I just received my energy bill and it made me think about this topic.
Whether you’re running an ornamental fish tank, pond, public aquaria, aquaponic system or aquaculture, electricity costs may be an important factor. So, how much does it cost to run your system/s?
A quick anagram to help you remember the equation is “C pet”.
C = P x E x T
;
Where …
C = Cost of power per day
P = Price of power per kilowatt hour
E = Energy consumption in kilowatts
T = Time the equipment is on per day
;
To put this into practice, we will consider only the cost of electricity for equipment that is running continuously (e.g. water pump, air pump, UV steriliser, protein skimmer, computer/electronic devices).
To give a simple example, if the cost of power is $0.199 per kWh (P) and there are 2 x 600W pumps on (E) for 24 hours per day (T), the daily cost (C) of electricity would be $5.73 (i.e. $0.199 x 1.2kW x 24).
In a year, this would add up to over $2090!
So, it makes sense to buy equipment that has high energy efficiency since saving a few dollars on a product at purchase could cost you hundreds in the longer term.
BTW, mine adds up to over $600/y (and this is after “scaling” down).
