Title: Power Consumption of Coralife Aqualight Double
MAZZA_402 - January 12, 2007 10:25 PM (GMT)
I've got a Coralife 96Wx2 Aqualight, and I'm wondering if anyone knows what kind of power this thing draws. My wife swears that this thing is causing our electricity bill to jump 20 dollars, but I'm not sure. We only run one side, so 96 watts. We leave the light on anywhere from 8 to 12 hours per day. Could this really be drawing that much power?
r33f-boy - January 13, 2007 12:19 AM (GMT)
I dont think a PC dont consume as much power. My 130 watt of PC is on 9-12 hours and it doesnt raise my bill that high. Im thinking whats making the bill go up is probably ur filters and air pump and maybe ur TV. :P
MAZZA_402 - January 14, 2007 04:47 AM (GMT)
I removed the Rena XP2 from my tank. I'm going to use it on a freshwater tank in the future. I'm sure with it running all the time it HAD to have raised my electric bill. I'm sure with it gone, I can safely run both lights.
r33f-boy - January 14, 2007 04:08 PM (GMT)
Thats good to hear.
I have a rena XP3 on my 220 gallon. And it doesnt really do a good job b/c it only filters 175 gallons. Im saving money to get a rena xp4 because it filters up to 250 gallons.
Sergeant Major - January 14, 2007 05:09 PM (GMT)
Let's do the math... 96 watts is close enough to 100 to make the math easy... you say you run it up to 12 hours per day... that's 1200 watt hours, or 1.2 KWH per day. Multiply that by 31 days (the number of days in the longest months) and you get 37.2 KWH per month. Standatd electricity rates run about $0.08 per KWH $0.10 if you're paying surcharges. Multiply 37.2 by $0.10 and you find that you're only spending $3.72 durring the longest months if you run the light for the longest time each day, at the highest rates. So it's not that bad, right? Now if you were running both sides, and doing it for 24/7... then you'd be looking at about $14.88. Still shy of $20, but much closer. One question, I know your fixture has fans on it, when you run the one side of the lights, do you turn on the fans? Because that can account for more power loss.
r33f-boy - January 14, 2007 10:25 PM (GMT)
Wow SM your really good at electricity math. :D
Sergeant Major - January 15, 2007 01:39 AM (GMT)
Yeah, heh, I've done more than one college paper on household energy useage and global warming. I guess it shows.
r33f-boy - January 15, 2007 06:00 PM (GMT)
MAZZA_402 - January 15, 2007 06:02 PM (GMT)
One side powers the fans as well, while the other does not. That's still not bad... I'm wondering how much the filter draws, then?