Any ideas on how to save energy on a reef tank system.

[reefslugs]

Just got my electric bill this month. $243.00 I've got to figure out how to lower this bill. I also know a lot of it is my tank. So I'm looking for ways to lower the amount of energy my tank consumes. Any good ideas?

My tank is a 200g. I run two 400w MH, four 54w T5 on ice cap 660. 1/4 horse chiller because of the lights. Gen-X PCX-70HP main pump. one vortec mp40. Octopus 250 extreme skimmer, Octopus calcium reactor, Midwest Denitrator. All controlled by a AquaController Apex Jr.

 

[Captainfester]

get a different hobby...

really though, short of removing some of the items u list above you arent going to find lower power options.

 

[thebkramer]

Have you seen PaulB's recent LED system??
amazing!!

starts at #1420.. I think
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1711320&page=57

 

[pimp4cheddar]

Just got my electric bill this month. $243.00 I've got to figure out how to lower this bill. I also know a lot of it is my tank. So I'm looking for ways to lower the amount of energy my tank consumes. Any good ideas?

My tank is a 200g. I run two 400w MH, four 54w T5 on ice cap 660. 1/4 horse chiller because of the lights. Gen-X PCX-70HP main pump. one vortec mp40. Octopus 250 extreme skimmer, Octopus calcium reactor, Midwest Denitrator. All controlled by a AquaController Apex Jr.

800watts for MH's, 216watts for T5's and a chiller...that's a lot of energy! :hammer:

Have you thought about going LED's? The initial cost might be high...but depending on how much you spend for bulbs and the cost to power your current set up...you might break even fairly soon...

Food for thought...


You can't really do much about the skimmer, return pump and powerhead...but your lighting extremely consuming...

 

[Higgy2010]

I'm new to this hobby, but using LEDs, specifically PAR38 bulbs, and not having a chiller has only added a little more to the electric consumption. Per other reefers' observations, I also adjust the lighting cycle to come on after peak hours when I'm home to save energy and enjoy the tank more. Of course it doesn't hurt that Southern California is a lot milder than where you are.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Lights, you can go with LED or do like I am and use the Sun. I just dumped my 2 X 400W DE MH lights for 3 X solar tubes over my 400G tank. This alone should drop my bill by $50 a month. I may add some atinic LED for coral color later.

With LED or Sun, you can dump your lights and chiller.

You can dose your cal and alk and get rid of all the gadgets. KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid.

AS for the pumps, look for a efficient return pump and some small efficent in tank circulation pumps. It can be done, just takes some fore thought.

It cost me $300 a month to run my 400G tank. That includes salt, RO water and food. By changing my lights, skimmer and circulation pumps, I should be able to lower that to about $150 or less. My electric usage is 3/4 for my tank which is 2/3 rd the cost of the total bill.

 

[srusso]

What do you pay per kilowatt hour?

Go get yourself a meter like this, I got one from homedepot, different model but for $30 you can calculate what it is actually costing you.
http://www.p3international.com/products/special/p4400/p4400-ce.html

Plus you can use it to figure out if it is another appliance in your house that is creating that high electric bill...

My 70 gallon only costs me $20-25 a month. Paying .09 a kilowatt hour...

 

[natebedwell06]

ditch the mh's and chiller gets some led's and call it a day

 

[javajaws]

If your state allows for multiple electricity providers, make sure you shop around and find the best rate. I used to pay around .16 per kwh. I'm paying about .09 now. A few cents difference can make a big difference in the end.

Other than that, make up a spreadsheet of all your electricy used (watts, hours, etc.) and find out what is costing you the most. This is typically lights, 24 hour per day pumps (return, closed loop, skimmer, etc.) and chillers. And then devise a plan to reduce that cost (different technology/product, smaller tank, etc.)

 

[solitude127]

I think you're lighting is what's killing your bill. You might want to consider going LED or T5s.

 

[dzhuo]

Start with equipement that runs 24x7. For example, am I right that your Gen-X sucks 300W 24x7? If so, I would start with this and looking for an alternative. Your light (assuming you run them a few hours everyday) wouldn't even come close to how much electricity this pump consume. If the Gen-x is not an air cool pump, it will produce lots of heat as well which means your chiller will run longer. Have you try using fans instead of chiller?

 

[Pallobi]

imo, a couple simple things are...

use timers and limit your light usage to only the needed amount of time for the corals, not your viewing...

dont overkill on your lighting system... only use whats necessary for your system and what you wana keep...

dont use oversized heaters, pumps, etc... unnecessary wattage is not needed and only adds the the utility bill...

use your return pump to also feed your reactors if you have them... no need to have 4 or 5 pumps or whatever...

jus some of my thoughts off the top of my head...

GL to the OP!

 

[BrianOKC]

800watts for MH's, 216watts for T5's and a chiller...that's a lot of energy! :hammer:

Have you thought about going LED's? The initial cost might be high...but depending on how much you spend for bulbs and the cost to power your current set up...you might break even fairly soon...

Food for thought...


