Ash Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Hey guys, I looked in the FAQ section & really this isn't covered unless you have a fishroom - then different temperature management & filtration mechanisms are discussed. So, you have a few tanks under you house filtered by sumps or HOBs. Heaters are generally centrally located in the sumps & there isn't the budget to insulate the room (I don't even have a room as such in my case) So, what can you do to cut power consumption? I was thinking I could attach styro to the tanks & sumps to keep the heat in as winter is the dearest by far. How thick would it have to be? I would assume it should it be removable for summer, yeah? I assume fish don't really need the lights on if there is natural light available, but how much is enough? Pumps - I'm planning on getting one larger more efficent pump for the central system - I suppose I could change everything to air driven & probably could for any new tanks but I figure if I need to use heaters it's more efficent to use less larger ones to heat the whole water body rather than more smaller ones heating individual bodys of water. Plausable? Looking for some input & possibly make something worth while for the FAQ forum. I know building a proper fish room is probably what I should be doing, but I have no way near the budget for that. Cheers Ash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaZ Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 On the subject of styro, would it be better to leave it on all year? Might keep the tanks warm in winter but also keep them cool in summer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellow Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 hi ash I was thinking I could attach styro to the tanks & sumps to keep the heat in as winter is the dearest by far. How thick would it have to be? I would assume it should it be removable for summer, yeah? i use styrofoam on my tanks as im currently in the same situation as yours.i was finding in winter that my power bills were phenomenal but i also had the problem of maintaning a consistent temperature.i was finding they were sitting at around 21 to 22 degree mark.i insulated them with 5 mm styrofoam that i got from clark rubber.it increased the temperature by 3 or 4 degrees overnight.all up it cost me about 50.00 for the foam and i had some left over as id overcompensated.i sticktaped them onto the sides and back of my tank so that only the front panel is viewable.that way its removeable if need be.i do have a couple of smaller tanks that ive siliconed it on with so theres another option. assume fish don't really need the lights on if there is natural light available, but how much is enough as far as lighting goes i have my lights off during the day and have a timer coneected to them so they turn on at about 430 in the afternoon and off again at about 9.30.the reason they come on at 4.30 is because thats when the room gets dark and i feed my fish at about the 8.30 mark so the lights keep them awake for me.other then that they have only natural light.this is just for my own personal routine as believe it or not but i do have a life outside fish .you could shorten the timespan to save power. as far as pumps go ill pm you a site that has some good information on it hth jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted October 5, 2006 Author Share Posted October 5, 2006 I'm actually looking at the viability of low voltage down lights or maybe small power compacts in the hoods instead of the 36w 4' fluros. No plants so really I just need enough light to see the fish & for them to be active. I tried a shorter photoperiod but not much natural light gets to my tanks so the fish don't get active like they do with a light. I figure it can't be good for them being dopey & asleep for 18+ hours of the day. How's the foam affect the temps in summer Jason? or haven't you had it that long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellow Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 How's the foam affect the temps in summer Jason? or haven't you had it that long i havent had the foam on there for the summer period yet ash at the moment though theyre sitting a little high but that could be due to the fact that i havent lowered the temp settings on my heaters yet.im moving in a couple of weeks when i do im going to just leave the back piece of foam on and remove the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benson Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 How do you work out the cost of running a tank? How much power do they use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted October 5, 2006 Author Share Posted October 5, 2006 quick & simple comparitive way is the rated watts used by the device. water pumps are from 5w (on the AC mini-AC300) through to 250w on a ~6000-8000lph pump - it all varies with quality of course. In my situation I can get one larger more efficient pump to run my sump systems if I link them there is a saving to me made, though it might not be much. I'd just about be better off getting a stack of AC300s. Lighting: standard 4' fluros are 36w for example. I'm looking at either fitting smaller fluros, CFs or maybe LED bars if they can throw out enough light - have to look into it further. and the big one... heating: 300w is a common heater size. this is where the insulation comes in, meaning the heaters don't have to work as hard. I'm planning on covering the