findings:

Based on my rate of $0.11 per kwh, I pay:

$3.00 /mo for my Eheim 1260 return that runs 24/7............
$10.00 /mo for two 250-watt Halides............
$5.00 /mo for the wavemaker and other pumps...........
and about $15 for other stuff... like dosers, controllers, and other monitors..

I didn't include the chiller and heater since they can't be measured on a regular basis...like I don't know when they will turn ON, etc.

That being said, my entire tank costs about $30 a month to run. (and this is an SPS system with 600 watts of lighting) On the other hand, I measured my 42" plasma and it costs about $15 /mo if operated continuously!!!!

So I guess if people are having high electric bills I suggest they look somewhere and stop blaming the tank... lol :D

I just got my latest bill and it jumped almost a $100 to $220 this cycle! I realized that my bill is a couple months behind and it was when I had my 72 and 180 running at the same time. I believe most of the $$ went to heating both tanks and the basement sump (1000w). Once again, I have employed the Kill-a-Watt to tell me where my money is going.

xtmreef,
I would plug the KaW into your heater and just let it go for several days. You can then get an average and do the math to figure out what your heater or chiller cost you. I have a spreadsheet that does the math for you if it would help.

i use my kill a watt all the time too lol. my wife thinks im possesed. it's pretty interesting to see the watts being used when you think they are shut off. my tv and dvr were runing 58 watts when shut off. i guess the tv just goes into a standby mode for fast startup. im in the process of wiring some switches to a couple of my outlets so i can kill the power to the entertainment center.

good point, Chris. When I get home tonight I will put the Plasma, DVD, VHS, Betamax, Vinyl Needle player and Cassette players on a powerstrip so I can just turn them OFF at the same time when I leave for work..