Newbie Mars aqua light true running costs

[Cotter66]

Hi,have a aquareef 400,light unit has just died,looking at moving over to led,Mars aqua range,what are the real running costs of these units,as in 1x300,or 2x165 units,for exampl,been happy with the standard t5s,but now looking to venture in some coral,any help,appreciated

 

[gone fishin]

I don't understand the question. Are you wanting to know how much the electric bill will go down, if so IMO/E it is negligible. If going with LED's will allow you to pull a chiller off line then you may see some savings.

 

[Cotter66]

Hi,what I mean is I can get a replacement t5 light unit for £150(4x54w tubes),will one unit like the Mars aqua 300 replace the 4 tubes,and be cheaper to run,as the Mars unit has a higher wattage,I'm thinking it will cost more to rUn.

 

[mcgyvr]

watts is watts..
An electrical device that uses 1000 watts will cost more to run vs one that uses 500 watts assuming they run for the same length of time..

Typically electricity is billed at kwh (1000 watts per hour) so if its $0.20 kwh then a 500W device will cost $0.10 each hour it runs

 

[Cotter66]

Thanks,that's what I thought,back to t5s then

 

[Timfish]

There's some confusing marketing with a lot of the LED fixtures. The Mars Aqua is a good example. Cranked all the way up it's actually running only 120 watts. It will also give you much higher PAR than a 212 watt T5 fixture but the light distribution is very different. The fine print on the Mars Aqua 300 will give you the actual max wattage and most likely you will have to run it at much lower levels. You really should use a light meter to get an idea of what you're getting now so you can match output