You can't really do much about the skimmer, return pump and powerhead...but your lighting extremely consuming...

The IceCap 660 over drives the T5's and consumes around 440 watts if I remember correctly.

 

[gweston]

A few ideas... of course there are up front costs to change existing things out.

Lighting: Try going with 250w halides, icecap 430 (instead of 400's and ic660), or even better... LED's. Run halides for maybe 8 hours a day total. Run the T5's for like 10 total?

Chiller: Try cooling with fans more. Just increase RODI top-off. In the summer, let the tank run a tad warmer. Like around 80, if you normally try to maintain 78.

Pump: There may be lower wattage options. Reduce return pump/sump flow. Rely on lower wattage powerheads instead. Add another MP40? A few Koralia Evo 1400's (~6w each).

Other: Maybe run the skimmer 12 hours a day instead of 24? Run it during the night hours?

 

[reefslugs]

Number one I just looked on my bill and it does not say how much per kilowatt. As far as going with the LED lights, I've been doing some resource here and from what I am finding out, they will not save on energy. Just savings on bulb replacement. Am I wrong? I'm defiantly going to shorten the time the light are running. I normally run them twelve hours a day. I going to shorten them back to ten hours.

Someone ask if I was running fans, yes. I am running two of the most powerful four inch fans I could find. That you can not buy at any reef/fish web sight. My light are in a canopy, but I've even tried leaving the doors open to reduce heat, but really it seemed to make it worse.

I'm looking at changing my 400w lights down to 250w. I think by buying some better reflectors it should not be a big difference. A Friend of mine has a brand new duel ballast electronic Galaxy 250 ballast he'll sell me for a hundred. He also gave me a couple of different bulbs to try.

Does anyone know what the energy difference would be from running a duel 400w PFO pulse start ballast to a duel 250w Galaxy electronic ballast would be? It's definitely has got to reduce heat as well. To keep the chiller from running as much.

Also someone mentioned by running a ice cap 660 with T5's it will over drive the bulbs. I have heard of this. From what I have read, they are saying by running an ice cap ballast on T5's will bring a 54w bulb up to a 80w. OK, but the ballets is still using the same energy. Just the bulbs life is reduced. Am I wrong?

 

[dzhuo]

How long do you run your lights and what temp is the chiller set to kick in?

 

[Caesra]

Just keep thinking through your system. 6 months ago my bill was almost 350, with a little bit of up front spending (few hundred bucks), and alot of thinking, I now am operating my main system and a new 200g breeding setup for less than 250, and I am thinking once through the summer I will be able to be under 200. I use MH too, 3x250s. That is just on one out of three tanks in my main system.

Everyone hypes up LEDs, but when you do the math they just don't make sense to me. They may at some point, or if you are into DIY. I pay .13/KWh and it would still take many years to recover the difference to upgrade.

Admitted I do not run a chiller, I don't see a need to. I keep the room reasonably cool with an AC and both me and the tank are cool for a faction of the price of running/buying a chiller. For $300 you can get a pretty decent room AC that run pretty darn cheap.

Like pallobi said, think pumps....I use to have pumps everywhere....one slightly larger pump split off to serve multiple purposes is much cheaper to run than 5-8 smaller pumps.

Also, one thing to note, at least for me. While my bills in the summer are slightly higher because of AC, my gas bill in the winter is considerably cheaper. This was my first full winter with my tanks, and the heating bill was almost half. So to me, that is part of the overall cost...

and who said our lights didn't have a plus side =)

 

[Gold Stripe]

Actually, LEDs save quite a bit of energy. Even at the overkill levels that most are running, they are still well below the 1000 watts that you are running. And most importantly, they don't generate the heat that your 400s are putting out which means less chiller time which adds up to additional energy savings. If you have diy skills and you are currently using quality mh/t5 bulbs then you can recoup your investment in less than 3 years.

 

[Chris27]

Switching out the 400's with 250's and stepping down to a smaller t5 ballast will certainly save some money. Additionally, less light is less heat, so the chiller won't operate nearly as much, you may actually find that a handful of $10 clip on fans will keep you around 80F.

Also, swapping that pump out with something like a Reeflo Dart or Snapper would save you a few bucks as well, the snapper will flow about 1500 Gal/Hr at 5' head and draw 1/3 of the juice over the Gen X.

As for the skimmer, you could retrofit a single bubble blaster on it, vice the two Sicce's that it comes with, it wouldn't be much of a power saver, but it would be a little bit.

With those simple changes, you'll see the difference in the electric bill, perhaps by as much as $30 a month depending on your cost/KWH.

The other option is to see if your electric company runs a monthly plan that is averaged over the year such that you pay a flat rate every month based on the estimated yearly average. That way when the cold winter or hot summer sets in, your bill won't go through the roof.

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

You already know the answer to this question. lol If you want to save money, you need a smaller everything. Tank, lights, ect..... Bet option in my opinon is LED lighting. You will get great results with far less heat, far less power consumption, and then you will not need the chiller.

Im currently running two 175w MH, and in the summer i turn there on time down a few hours to save power and cut down on heat load.