Electrical Costs Killing Me!!!

[James77]

mrpet- what does a kilowatt hour cost you?

you could probably do 4x6201 tunzes- thats up to 20000 gph/50x turnover. Any cheap clip on fans/osc fans from wally world is what Ive always used to cool my tanks.

I would use the RC electrical calculator to figure where and how much you can cut the electric bill by.

 

[xinumaster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13131253#post13131253 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigJay
Put your entertainment center on a power strip, and shut that off before you go to bed at night.

I agree. then, put the power strip to a timer that shot off the power strip during the time when no one watches let say after 12mn then on again at 6am.

 

[BeanAnimal]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13132335#post13132335 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xinumaster
I agree. then, put the power strip to a timer that shot off the power strip during the time when no one watches let say after 12mn then on again at 6am.

All of that hassle to save $1 month? Nah...

 

[Freed]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13131409#post13131409 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Freed
Why would I want to put eveything having to do with my entertainment center on a power strip and then have to reset ALL the times, dates, etc on the equipment on a daily basis?

 

[xinumaster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13132358#post13132358 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BeanAnimal
All of that hassle to save $1 month? Nah...

Or you can spend $30k upfront and save later.

 

[sjm817]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13132186#post13132186 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mrpet
thanks everyone guess im going to look into tunzes had them on my 180 part of the problem is i foamed the back and sides of the tank its going to be a mess cutting away the faom to attach the tunzes also do the magnets for the tunzes go through 1" plexi?
as far as the skimmer goes soot i paid 1500.00 for the rc500 so i guess i could sell it at a loss and get the bubble king i have 2 closed loops so james do you think just those are costing me 120.00 a month? plus i think i will need at least 6 tunzes? tank is 375 gal 72x48x25 still i guess that would be only 330 watts..

Put up a post on the Tunze forum. Roger & co can definitely help you with the right configuration if you want to go that way. 6 seems like a lot. I would think 4 (6101?) would be more than enough.


1" is too thick for the current magnets. The new Stream 2s that come out this fall are smaller, they look like a bigger nano Stream. The magnets will work on 1" thick tanks.

The RC500 probably uses maybe 45W per pump, so although the BKs are nice, I'm not sure it would be a good investment changing.

Get a kill-a-watt and measure actual power use of the components to help you decide.

 

[8BALL_99]

Maybe you could replace it with a dart gold.. Moves the same gph with half the wattage.. Or close to it anyway. Do you really need a return that moves 4200 GPH? I use a Eheim 1260 on my 190 and I plan to do the same on my new 300. 1260 probably isnt large enough to feed your chiller tank ect. But your talking 65 watts vs 280. Im sure you can find a middle ground.. You only need enough flow through your sump to feed your skimmer and heaters/chiller.. Also FWIW you might could look into solar tubes or a sky light. My new 300 will have a skylight over it to replace 3 Mh fixtures. Should pay for itself in a year or 2. There is a good thread on RC about solar tubes.. I think its in advanced reef topics. My skylight cost me 300 with Non low E glass.

Jesus 800 bucks for a 2300 sqft house. Thats insane.. our house is about 2600 sqft. We have a 4800 gallon koi pond about 600 gallons worth of SW with 7 MH lights. 2 hot water heaters ect ect. If our bill hits 350 I start getting onto my wife about here whirl pool baths lol. It was 215 last month. If it hit 800 dollars we would be sitting in the dark with a candle playing cards haha

 

[Freed]

Why not just screw those solar panels right to the plywood and then shingle the edges like normal and save money on the shingles underneath that aren't doing anything to begin with?

 

[xinumaster]

Because the shingles were already there before the panels were added.

 

[mrpet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13132574#post13132574 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 8BALL_99
Maybe you could replace it with a dart gold.. Moves the same gph with half the wattage.. Or close to it anyway. Do you really need a return that moves 4200 GPH? I use a Eheim 1260 on my 190 and I plan to do the same on my new 300. 1260 probably isnt large enough to feed your chiller tank ect. But your talking 65 watts vs 280. Im sure you can find a middle ground.. You only need enough flow through your sump to feed your skimmer and heaters/chiller.. Also FWIW you might could look into solar tubes or a sky light. My new 300 will have a skylight over it to replace 3 Mh fixtures. Should pay for itself in a year or 2. There is a good thread on RC about solar tubes.. I think its in advanced reef topics. My skylight cost me 300 with Non low E glass.

Jesus 800 bucks for a 2300 sqft house. Thats insane.. our house is about 2600 sqft. We have a 4800 gallon koi pond about 600 gallons worth of SW with 7 MH lights. 2 hot water heaters ect ect. If our bill hits 350 I start getting onto my wife about here whirl pool baths lol. It was 215 last month. If it hit 800 dollars we would be sitting in the dark with a candle playing cards haha

i will look into the dart gold and maybe anothe pump other than the cuda i feed my skimmer off the drain so no problem there. might try putting the darts on timers for now just run them while the lights are on. really need to figure all this out before i start changing everything around..

