Lighting Watts used

[marcwake]

I am running 2 250W MH lights and I got a Kill-A-Watt to see what things in my tank are costing me. I show them using about 660 Watts. Is this normall for 2x250W MH or would I be better served to look for some newer ballasts that are more efficient? The ones I am using now I bought used and are large magnetic type ballasts. I have been looking at my power usage cause on my power bill ( wich is high) I noticed I am paying like 33 cents a killawatt/hour once I go over the baseline so at that rate this thing is not very cheap. Trying to cut those way over baseline killawatts
Thanks
Marc

 

[PaulErik]

What lamps are you using?

Different brand lamps operate differently on different ballasts (electronic vs magnetic). Some lamps operate more efficiently on electronic ballasts and some operate more efficiently on magnetic ballasts.

660 watts seems about right but depending on the lamps you are using. All ballasts have losses (use power) to regulate/transform power to the lamp. The input wattage does not indicate the power the lamp is getting because the ballast will use power as well.

 

[marcwake]

Ok I was just wondering I am not sure what the brand is on the bulbs as they are the ones I got with the ballasts but I will be replacing them soon anyway. What brand of bulb would you recommend for and SE 10000K on magnetic ballast? I will look at what brand the ballast is if it matters after work and let you know.
Thanks
Marc

 

[David Grigor]

How many hours a day are you running the bulbs. Perhaps can reduce the hours to save some money without incurring cost of switching lighting..........

 

[gcarroll]

Bases on the wattage that you are seeing consumed, I would say that it is a M80 ballast (aka: 250 watt HQI). As for bulbs I would recommend a Ushio 10K since 250 watt German MH bulbs are rated to run on HQI ballast. If you are trying to save energy look into the pumps, they will save you the mosts since the run 24/7

 

[marcwake]

The ballasts are not HQI that I know of or at least they are SE bulbs and the guy I got them from never called them HQI. I am also looking at pumps but not sure what to think yet. I am running a MAG18 for the return which when I look it up says it draws 145 watts but with the Kill-A-Watt I only read it at 88 watts. Just starting to get a handle on the whole power consumption thing so I am not sure what factors play into the pump running above or below the ratings but have seen some suggestions for low consumption brands. I was running my MHs for 8 hours a day and my Actinic for 12 and am trying out cutting back to 6 hours MH and 10 hours Actinic. One big thing I found so far was that I had heater running much more than it should have been so I was fighting it with fans and not realizing it. The Kill-A-Watt has helped so far but we will see what I can drop things down to. I was looking today at switching to T5 actinic instead of the PCs im using now they should use less power for the same length right?
Thanks for all the input

 

[gcarroll]

Pump reduce energy consumption with added head pressure. My Mag 36 on my skimmer only draws 188 watts. The pump is rater at 380 watts.

As for the light, there are a few bulbs out there that would make a dual standard 250 watt mag ballast draw that much current. If it is using AB 10K bulbs it would draw 660 watts. My bad!

 

[PaulErik]

If you have a standard (ANSI M58) magnetic ballast the Ushio Aqualite 10,000K and XM 10,000K lamps are a good choice.

This article has a lamp/ballast chart: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/sj/index.php

 

[marcwake]

Thanks for the info once again. I also saw this article http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/jb/index.php that was in there this month that I am looking at. I will go with one of your suggestions when I get the new bulbs ( another month or so) as I would like to stick with the 10000k bulb because I think I like the nice white light better than the blue of 14-20k.. It is really interesting how each bulb/ballast combo can perform so differently. Is my base line price then it gets expensive rate schedule normall or just in California where we have power problems? It is funny to think If I figure my usage at the base price it is not bad at all but at the three times normal at .33 a kwatt-Hour it is over a hundred a month for my 135g. I am willing to pay that because as you all know this hobby is the best thing out there and I love to have my tank stocked with my favorite things( which always seem to need high light for some reason lol). So I am just evaluating where a I can buy a nicer more efficiant brand and save money on electricity in the long run. One thing I am looking at doing is getting rid of my PCs that I am using for actinic and getting some T5 lights to replace them. Do most people go with just actinic T5s if they are still using the MHs or could I get some actinic and 10K bulbs and cut my MH back even a little more. Well this is getting long so I will wrap it up but you guys have meen so helpful I just want to get my questions out now. So is my lighting schedule going to be enough at MH for 6 hours and actinics for 10 or should I bump back to 8 and 12? So far so good with the 6 hour MH cycle but its only been a couple of days.

Thanks again for all of the help
Marc Wakefield