Okay, I'm all caught up. A few things:
If you can't spell my username or my website name, you'll never find me.
<b>m e l e v</b> - (Google that, baby!)
Running your home A/C into the fishroom is bad for the central system. The fish room will be hotter than the rest of the house due to lighting, ballasts, humidity, etc. If you put the thermostat in the fishroom, the rest of your home would be icy cold as the central a/c tried to bring the fishroom to a nice 74F (or whatever you set it to). When the a/c is off, the moist air will flow backwards through the ducting and the salt will corrode the coils, mold can grow, and other return vents will rust. To put it simply, don't do it. There is a bunch of information for several pages in my 280g thread (part 1) because we discussed it throughly.
Regarding this room, the cubic feet is what you need to know. 5 x 15 x 8? is how you figure out how many BTUs you need. My room is 6 x 7 x 8, and 8000 BTUs was plenty. Last month (after over 2 years), I finally installed a vent fan in the ceiling to pull out heat and humidity. It runs silently (1.3 sones) and uses 77w of power. What a bargain! Broan (Model # QTRGN110) It is venting out of the room via one of the Whirly Bird roof vents.
The new A/C unit only uses 600w of power, which I'm very happy about. This is from my Reef Log:
<i>The other project was even more pressing. For some reason, the 2.5 yr old G.E. 8000 BTU a/c unit decided to blink 'E-1' at me. This is an error code, and the unit wouldn't turn on or do anything. I called G.E. for repair, but the cost was just going to be too much for a unit that originally cost $142. I tried to return it to the store, but they didn't want it either, so I shopped for a new one. I found a Samsung 8000 BTU unit for $167 with a 5 year warranty. What really makes me happy with the new one is the energy savings. The old unit used 800w of power, and was SEER rated at 9.8. The new one is rated at 10.8 and uses 600w of power. I had to modify the hole in the wall (you may have seen the hole in one of the pictures above) to accomodate the new size, as they never are built to the same dimensions.</i>
What I would suggest is figuring out how many BTU you'll need (maybe 10,000). The walls of the fishroom should be insulated. I used the normal inwall stuff from Owens Corning (with the Pink Panther on it) from Home Depot. Once you find the BTU size, start checking every window unit for amperage used. The Samsung was the best bargain from the four stores I visited, and I purchased it at Home Depot. Considering what chillers cost, I'm still ahead of the game financially.
One more thing you need to know. My system works well, and is cheaper than running a chiller plus I can be comfortable in the fish room year round. However, in the off months, I do open the door to the garage area to let fresh cool air blow through any time possible. Fresh air is good for the system, and I don't pay for extra electricity when it is avoidable. For the past month or more, I've been using IceCap fans to blow across the tank, mainly for about 10 to 15 hours a day. I just turn them on or off based on the tank's current temperature. If you aren't going to be there to check tank temps, running the a/c unit will keep things steady. When being cheap (fresh air and fans), you have to be alert.
I just bought a wireless Pinpoint thermometer so I can keep my eye on the tank temp at my computer.
In the summer months, the fishroom is sealed tight and the a/c is set to 79F. My reef doesn't get over 81.5F usually. My house can be 72F or 80F and the reef is unaffected since the fishroom temperature determines the tank temp. You may need to set it to 76-78F based on current humidity conditions. It is my hope that the new vent fan will allow the a/c unit to work a little less hard now, and reduce the moisture content that happens in the fishroom at night. I won't know the answer to that for a few months though.
