The Cost to Run Your Fish Tank Lights

We have more fish tanks in this house than I can possibly count. I often times think that I probably spend a lot of money to run these fish tank lights. Come to find out that the average state pays around 10 cents per kilowatt hour. If you take a look at your electric bill you can see how many cents you pay per killowatt hour. You will find it somewhere on your current electric bill. Every state will be different from the next state. If you live in Wisconsin for example, you will pay around 8 cents per kilowatt hour.

Let's say that you are running a very small light on your 20 gallon fish tank that is 15 kilowatts. You will need to take 15 kilowatts and times that by the amount of hours that the fish tank is on times by the number of days in the month. So your calculation will look something like 15 kilowatts X 6 hours a day X 30 days per week. If you calculate that out it will be 2700 watts. That will be the total number of watts that you use to run that fish tank light for one month with the light being on for 6 hours a day, every single day for the entire month.

Now you will need to take 2700 watts and divide that by 1000wh which will give you 2.70. Now you can times that by the number that you get charged per hour for your electricity. In Wisconsin, we get charged about 8 cents per kilowatt hour which means that I will pay 27 cents to run my fish tank light for the entire month. I can go outside and find a quarter in the parking lot and pay to run my fish light for an entire month. This means that it will cost me about $3.24 to run my fish tank light for 6 hours per day, every day for the entire year.

Lets see about those larger fish tanks that are saltwater fish tanks. Say for example that you have a 2 65 watt fish tank. This means that you have a total of 130 watts. Take 130 watts X 6 hours per day X 30 days per week. That will give you 23,400 watts. That is the total number of watts that you use to run that fish tank for one month with the light on 6 hours per day. If you have a timer you can set the light to be on for only 6 hours. Now you can take that 23,400 and divide it by 1000wh which will give you 23.40. Now take that amount and times that number by the amount you get charged for your electricity per hour. Wisconsin is 8 cents per hour so that would cost me $1.88 to run my saltwater fish tank all month long. As you can see, that's not very much money. Despite popular beliefs, it really doesn't cost that much to run these fish tank lights. If you live in Hawaii, where the electricty is 16 cents per house it will cost you $3.75 instead of $1.88.