 

[mrpet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13127956#post13127956 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paulairduck
first I would order yourself a kill a watt meter and then you can see where you energy is going

AC set @ 72 would pretty much run non stop, I think this is the bulk of the electricity bill.

the dart closed loops are energy hogs especially if they are ran 24/7 . they are over 100 watts a piece for those pumps and the barracuda is even more.


Tunzes are way more efficient, but just do not look as good.

You can get away with 6 hrs on the light cycle, just run them @ night when you are home

I would also look @ the flat rate plan, I know they have them with edison for homes.

I run a 400 gallon system with 1000 watts of lighting and I came in @ 250 this month

I run the halides for 7 hrs and day and the actincs for 10, 1 hr 1/2 on before and after the halides.

I run two 50 pxx panworlds for the return pumps to feed the different tanks

And I use Lots of fans before the chiller comes on 5 in all.

If my bill came in @ 800, I would be switching back to the 12 gallon nano that started this addiction:bum:

i run 1200 watts of light really sounds like my best bet is to ditch the darts and cuda and go with tunzes and a better rtrn pump.
plus im sure the om draw quite a bit as well anyone wnat to buy
two 4 way om and 2 darts only 4 months old lol....

 

[sjm817]

The OMs dont use squat. Its the big pumps. OMs sell very quickly.

 

[Paulairduck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13133018#post13133018 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mrpet
i run 1200 watts of light really sounds like my best bet is to ditch the darts and cuda and go with tunzes and a better rtrn pump.
plus im sure the om draw quite a bit as well anyone wnat to buy
two 4 way om and 2 darts only 4 months old lol....

You can sell all that stuff no problem. They are really nice just not in an area like Cali where we pay so much for power.

That bill would make this hoibby very stressful for me.

 

[mrpet]

hey paulairduck how the heck is your bill so low? our sys or pretty close do you not run your a/c? plus i have 3 kids as well alot of laundry being done. im going to shut down the darts at least 1/2 the day see if that helps...

 

[BeanAnimal]

mrpet,

If you could list ALL of your equipment in the form:

NAME WATTS HOURS/DAY

E.G.
Dart 120W 24 hrs
Rio 90W 24 hrs
MH 250W 10 hrs


Then please list your utlity rate in kWh and the teir rates you pay and the number of kWh alloted in each.

It would help some of us make meaningful comments without having to dig through a dozen posts to figure out what you are running.

 

[BeanAnimal]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13137513#post13137513 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mrpet
hey paulairduck how the heck is your bill so low? our sys or pretty close do you not run your a/c? plus i have 3 kids as well alot of laundry being done. im going to shut down the darts at least 1/2 the day see if that helps...

Your making this much harder than it has to be.

There is no need to guess what turning different devices on and off will do. If you list all of the equipment, you can calculate exactly how much it costs to run each piece of equipment. You can then determine how to manage that equipment based on cost.

Just turing stuff on and off and waiting for the bill next month is insane.

The darts are maybe 120W each (have not looked them up). So turning (2) off for 1/2 the day will save you 240W * 12 hours = 2.88 kWh

Take that times your rate and you see how much it will save you. If you have a tiered rated, PLEASE post it. You can easily create spreadsheet to do the math.

 

[8BALL_99]

If his dart is the standard one like mine, it pulls 160-175 watts. When I tested mine it said 171.

I agree with bean on you really need to list all your stuff and your kWh rate.. Its really easy to figure out with all the numbers.. Just trying stuff and seeing what your bill does is a very bad way to go about it.. You will end up with no idea what saved, how much. IE You might not want to cut your lights back to 6 hours if it only saves you 10 bucks. You really need hard numbers to figure out what equipment is worth changing out and what is worth just cutting back on.

 

[BFG]

Look at the Red Dragon pump to lessen your electrical consumption.

 

[BeanAnimal]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13139080#post13139080 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BFG
Look at the Red Dragon pump to lessen your electrical consumption.

Again... (yes again)

All the recomendations in the world are somewhat moot unless we have the big pitcure with regard to what they man is running and how much per kWh he is paying.

Replacing a 150W pump with a 100W pump at a cost of $1000 is not going to result in a timely payback of the investment.

 

[Paulairduck]

my skimmer is a BK internal 250 using 46 watts on my kill a watt

in tank
for circulation I use 6 tunze 6025 modded
and four 6101 on a an aquasurf controller

the sump has two pan world 50 PXX, these are flow to the main the two frag tanks and the chiller.

I did have snapper pumps but they moved less water and used more watts so they are gathering dust in my garage

my lighting is 2 dual 250 watt Galaxy electronic ballasts and I run four 54 watt T-5's over the main and frag tanks

so the lighting is @ just above 1200 watts for a little over 6 hrs a day.

My house is just 1500 single story and I am on the max savings plan through edison. They say they can shut my AC off anytime, only been shutdown twice in three years.

In the winter I am allowed less killawatt's, so my bill is actually in the 300's, i look foward to the summer rates I receive.