hahnmeister
In Memoriam
I can tell you what my energy savings would be if I switched one of my tanks. I dont need to run chillers, etc. I have evaporative cooling in action (fans across the tank's surface), and then my canopies are ducted to the outside in summer. Even with a halide wattage to gallon ratio of 60watts per gallon my temps never get above 82. There is a negligable amount of humidity and heat for the A/C to contend with because everything is vented outside. Due to the effective nature of how I vent my tanks, T5s actually cost me more money to run because they heat up the tank even less... meaning I need more electricity in winter to heat the tank... something that with the halides dont have to do as much in winter because the fans and ducting are all off. The halides actually help warm the common areas of my place, and as a result, the only time the furnace ever comes on in winter is about 3am. So in my case, the extra heat is good.
So all other things negligable, as I have pointed out above, the wattage difference for me would be what? About half? So lets say I switched two 40 Breeders from halide to Solaris LEDs right now. I would save about 1/2 in wattage, right? As is: 250wattsx8 hours per dayx30days per month/1000watts per kwhx$0.10 per kwh= about $6 per tank per month. So two tanks running on LED's would cost me the same...$6 per month.
Sorry, but I just dont see $6 a month savings (assuming Im going from 500watts to 250) as ever adding up enough to justify buying one. Even after 12 months, that barely buys me a replacement halide bulb.
But I have two things going for me as to why. Im in the north, so halides dont cause problems except for 3 months of the year in summer maybe, and with just some creative fans and ducting thats not even a problem. My tanks are also smaller (until I get the 42"x42"x20" set up early next year), so its that much harder to notice... even with a bunch of them. But even with a bunch of them, its still a premium because each individual unit costs more than if I had one that had the output of all of them.
Even on my 150g to be, things still wont add up. At most: Im going to run 500watts of HQI halide, and about 240watts of T5 with that. Even if I cut that in half by using LED's, the end result would only save me $9 a month in electricity.
So all other things negligable, as I have pointed out above, the wattage difference for me would be what? About half? So lets say I switched two 40 Breeders from halide to Solaris LEDs right now. I would save about 1/2 in wattage, right? As is: 250wattsx8 hours per dayx30days per month/1000watts per kwhx$0.10 per kwh= about $6 per tank per month. So two tanks running on LED's would cost me the same...$6 per month.
Sorry, but I just dont see $6 a month savings (assuming Im going from 500watts to 250) as ever adding up enough to justify buying one. Even after 12 months, that barely buys me a replacement halide bulb.
But I have two things going for me as to why. Im in the north, so halides dont cause problems except for 3 months of the year in summer maybe, and with just some creative fans and ducting thats not even a problem. My tanks are also smaller (until I get the 42"x42"x20" set up early next year), so its that much harder to notice... even with a bunch of them. But even with a bunch of them, its still a premium because each individual unit costs more than if I had one that had the output of all of them.
Even on my 150g to be, things still wont add up. At most: Im going to run 500watts of HQI halide, and about 240watts of T5 with that. Even if I cut that in half by using LED's, the end result would only save me $9 a month in electricity.