styro with black contact to make it more asthetically pleasing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellow Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 I'm planning on covering the styro with black contact to make it more asthetically pleasing i spray painted the backs of mine.costs about the same as contact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted October 5, 2006 Author Share Posted October 5, 2006 Whoa - LED hoods comparable to hallides!!! obviously really dear but it implys I could perhaps make something out of High Intensity LEDs to do the job. These LEDs put out stacks of juice. for comparison's sake, a standard LED puts out 15mcd, these put out 18000mcd! regular high intensity ones seem to be about 5000-10000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benson Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 quick & simple comparitive way is the rated watts used by the device. water pumps are from 5w (on the AC mini-AC300) through to 250w on a ~6000-8000lph pump - it all varies with quality of course. In my situation I can get one larger more efficient pump to run my sump systems if I link them there is a saving to me made, though it might not be much. I'd just about be better off getting a stack of AC300s. Lighting: standard 4' fluros are 36w for example. I'm looking at either fitting smaller fluros, CFs or maybe LED bars if they can throw out enough light - have to look into it further. and the big one... heating: 300w is a common heater size. this is where the insulation comes in, meaning the heaters don't have to work as hard. I'm planning on covering the styro with black contact to make it more asthetically pleasing. Is the wattage per year running each item @ 100% of the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted October 6, 2006 Author Share Posted October 6, 2006 I think it's daily, not yearly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobaltcraig Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 Hi Ash I run a room with 40 tanks My last bill was $1300 for the quarter So I am also looking at saving power The power company has just put a new meter in which runs differnt rates based on time of opperation Peak, off peak and Shoulder My room is sealed However I have put foam on all sides of the tanks. This weekend I fitted bates to the roof and side panels "Word of warning " dont fit bates without a mask or your body fully covered I learned this after three showers and a couple of panadoles I was itchie and looked like a dalmation My room is holding the heat now no problem I picture next year of running heat into the room maybe three months a year I also heat the room and dont run tank heaters anymore My filteration is sump and air Each rack has a sump and each tank has air sponge filters in them With the changes to my power supply "Rates" wise I will only run the sumps for about 16 hours a day and air filters for 24hours in short meaning during my peak time i will only run air this i think will save $80 per pump per year "approx" (4pumps) now i will also have a sponge filter in each sump to keep the bacteria live while the sumps are shut off Anyway any ideas other people have I am curious as well Power is our biggest cost other than our time which is our passion Cheers Craig The Dumb one "Thanks Baz" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 My last bill was $1300 for the quarter Mine is a around that for the year and Canberra is a bitter place to live for 6 months of the year. I think even if I doubled the size of the room(and thus tank capacity ( I have 20 already) it would not cost twice as much. I centrally heat with a wall theromostat controlling the temperature of the room but shutting of the power the power point that has the heater and fan connect to it. the fan is there to distrute the heat. I have had to fit individual heater to the tanks at floor level but aside from that it is all good. I have R4 batts in the walls and ceiling and it does the job nicely. In a room your size Craig I would place a second heater in the room fro redundancy so it would probably double the heating bill but I would be really keep some fish then . the most efficient Canberra based fish I saw was a with a guy that installed one off peak heater to that heated bricks that heated a room the size of a one and half sized garage(minus the last 2 foot) and he ran at least 5-7 litresof water. Sure the heater cost him $2,000 and room cost him $20,000 but hey what a setup . cheers rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobaltcraig Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 My last bill was $1300 for the quarter Mine is a around that for the year and Canberra is a bitter place to live for 6 months of the year. I think even if I doubled the size of the room(and thus tank capacity ( I have 20 already) it would not cost twice as much. I centrally heat with a wall theromostat controlling the temperature of the room but shutting of the power the power point that has the heater and fan connect to it. the fan is there to distrute the heat. I have had to fit individual heater to the tanks at floor level but aside from that it is all good. I have R4 batts in the walls and ceiling and it does the job nicely. In a room your size Craig I would place a second heater in the room fro redundancy so it would probably double the heating bill but I would be really keep some fish then . the most efficient Canberra based fish