Ideas to lower electricity usage in our tanks.

[James77]

insulating the tank... very interesting idea, would insulating just the back and bottom make a big difference?

I wouldn't say a big difference, but any bit helps. I glued melamine foam to the back of mine.

 

[James77]

As already said above, use excellent reflectors. 250 watt halides do not use that much more power than T5s, my 250 HQIs only cost about 10 bucks more a month to run, and my elec is $.145/kWh.

I found the biggest draw of elec is heating and 24/7 pumps. I use Tunzes for circulation, and use one pump to run the returns and reactors I have. I use a velcoity pump, which gives back most of its heat since it is water cooled- there is no point having a pump that does not add heat, only to have to run a heater to make up for it. I also use a skimmer with a 17 watt Sicce pump.

Also mentioned above is insulation. I wouldn't go as far as removing a sump, having an insulated stand will make up for that. I lined my stand and back of display tank with melamine foam to keep in heat and noise. I use fans for cooling in the summer. Having an open top will also cause you to lose alot of energy.

My room temp is about 15* lower than my tank, and the tank temp has stayed between 79-81 with n heaters coming on. Without heating, the rest of my electricity consumption totals to ~250 Kwh on a 120 gallon tank. It would be about 25 kWhs less if I were to run electronic ballasts.

 

[scolley]

Well, if you are going to insulate a sump, you may as well bring up glass vs. acrylic. Glass will be harder to heat, and cool, because the heat transfer is more efficient through glass - more readily taking on the temperature of the ambient environment.

 

[BigandUgly]

Heating Tank with Wood Stove

Heating Tank with Wood Stove

I plan to use a wood stove to help my house/tank this winter, I am guessing it will help some with the electric bill.

I tried to do this but it was really hard to keep the stove lit underwater.

 

[mr chris]

I searched and found going to 220 electric on my mh lights and found a return pump that use half the amps as 110

 

[James77]

I searched and found going to 220 electric on my mh lights and found a return pump that use half the amps as 110

While it may be more efficient, electric rates are determined by watts, not amps. It uses half amps because it is double the voltage. Watts are equal to amps x volts, so it is using similar watts as a 110 pump running twice the amps. It may be slightly more efficient- I know ballasts are a bit more.

 

[Bob 1000]

I use a big fan over my sump instead of a chiller.. My sump is right under the tank and it's 125 gallons, display is 300g It's been good for me for years now.. It is hooked up to my ac3 pro though..

 

[OCEAN SIZE]

I'm getting ready to setup a 250g 60x36x27 on the main floor plumbed to a 40 gallon sump in the basement ...
I plan on insulating the 125 gallon sump in the winter and the back and bottom of the 250 year round.

I'm planning something similar - how do you plan to insulate the sump in the winter bud?

 

[sandiegan]

Get some big sheets of styrofoam from HD/Lowes etc and cut them to fit the sides. Masking tape as needed to hold in place?

 

[Canoe]

One of the things the ground-sourced heat-pump system designers concern them selves with is isolation of the systems. Double walled heat-exchangers are even code in many applications, not just where potable water is concerned.

For heat transfer in heat exchangers, not only do you consider the material, but its thickness and of course the area, but the dwell time. One way to side-step the cost issue of titanium is to use a different heat-exchanger type than rapid-chilling coils in your sump (full of a liquid than can leak and contaminate your sump; you can double wall, but cost, etc...).

• Place your sump inside a larger container
• Fill the outer container with water - this is the water that you will chill and it will in turn chill the sump
• run the HE coils of your choice in the water of the outer container - you'd be surprised how efficient a black garden hose is for this (it's absorbing heat)
• the amount of heat you need to remove from the sump will determine the temperature you need to maintain the outer container water at
• with a constant temperature chilling liquid (like well water), the rate of flow through the chilling loop will determine the rate of heat removal, which I assume you want to be the rate that the lights, etc. put into the tank

The heat-exchange material/thickness is the material of the side of your original sump, but you've got a huge area to compensate, with continuous dwell time between the outer container's water and the sump. (this is also a double walled design with water as your thermal interface material - but we don't have to tell anyone that)

In it's simplest form, keep the outer container filled in chilling season and continuously run well water into it with a garden hose, an overflow to drain it away. The rate of flow will determine the rate of heat removal. Well water at 3C to 8C has a lot of heat removal capability.

In heating season, drain the outer container. Possibly even fill it with an insulating material.

