Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Cost to run fountain and / or aerator....

Can anyone give me a formula for determining how much electricity my fountain is using? It is a 700 Watt pump, 115 V, 4100 GPH. According to my last electric bill, I am paying, on average, 15.3 cents per KWH. I am running this pump 24/7, and am wondering if I am going to be in for a shock when I get my electric bill this month!!

Well 700 watts is .7 Kwh times 15.3 cents (ouch) is 10.71 cents per hour or $2.57 per day times 30 days is $77.11 per month. Glad I only pay 6.94 cent per Kwh.

Bob

BigB. I came up wit the same answer as Bob. It takes alot of energy to throw water into the air. Think how high into the air you could throw a 5 gallon bucket of water.. You are expecting a motor to do that. The higher into the air you throw water the more energy it takes. It takes lots of "work energy" doing that. It is much easier to move water through the water than it does to lift it high above the water's surface.

That’s something the fountain sales people don’t want you to think about, I remember vividly when we got our first electric bill after letting it run 24-7 for the first month. A big OUCH in the pocket book, now it only runs on weekends.

Sounds like its time to put the timer on and run this thing during the daylight only! I assume my aerator can't be costing that much, it is a smaller motor, don't have the specs on it handy, but it does run 24/7. Kelley gave me some very helpful advice, and I finally got the algae under control, so what is the normal time for a aerator to run? In TX, in 100 degree days/80 degree nights. 2/3 acre pond X 12' deep, 1/4 hp aerator with membrane diffuser.

I agree with the cost per month. We recommend only running our large fountains for display only during the day and part of the night with lights.

If for aeration only, we would recommend operation from about 10:00 PM to 7:00 or 8:00 AM when the O2 is the lowest.

The formula you requested is as follows:

# of Watts x 720 (Hours in a month) / 1000 = kw of consumption per month.

kw consumption per month x $ per kw hour = monthly cost.