Cost of Metal Halides

[Jon.peak]

interested in upgrading my 4 t-5s to 2x25o metal halide fixture... But im now hesitant because i heard it could cost you alot more on your electric bill..... Does anyone know how much more this will cost me?

[Tat2demon]

I remember seeing an electricity calculator around somewhere. Maybe the front page. It asks for all your equipment wattage, time run and cost of your electricity then tells you how much your tank costs to run.

Edit- found it. http://reefcentral.com/index.php/tank-electrical

[James77]

interested in upgrading my 4 t-5s to 2x25o metal halide fixture... But im now hesitant because i heard it could cost you alot more on your electric bill..... Does anyone know how much more this will cost me?

Assuming the T5s are 54 watts.....

The T5s will be 216 watts approximately, the halides will be 500 watts. Running the T5s for 8 hours will equal 1.7 kilowatts a day, which is 51 kilowatt hours a month. The halides at 8 hours would be 4 kilowatts/day and 120 kilowatt hours per month.

The rest depends on your electric rate. At the rough average of 12 cents per kilowatt, the T5s would cost $6.12 per month to run, the halides $14.40 per month. 8 bucks more to run halides.

Calculator on RC home page:

http://reefcentral.com/index.php/tank-electrical

[allsps40]

I did the math on how much it costs electricity wish to run my 75G sps tank each month. With 2 250W MH, 4 in tank power heads, return pump, reactor pump, skimmer pump, fuge light, ATO system, heater and RKL my tank only costs a total of about $20 to run each month.

[tkeracer619]

$105 for the tank in my sig per month.

The cost difference is not that big with the lighting. You could easily offset it by using a more efficient return pump.

[hypnoj]

also keep in mind that most people don't need to run MH's for more then 6 hours per day.

[dadnjesse]

And your heater will run less