Operation lower my Electrial costs!

[Ekdrummer]

Hi,

For the past two years my custom 180 has been plagued with over temp issues and high electrical costs and now its down for the count. I am now starting from scratch with a Marinland 200DD and modifying my gear to be more energy efficient. I am hoping to remove the need for a chiller by lowering the amount of energy transferred to the water from pumps.

Phase 1 (complete): Convert my MRC-4R beckett skimmer into a Reeflo ORCA style skimmer. This should take my skimmer wattage from 290 down to about 135.

http://i766.photobucket.com/albums/xx309/bushrob/Reef%20Tank/DSCN0682.jpg

I purchased a new Reeflo needle wheel pump for $170 on eBay and drilled my MRC for dual 1.5" bulkheads. The rest is just plumbing! This thing works twice as well as the dual beckett for half the wattage. Total cost of the conversion for me was probably about $200. The only change I would make to the design is to not feed the venture intake from the skimmer cup (the becketts never made that much foam so I didn’t think I would be drawing the crud back into the water column (did work as a fantastic silencer though). I sold the Blueline 70 for $120 so I'm out about $80 (shouldn’t take too long to make that up on Electrical).


Phase 2 (in progress). Replace my Reeflo hammerhead with a Dart gold pump and possibly an Oceans Motions if I can find a good deal. The Dart gold is on its way now. This should take me from ~300 watts down to about 150. The only pump left to replace is my return pump Iwaki 40wrlt which I will likely need to stick with because of the head pressure.

[Logzor]

What type of lighting are you using? Switching to all T5s could do wonders.

[Ekdrummer]

What type of lighting are you using? Switching to all T5s could do wonders.

I am using metal halide 250 HQI's in aqua medic pendants. I have gutted out the M-ballasts and am running them off of remote Lumitek E-ballasts.

[lth03]

You only run 1 250W MH for the whole tank?

[James77]

Switching to all T5s could do wonders.

Switching from a Powermodule 8x54 to MH 2x250 HQI with VHO supps only cost me about ~$10 more a month, and I have pretty high electric costs. Were I to use electronic ballasts and T5 supplements, it would come to around ~$5 more a month. Granted you may not need a chiller on T5s if you live in a hot climate.

I find thr biggest energy hogs are large pumps. Are internal, high flow powerheads, like Tunze or Vortech an option for you? Do you use a chiller? Fans may be a better option if they are effective on your tank.

[Ekdrummer]

You only run 1 250W MH for the whole tank?

No I have 3 250 HQI pendents running off remote lumitek ballasts.

[Ekdrummer]

The dart gold turns 4300Gph and uses about 150 watts. I dont expect it will dump much heat back in the system.. The Hammerhead I was running would turn 5800Gph and used over 300 watts. I dont really care for the look of powerheads in the tank.

Thanks,
Rob

[djze]

have you tried led's i've been using 3 120 watt panells with 3 dimmable switches custom made from china on my 180 gallon for about 3 months now the light is incredible and my coralls are growing like never before with little wattage i was running 3 400 watt metal halide's before each panel cost me $241 with shipping to my door theres moonlights that cost more than that

[James77]

Well between the 2 pumps, you cut over 300 watts of 24/7 use. Adds up to about 220 kWh/month. I don't know what your electric rates are, but you're probably saving around $30/month with just those.

I missed the chiller part scanning your original post. Have you tried fans over the sump?

[James77]

Whats that Iwaki pulling, and what do you need for GPH coming out of your return pump?

[Ekdrummer]

Well between the 2 pumps, you cut over 300 watts of 24/7 use. Adds up to about 220 kWh/month. I don't know what your electric rates are, but you're probably saving around $30/month with just those.

I missed the chiller part scanning your original post. Have you tried fans over the sump?


I was running a 1/3 hp current prime chiller (piece of crap) all it did was create lots of heat in my sump room and it quit after a year. I am planning on only using fans and not getting another chiller.

[Ekdrummer]

My sump room is in the basement so I need a good pressure pump to push the water back to my display.

[Ekdrummer]

have you tried led's i've been using 3 120 watt panells with 3 dimmable switches custom made from china on my 180 gallon for about 3 months now the light is incredible and my coralls are growing like never before with little wattage i was running 3 400 watt metal halide's before each panel cost me $241 with shipping to my door theres moonlights that cost more than that

I have thought about going LED but was waiting for the prices to get reasonable. Where did you order yours from, I may get them a try.? I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and have thought many times about building my own LED setup.