I saw was a with a guy that installed one off peak heater to that heated bricks that heated a room the size of a one and half sized garage(minus the last 2 foot) and he ran at least 5-7 litresof water. Sure the heater cost him $2,000 and room cost him $20,000 but hey what a setup . cheers rosco Rosco Not all my cost is fish room I have a swmming pool , Dishwasher,Bar Fridge,Fridge,Freezer, ect I think my total cost for the fish room per year =$1600 Cheers Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellow Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 id recommend flouros as far as lighting is concerned a four foot flouro 36W will cost you less to run then down lights.while downlights are low VOLTAGE they arent low wattage.they were basically invented for the average lay person to work with safely.ill explain why in a minute.downlights usually come in two forms 12V 50w or 12V 20w..youll probably need two (im working off my tanks though which are six foot if yours are 4 foot then id say one though two would be more effective).it'd have to be 50w though as 20w doesnt provide a great deal of light across a large surface area or penetrate as deeply especially through water.if you didnt want the 36w 4 foot fluro you could go with a smaller size say three foot 30wflouros.they cast a much better light over a distance for theyre size.downlights also have the disadvantage of being problematic as thier poorly designed.theyre an electricians dream(i know i used to be one)as they consist of three parts all of which burn out frequently.flouros have a longer life span and very few problems.thats why youll see them being used in commercial places more often theyre indestructable.youll easily get six months to a year out of a flouro but i doubt youd get the same out of a downlight.hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmy2422 Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 The power company has just put a new meter in which runs differnt rates based on time of opperation Peak, off peak and Shoulder Your hot water system should run on "off peak" power. It is about 1/3 of the cost i think. It isnt hard to gwt your fish room heater to run off it, although im not 100% sure how legal it would be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bijengum Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 The power company has just put a new meter in which runs differnt rates based on time of opperation Peak, off peak and Shoulder Your hot water system should run on "off peak" power. It is about 1/3 of the cost i think. It isnt hard to gwt your fish room heater to run off it, although im not 100% sure how legal it would be Not legal at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted October 6, 2006 Author Share Posted October 6, 2006 what can you legally put on the off peak circuit? up here everyone does hot water & air con is the requirement that it's hard wired or that it's a heating/cooling device? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmy2422 Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 Not legal at all. Still heating water though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbish84 Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 Hey guys, I looked in the FAQ section & really this isn't covered unless you have a fishroom - then different temperature management & filtration mechanisms are discussed. So, you have a few tanks under you house filtered by sumps or HOBs. Heaters are generally centrally located in the sumps & there isn't the budget to insulate the room (I don't even have a room as such in my case) So, what can you do to cut power consumption? I was thinking I could attach styro to the tanks & sumps to keep the heat in as winter is the dearest by far. How thick would it have to be? I would assume it should it be removable for summer, yeah? I assume fish don't really need the lights on if there is natural light available, but how much is enough? Pumps - I'm planning on getting one larger more efficent pump for the central system - I suppose I could change everything to air driven & probably could for any new tanks but I figure if I need to use heaters it's more efficent to use less larger ones to heat the whole water body rather than more smaller ones heating individual bodys of water. Plausable? Looking for some input & possibly make something worth while for the FAQ forum. I know building a proper fish room is probably what I should be doing, but I have no way near the budget for that. Cheers Ash that is a good i dear thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted October 9, 2006 Share Posted October 9, 2006 Not all my cost is fish room I have a swmming pool , Dishwasher,Bar Fridge,Fridge,Freezer, ect I think my total cost for the fish room per year =$1600 Cheers Craig That is pretty good then Craig. If I double the size of my room (so increase my room to 40 tanks) I would probably not double my bill but I reackon I would be lucky to get away with anything less than $2000 a year for the fish room alone. cheers rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted October 9, 2006 Author Share Posted October 9, 2006 Well I've ordered one of the Laguna 7500lph jobbies runs on 100w which is the same power consumption total as the 3 old piddly pumps with a combined lower flow rate. Hopefully this works well, might have to do something about my overflows though I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.