On another bad note.....

[Eric Boerner]

Thanks again everyone,

Yeah David, this is my new tank in the garage. I didn't put greenwall up, thinking I should have now. Would be a major pain in the arse if I try and do it now.

Id did some throttling back on a number of things to help reduce the costs.

I upped my chiller control from 84 with 1 degree variance, to 86 with 2 degree.

I reduced my lighting period from 8 hours to 5 hours on both lights, but they come on 2 hours apart from each other.

I put my skimmer pump on another timer, to come on 9 hours of the day when the lights on on.

I put my closed loop on a timer turning on for 10 minutes and turning off for 10.

I definately notice a major difference with the chiller now. It's not coming on much at all, but the tank is sitting at around 87 to 88, which kinda bothers me. I guess, it'll be ok till fall.

We also changed out AC filters, and cleaned all the vents inside and out. Plus increased the thermo from 80 to 82, and 84 at night. It's getting damn hot in the house, but it's only another 2 or 3 months till it starts cooling down again.

I'm giving it another billing cycle, if this doesn't knock the bill down significantly enough, I may have a ton of stuff for sale at the next swap. Either that, or I need to start charging farms at thesea.org prices for polyps. IE. $10 per polyp. But I'd rather not be the brunt of so many jokes at the swaps.

[ejocam]

Is this what I have to look forward to Eric? I thought I was moving up here to save $$$$$. I 'm quite concerned even though my set-up is minimal at the moment. What year was your house built? The one I moved into was built in 1993. Only lately(past week have we benn using AC. At night NO AC, open all windows on 2nd Floor only helps a lot. ( Don't even need blankets). I plan on using R-19 or R-33 to insulate garage walls & ceiling(Maybe better grade for cieling and Innstall exaust fans in the garage ceiling. Hopefully other things would help too, like winnin the frickin Lotto Good Luck Eric I'm a couple of blocks away if you need any help.

[David P]

Originally posted by Eric Boerner
But I'd rather not be the brunt of so many jokes at the swaps.

Too late!
sorry, couldnt pass that one up.

[gtrestoration]

I just tried to call JBJ and they are all busy now.

JBJ called me back today and the 1/4 horse chiller is running almost 470 watts once it's up and running. They list 6 amps (660 watts) as the spec because that's what it draws at start-up and is what your circuit needs to handle.

So I figure it to cost about $17.00 per month. It only comes on 3-4 times per day and runs for less than 1 hour.

This chiller has a pull-down of 2 degrees each cycle and they said the only way to change that is with a controller. Put reducing the pull down to 1 degree would drastically increase energy consumption. The unit is not real efficient at start up.

Now 2 pumps at 120 watts each running 24/7 on the other hand is $47.00 per month...ouch. This is where I need to cut down. This is twice as much as the cost of lighting...2-250W MH and 2-110W VHO.

Steve U

[David P]

if your trying to figure how much electricity you use for lighting, dont forget that your ballast draws more wattage than what the bulb says. So your ballast may be bulling 290 w. for a 250 w bulb.

[Old Yeller Tang]

Eric,

I'd be careful about letting the temp reach 86 or above! I let my tank hit 86 a couple weeks ago and a week later, four of my frags bleached and my purple stag as well! Even my nice PMI started bleaching but quickly recovered as well as a couple other frags once everything was back to normal. I was telling Paul everything looked ok after that temp spike and he told me to give it a week before I'm out of the woods and sure enough, the die-off began. I learned my lesson not to do any more experimenting. I'm not sure how many sps' you have but if it's manly lps' and softies, I guess you'll be fine.


Steve,

That's not a bad costs for running your chiller. I estimate mine costing about $25 a month to run but during the colder months, it's rarely on.


Roger,

Thanks for the heads up on the Tunze! Great product!

