I need to pay attention, it really seems like mine is longer than 8 hours...I will need to leave it on all the time and see when it changes so I can time it. Also my first family I started 3 days ago still hasn't seen any of the fix items..no tape, no floor kits, no bird bath part...grrr that family is really boring right now as I do nothing but wait for those. My other family that I started the day after the first has had 2 floor kits and 1 tape.