[redfishsc]

You can do LED's and cook your corals all day long, but you have to go DIY for the price to be reasonable. You'll still dump a couple thousand on a 200g tank, but you'll be using about half the wattage (or less), have NO bulb replacements to worry about for 5-10 years (if you use Cree XRE's) and can have a "dial your favorite color temp" effect by adjusting the potentiometers (if you have the blues and whites all on separate drivers).'

Not to mention you can dim the whole thing for coral acclimation, and light-related heat issues will go away since the heatsink on the LED array will be absorbing most of the heat, rather than having it projected down into the tank.


Since you have a degree in electrical engineering, this should be fairly simple. I'm no LED expert by any stretch, but send me a PM and I can point you to someone who IS and who has built many LED arrays for aquariums.

[Ekdrummer]

I just picked up an ATB flowmaster 1500 for my return :)

Total wattage for pumps before rebuild:
Sequence Hammerhead closed loop 5800GPH ~325
Blueline 70HD Beckett skimmer 1600GPH ~290
Iwaki 40wrlt return 750GPH ~190
1/3 HP chiller ~ 800
Total: 805 watts for pumps
587 KWH/month $70 (also so much heat that I needed a chiller which added a good bit of additional Electrical cost)

Total wattage for pumps now:
Sequence dart gold closed loop 4300GPH ~ 165
Sequence ORCA needle wheel (flow doesn’t matter this thing rocks) ~145
ATB flow master 1500 return 700GPH @ 10' ~70
Total: 380 watts
277 KWH/month $33

Total saved:
$37 per month
Total cost of new pumps $753 (ORCA 175 on eBay, Dart Gold $359 from Afishybusiness, Flowmaster from aquarium specialty for 219)
Total cost of sale of old pumps $450 (Blueline 70 $120, Sequence hammerhead $230, Iwaki 40 wrlt for sale $100)

Total cost of upgrade $303
My breakeven point should be about 8 months! (Actually less if you calculate electrical for the chiller (about $17 per month when spread out over the year) that has been removed and figure added heat that the home HVAC would compensate for). Accounting for the chiller makes the savings on Electrical $54 per month and a breakeven point of 5.6 months.

[kmu]

Definitelly you should look into all T5s if you want to remove the chiller...

I got an ATI sunpower and its amazing...

[cas]

You do not mention if you have looked at other areas to reduce electrical cost. I have replaced most of my lights with CFL bulbs, not closet or low use lighting, and lowered my electric bill by about $17.00 per month. I also unplug all chargers when not in use and have put the stereo on a switch to turn it off when not in use. I do not need the quick start feature.

[Ekdrummer]

You do not mention if you have looked at other areas to reduce electrical cost. I have replaced most of my lights with CFL bulbs, not closet or low use lighting, and lowered my electric bill by about $17.00 per month. I also unplug all chargers when not in use and have put the stereo on a switch to turn it off when not in use. I do not need the quick start feature.

All of my house has CFL lighting. The aquarium has been a focus due to the heat issues I was having.

[Ekdrummer]

Definitelly you should look into all T5s if you want to remove the chiller...

I got an ATI sunpower and its amazing...

Ill probably stick with Metal Halides until I find a good LED solutoin that is affordable.

[cas]

All of my house has CFL lighting. The aquarium has been a focus due to the heat issues I was having.


Cool. I know some people complain about their electrical cost and do not look to other areas for savings and only focus on the tank.

[Ekdrummer]

Cool. I know some people complain about their electrical cost and do not look to other areas for savings and only focus on the tank.

I am also renovating my house during which I have done the followoing to be more green:

Replaced old leaky single pane windows with Dual pane Anderson units
Replaced all of my doors with insulated Anderson and Thermatru units
Added R 19 unraced throughout my 3200Sq feet of attic (I hate this stuff)
Added 1/2 foam insulation around the entire outside of my house while I was installing new windows and Hardi plank siding.
Replaced all recessed lighting with Sealed IC contact units and CF lighting.
I have used an enormous amount of great stuff to seal up holes while replacing the electrical and sheetrock!
The next big house efficiency upgrade is to replace all my HVAC ductwork and my single 4 ton gas pack with two 2.5 ton units. My house is all one story 3200sq feet so there is an insane maze of leaky ductwork from the mid 70s. Im going to have to find a contracter to assist on this once since normal people cant buy quality HVAC gear :(

The fun never ends!

[jw10604]

Turn down your lighting period by a few minutes. Every little bit helps.

[Ekdrummer]

Turn down your lighting period by a few minutes. Every little bit helps.

What would you say is the ideal lighting period? I am doing between 6 and 7 hours right now.