Roland

[Dogbert]

My bill runs me $85 a month for the tank alone, max of $350 for the whole house during the worst of summer in Fontana. I use two icecaps, 4 72" VHO's, 1 Iwaki MD40RLXT, prizm Pro skimmer, 2 300 wat heaters and the occasional sump pump for water changes. My house is kept at 75-76 year round so my heaters work the hardest. There is an A/C duct in the ceiling above the tank so it blows over and into the hood to remove the waste heat from the bulbs. The bulbs will bring the tank up to about 79-80 during the day and the heaters will kick in at 78 during the night. I also have a ten gallon tank in my kids play room that runs a 150 watt heater, a fluval 104 and 2 25 watt incandescents.

The photoperiod for both tanks runs from noon to 10pm with the moon lights on the main tank running whenver the controller turns them on.

[AQUA951]

Holy Crap! after reading all this. I'm kinda scared to even purchase some lighting for my tank. These what I have in mind at the moment:

A MH Retrofit Kit with
Dual 400w PFO MH Ballast,
2 X Spider Reflector,
2 X Mogul Socket,
2 X Ushio 400w 10,000K MH Bulbs,

and....

VHO Retrofit Kit with
Icecap 660 Ballast
4 Pairs of German Waterproof Endcaps
4 Pairs of Mounting Brackets
4 X 48" VHO Bulbs

sheez...if I do happen to get these and my electric bill hike up to 3-400 bucks! Wife would say bye-bye tank!

[Dogbert]

Hey aqua,
If your talking about my old 240 I was going for the VHO's but you'll have a penetration problem because the tank is 4 foot tall. The halides will make it further to the bottom.

[AQUA951]

hey, Dogbert....

Hows it going? Yeah, its your old tank. The tank looks really good so far (Very tall though especially on the stand)! Its really coming together. I'll try to take some pics and send it your way whenever I do get my new digi cam (hopefully soon). What do you recommend? You think I could just go with the MH alone? I was told to have the MH and VHO together?


Aqua

[Dogbert]

I agree, I would go with both. I'll soon be posting my pics, i'll let you know.

[Dogbert]

I live in Fontana, 15 and baseline so the climate is close. My house is brand new so there's not much to do with insulation and air leaks but I did install tint on the windows and a 10x20 retractable awning in the back yard which faces East for the morning sun. I also upgraded the A/C condensor from 10 seer to 16 seer.
This made a $40 a month difference while keeping the house at 76. Altogether the A/C, tint and awning saves me about $100 per month in the summer. In the winter the awning keeps the rain off the patio so the kids can still play.

[BonsaiNut]

Revise your thinking. Start thinking about how to redesign your system to minimize electricity.

First - go with a HUGE sump. The bigger the better. A sump is nothing more than a great way to stabilize your tank, and if the ambient temp is lower than your tank temp, a large sump offers a greater area to remove excess heat. The sump should be in a well-ventilated area, as cool as possible. If you want to REALLY cool things off, run fans over your sump - this alone should drop tank temp 5 degrees, regardless of what else you do. In addition, a larger sump reduces the need for a heater. The more water volume you have, the less the temp fluctuates in the day/night cycle.

Second - go with an open canopy. Figure out a way to make it aesthetically pleasing, but there is no way that people should have closed canopies in Southern Cal unless you are venting the canopy outside your house with forced air exchange.

Third - remove redundant equipment. It is far more efficient to go with one large pump that handles all your needs, than to run 3 smaller pumps (as well as powerheads in your tank). Get a big, low RPM pump and use it.

Fourth - You need to run your tank without a chiller (it can be done). Not only are chillers crazy expensive to run, but they cost money in two ways - they cost money to cool your tank, and they cost money to cool your house (since they just take the heat out of your tank and exhaust it into your house). If you HAVE to run a chiller, make sure it is located (or vents) outside the house. Evaporation is cheap! Get a big sump and a big fan, and your work is half done.

Fifth - You didn't say anything about timing. You should run your lights at night (when you are around to see your tank anyway). Have your metal halides run from 4 PM until midnight. That will also make a huge difference in heating / cooling needs, which in turn will save $$$.

Even in the hottest 90+ degree days I can run my metal halides in my system in my house WITHOUT A/C, and I never see my temp go above 83. However I have more water in my sump than in my display tank, I have an open hood, and I have fans that go on with the light timers. If things got bad, I would do to reverse photo-period and run the lights at night. I think my reef is costing $50 per month in electricity...