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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Electricity costs

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22 May 2015 09:57 #1 by swai (Simon)
Hi all,

Is anyone on a night tariff with there electricity company?

I have an offer with my company where after 11pm to 8am its half the price of day time usage. The yearly standing charge is more though.

Does anyone think it would work out cheaper by changing.

My lighting runs during the day around 350 watts for 8 hours and heaters run 925 watts all day until they turn themselves off. Filters are running 100 watts all day.

I'm wondering if i'll save money by changing to night plan as for 9 hours at night my heaters are running.

If anyone has input that would be great.

Marino, Dublin 9

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22 May 2015 10:06 #2 by alan 64 (alan)
Replied by alan 64 (alan) on topic Electricity costs
How much is ur bill mate mine was around 200 for the last 2 months

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22 May 2015 10:14 #3 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Electricity costs
320 and only 2 people living in the house!

Marino, Dublin 9

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22 May 2015 10:31 #4 by Ski (Alan McGee)
Replied by Ski (Alan McGee) on topic Electricity costs
I changed to a night tariff swai and am finding it a lot better than what I was on.

I'm also heating 440 liters of water a week for water changes. I plug in the heaters at 11PM the previous night of a water change.

It's been working out fine for me

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22 May 2015 14:19 #5 by irish-zx10r (James feenan)
Where and how do you change to night traffic we work all day so everything runs at night ( cooker washing mc tumble dryer and I do water changes) our bill is between 300 to 350 every two months

Something fishie going on here

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22 May 2015 14:46 #6 by Ski (Alan McGee)
Replied by Ski (Alan McGee) on topic Electricity costs
Give your electricity provider a call James. You might need to get a new meter installed which can tell the diff from night and day usage.

The electricity rate is low from 11PM to 8AM but higher during the day

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22 May 2015 17:59 #7 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
What are the cost of units and standing charge ?
You have all your figures except these two important ones to make the calculations.

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22 May 2015 18:13 #8 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Electricity costs
What i'm paying now

standing charge 140 per year
unit cost 16.59 cents

night rate

standing charge 200 per year
unit cost 8am to 11pm 19.69 cents
11pm to 8am 9.75 cents

I don't heat up water for water change, my lights are on during the day as they get some natural light so i don't think i would change lighting to night time.

Marino, Dublin 9

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22 May 2015 18:18 #9 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
It's obviously the missus whose costing more to keep. I think the choice is obvious :whistle:

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."

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22 May 2015 18:21 #10 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Electricity costs
Ha ha you could be right there! I'm just wondering if it would be better for me to change to a night time plan. Some bills have been over 400 with 2 people living here and working full time.

Marino, Dublin 9

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22 May 2015 18:26 #11 by alan 64 (alan)
Replied by alan 64 (alan) on topic Electricity costs
I must check mine wasn't estimated coz 200 seems realy low so

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22 May 2015 18:42 #12 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
As far as I understand it, if you swapped you'd be paying less for running the tanks than you are now. So surely the only variable then is how much of the other stuff is done at night.

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."

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22 May 2015 18:48 #13 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Electricity costs
Barely anything is done between 11pm and 8am. Well apart from sleep!

I just don't know if the lighting on during the day will effect the price as the day rate will be higher then what i'm paying now. I guess the only way for me to know is to try it!

Marino, Dublin 9

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23 May 2015 12:41 #14 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)

My lighting runs during the day around 350 watts for 8 hours and heaters run 925 watts all day until they turn themselves off. Filters are running 100 watts all day.


Lights 350 watts per hour for 8 hours or 350 watts per 8 hours ?
Heaters don't heat for 24 hours straight so this will be approximate,
925 watts per hour or 925 per 24 hr?
Filters 100 watts per hour ?
Can you clarify these ?

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23 May 2015 13:12 #15 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
The problem is other usage in the house and also the heaters.
Tanks alone if heaters were heating 24/7 would save €500, but excluding them would cost €86 more.
So you can see how the heaters skew the figures.

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23 May 2015 15:50 #16 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
As far as I can calculate, on your current rate (excuse the pun!) your lights and filters cost you E26.24 to run a month. If your house is reasonably warm. the heaters aren't going to use that much energy, depending on what you run them at.

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."

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24 May 2015 10:12 #17 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Electricity costs
Lights are 350 watts per hour for 8 hours Per day. Filters 100 watts per hour 24 hours per day. Heaters 925 watts on but not sure how long they will be on for so that's the total amount of wattage to heat my tanks at any given time. House stays about 18 degrees i think and all heaters are set to 25 degrees.

Marino, Dublin 9

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24 May 2015 10:14 #18 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Electricity costs
My sister lives directly across the road from me with same size house and only 2 people too. Her bill is about 150 for the 2 months. So I thought my bill for the tanks would be about 170 for the 2 months as I presume we would use roughly the same amount of electricity for general household.

Marino, Dublin 9

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24 May 2015 15:07 #19 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
If that €150 was at the €19.69 rate then it would be €178.24.
Current rate
Filters €145.15
Lights €169.35
Heaters €1,343.20 (24hr heating)

Night Tariff
Filters €139.83 (0.29 +0.8 per day)
Lights €201.23
Heaters €733.65 (1.70 +0.30 per day)

These are annual amounts, standing charges to be applied.
Might be better to half the heaters totals to be closer to real usage?

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27 May 2015 18:41 #20 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Electricity costs
Thanks for the info, considering all you have said above I don't think I would be saving much if any.

I'm happy with the 20 euro per week, a small price to pay for the enjoyment of the hobby.

Marino, Dublin 9

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27 May 2015 22:22 #21 by ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
Why do you bother heating water for your changes ? What fish do you have ? During rainy season allot of fish ill experience water temp drop and in my experience with my big tanks and all tanks i never had a problem at all running warm water from the tap to the tank directly. Placed bucket in the sink with pump hooked to hose and tap trickling and kept an feel of temp in water. Can add conditioner after. Unlesss you are using R/O ?

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28 May 2015 08:04 #22 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Electricity costs
I don't heat water, I drip cold water in at 2 liters per minute straight from hma filter so no water conditioner needed. It's handy, I just leave it to fill and relax while it's filling!

Marino, Dublin 9

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28 May 2015 10:49 #23 by ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
Ahh even better :-)

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