Additional points:

• have the rim of the sump slightly above that of the outer container so the sump can flood the outer container, not the other way around (also means that the sump is under slightly higher pressure than the surrounding container - any small leaks will leak from the sump to the outer container, not the other way around)
• if your chilling coils are reef safe, and the water in the outer container is salt water, then any splashing into the sump shouldn't matter (and less of a disaster if the sump has a castrophic structural failure, but how likely...)
• copper is very efficient at HE, but costs a lot more than a black garden hose
• the longer the coil/tubing/hose, the greater the dwell time; the smaller the coil/tubing/hose, the greater the surface area
• with the huge space for looping a garden hose with its resulting area and dwell time, there is no need to consider the cost of any thing titanium
• keep the coil/tubing/hose from directly touching the sump for a slow steady heat removal
• use something to space the HE loop from itself

NOTE: like a radiant heated floor, this is not an instant chill system - it will run best in a steady state and will have to be turned down PRIOR to tank lights being turned off for the night as it will continue chilling for some time
A reef-safe black garden hose will run well water through a sufficiently large sump directly - again it will continue to cool for a period of time after the flow is stopped.

 

[TampaSnooker]

Canoe,
Great ideas. How about some to conserve the water for those of us prone to drought?

How about putting a reservoir outside underground and recirculating water through the system via a pump? The pump could be put on a timer, rather than a temp controller. Then it's electricity vs water consumption.

Drip or trickle irrigation systems? Return as much as possible near the well's source.

Could the system be plumbed into the house's main plumbing so that when water is needed elsewhere it takes from the HE system first?

Just some thoughts. Anyone else?

 

[Canoe]

Canoe,
..conserve the water ...
.. reservoir outside underground and recirculating water through the system via a pump ...
... Return as much as possible near the well's source.
... house's main plumbing ... takes from the HE system first?

All points to consider. Also consider:

Underground reservoir:
what size has the needed cooling capacity
pumping costs

taking well water:
how much well water do you need
how much do you have
pumping costs

returning well water:
risk of contamination of the well

Many jurisdictions are allowing only closed loops with an environmentally safe liquid. This isolates the loop from both the ground/well water and from whatever system is taking/giving heat. Also, many require that a ground loop NOT be into a well water to protect the water source if the closed loop leaks. Of course, if you're in a zone that isn't concerned about freezing, water is the obvious choice.

A closed loop takes less to run vertically than pumping well water up (you have the weight of the liquid going down help counter the weight of the liquid coming up). Even less for a horizontal closed loop.

The waste heat from the sump can be recycled. All you need is a heat exchanger and an in-house warm-water reservoir to store the waste heat as pre-heated cold-water supply to the house. (A very simple method would have the heated drain water through a hose or the closed-loop return wrapped around and around the cold water feed to the hot water tank - wrap the wrap in insulation - not the most efficient method, but cheap and it helps when it can.)
If you have very cold water supplied by the water service, or cold well water, any free pre-heating can be a worthwhile savings when it feeds the hot water tank supply. You may even want to pre-heat the cold water in use within the house. There are a number of ways to plumb this. Check out designs for solar hot water collection.

 

[fooseball08]

2 vortech mp40w's rather than a big closed loop system
ehiem return pump- i believe them most energy effiecient sub pump on the market???
computer fans on a temp controller

 

[ReefiusMaxiumus]

1.) Get rid of your sumps.
Gravity will feed them with tank water for free, but it takes serious amounts of electrical power to pump it back up in your tank again.
My tank works pretty good without a sump beneath, or at least try to place your sump at the same height as your tank, so you get it done with a smaller recirculation pump.

2.) Another idea would use the heat of your lightning system to heat the water during the winter months. Of course it is bloody dangerous to us hobbyists to mount an heat exchanger inside a MH fixture.....

3.) Forget about SPS and other inverts with high demand in lightning and water flow. Try LPS, shrooms, zoas and the likings........this will lower your bill. With lower wattage lightning you don´t need a chiller...and so on, see how it can turn into big savings??

you can use the water flowing to the sump to go to a refugiums or reactors, it will eliminate a few pumps.

 

[yardboy]

First off, have a nano tank instead of a 5000 gallon tank! But even if you have a larger tank, make it shallower instead of deep, so you can use lower wattage lights. And of course, LED lights will work fine on a shallower tank.
As has been said before, prop pumps for circulation instead of impellers.
Needlewheel skimmers instead of Big Beckett skimmers.
All-In-One's can be worked even with big tanks, so you have to have a lot less energy to push the water around, while still hiding equipment.

 

[fishguy84]

LED light fixtures
Timers on lights, pumps, etc
Mercury thermometer instead of a digi one
adding a refugium to a sump instead of a filter

 

[Remn]

Using a light rail. It moves one metal halide lights across the tank which saves money by only needing one fixture and it imitates the movement of the sun. I'm thinking about using one in my next build.

Heres a pic I found.

 

[terahz]

LED lights are probably the best energy saver you can have on your tank. My 10g nano has 12 LEDs for lights and 4 fans and uses 34W/h.

 

[Dlhirst]

Changing to 220V service

Changing to 220V service

Chris, the current draw of a 220V line will generally be HALF the current of a 115V line, but that does not reduce your electric bill. You are buying WATTS of power, not amps of current.

P=IV

Power (in watts) = Current (in amps) x Voltage

Twice the voltage and half the amps still adds up to the same amount of watts. Unfortunately.

 

[BlueSeaDevil]

Great advices .. thanks guys