Holy cow -- my elex bill went DOWN!

[NicoleC]

Over this course of this month, I did some "little" things to reduce elex usage, like putting all my plugs on switches instead of standby and being more militant about shutting off the lights, even for 5 or 10 minutes when I'm out of the room.

I dropped 51 kwH!

My average usage per day dropped 1.75 kwh, for a savings of 51 cents per day.

Now, I won't get rich, but that's pretty substantial since we are now 100% on the higher summer rates. $15 this month alone. In two months, I will have paid for the $30 I spent on hardware to reduce electrical usage.

 

[fish_fanatik]

I have been more diligent with turning off my lights as well. I am also thinking about getting rid of one of my skimmers (I have two running on my tank now) to reduce electric usage.

BTW, when you went from the 175 MH to PC's again did you see a difference in your bill? If so how much?

 

[NicoleC]

BTW, when you went from the 175 MH to PC's again did you see a difference in your bill? If so how much?

Yes, a little bit, but mostly in chiller costs, not the wattage of the lights. I don't recall the exact amount. My chiller has very rarely kicked on with PCs.

Once I get settled back into the main system without any tubs of rock curing and multiple QT tanks running, etc., I hope to see another drop.

 

[omeg]

I still find it hard to believe that moving from one light source to another (assuming that they are using the same watts/amps) would reduce heat or your elec. bill? From everything I've read MH are the most efficient and producing intense light and PAR. I'm going to start a new thread, it should be interesting to see where this leads.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=853095

 

[simon.007]

Yes, me too, in 2004=40.25kWh(no MH, no sps), 2005=52.94kWh to 2006=42.55kWh. I reduced my returns from two Mag 12 to one, replacing one Seio 1500 with Tunze 6060 (it has lots of flow, too much, kicking my sand up and reducing my lighting from 8h to 5 hours. The lights reduced is causing my tri-colored SPS to brown so I may increase the hours to 6h.

Simon

 

[GTR]

Not everything we keep needs the light we provide to thrive. I kept everything short of Acropora with VHO for years and many of the corals could have done well with half the bulbs I used.

I think just maybe the radiated heat produced by the MH makes a substantial difference in the heat transferred to the tank so there's more to consider than just the heat that surrounds the bulb.

SteveU

 

[bromion]

After I got a Kill-A-Watt meter I have started cutting back. Some electronic devices pull rather large amounts of power even when they are not in use (particularly TV, video game systems, amps). I still have an excessive-power-use mystery I'm tracking down, however!

 

[NicoleC]

PC bulbs are very cool-running bulbs, meaning they put out very little heat for the amount of light they produce and wattage they use. I.E., more efficient.

However, MH bulbs produce more PAR per watt but also produce a lot of radiant heat, meaning that you may need to run a chiller to compensate for the heat produced by the bulbs to achieve that PAR. At the very least, you will need to run fans. gcarroll keeps a fairly cool house and gets away with just running an open top canopy despite lots of light, so there are sometimes alternatives that work in a situation (with planning and knowledge and luck) vs. a chiller.

Of course, if you live somewhere chilly and keep the house cool, those MH bulbs may save you elex because you won't be running your *heater.* That certainly doesn't apply to So Cal, though!

I think many reefers tend to get a little wattage crazy. Most of what people keep in aquariums does not need huge amounts of light or light to penetrate into deep tanks. Unless you are keeping corals that do, there's no reason to run big MH units.

 

[simon.007]

Yard lights, path light consume lots of power too.

Simon

 

[Kenfuzed]

The best way to save on your electric bill is to run a long extension cord out through the backyard and burried under the lawn. Connect it to your neighbors garage outlet and PRESTO, lower electric bills! :lol:

 

[omeg]

kenfuzed, i live next to a park so that might work

 

[bergzy]

i noticed a drop in my electricity bill as well...

it went down from $568 to $350. still wayyyy too much but is a lot better!

the only thing i did different was...hmmm, nothing really...

 

[codybug]

I got a huge credit for a power outage.

 

[cthetoy]

A few years back my chiller was costing me an extra $50 a month to run . Since then I added a larger sump so I can blow fans across it. I hooked my fans to the controller that my chiller was using.

 

[bassnman11]

I replaced most of the bulbs in my house with those curled up compact flourescents. Draw 15 watts but as bright as a 75. On your tank, use T5ho. They produce as much or more par than halides, draw less power and lower heat.

 

[simon.007]

Are T5 higher output then MH? Any link to such study


Simon

 

[laverda]

Ours went down a little too, but not enough to begin to make up for the recent increases.