Electricity Estimate Useage

[xxmurrxx]

Trying to calculate aprox how much energy increase I will see when I upgrade my 15 gallon nano to a 90 gallon.


Looks pretty poopy so far

Anyways.. Wondering if anyone has any idea how to accurately calculate a heaters wattage per hour with your houses temp being a factor.

I will have two 300 watt heaters, might only need one i assume when factoring in houses temp?

 

[eums]

It may not be easy to calc heat loss due to factors such as surface area, surface agitation, evaporation, tank material (glass or acrylic and thickness), location of the sump, sump insulation, etc etc. its possible but is it worth the effort?

Not sure if this will help but with my 90 gal tank it consumes ~5.2kwh per day according to my usage history with the powerco and the apex.
My house has been at 65-68 for the last few months with the heaters on quite a bit. That being said my reef accounts for 40-45% or so of my bill.

My power usage puts me in tier 2 @ $0.15 per kwh, tier 3 is $0.24 and it keeps going up. The massive incentive to stay out of tier 3 is what pushed me to use only the most energy efficient equipment (chiller was out of the question, halides out of the question)

For example I recently added an algae scrubber, uses ~100w and is on for 18 hrs a day. direct impact is $8 a month on the electric bill. bringing the total electrical cost of my 90 gal to about $25 a month.

Please keep in mind this may be quite low for typical power usage, additionally my tank is 1" thick acrylic so it is insulated quite well. If i went the halides(2x 250w + sup) and chiller route I would be spending well over $400 a year more in electricity but would also be well into tier 3 so it would be closer to $600+ a year more, basically increasing the cost 3 fold due to tiering and the increased usage.

 

[James77]

It depends on far too many factors to say how often the heater will run. Lighting, return pumps, canopy or lack of, thickness of glass, etc. Its going to need a certain amount of wattage no matter what. For example, you may need to run 300 watts for 10 hours a day. If it was 600 watts, it would be half that.

My 120 gallon tank sits in a room/house that is between 64-70 throughout the day, with a 30 watt skimmer and a 35 watt return (just changed though). When the halides are off, it was on for 30 minutes, then off for 30 minutes throughtout the day. So about 9 hours a day of 450 watts ( 500 watts heater). That is 4 kilowatts per day, $.60 at my rates per day, or 18 bucks a month. This tank is also insulated on the back pane, has a sealed canopy, and an insulated stand. There was a 40 breeder sump. I just the other day dowsized the sump to a 29 gakkon, and added a higher wattage water cooled pump.

I would start with 2 300 watt heaters preferably on a dedicated controller. It is good to have a 2nd backup in case the other one fails.

 

[James77]

Here is BeanAnimals ( a member here). he has a write up on heaters with a "rough idea" calculator at the bottom. It lines up with the wattage I use.....

http://beananimal.com/articles/aquarium-heaters-what-you-need-to-know!.aspx