Electricity running cost per month

Yup, it's expensive - and it's probably going to become a killer in the near future... I wonder how many of us are going to be forced to downgrade, or give up totally...

In the mean time, here are a few thoughts:
First thing that I want to change is the return pump. It's a Hailea HX-6550 (200 W) It's running 24hours a day - thus using 148.8kW per month. Cost: 96.8 per month!
The problem is, I wanted to add another pump as my flow from sump to display tank is not enough... So I'm looking for a bigger pump - using less enery..
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Get an external mag-drive pump. They are pretty energy efficient, and dependable, but their main advantage is that they input a lot less heat into the water, thus reducing the chiller/cooling costs. I can recommend the Panworld pumps from personal experience - mine has been running since April 2006 without any problems.

Algea scrubber:
4 - 50W lights, on for 16 hours per day - Running cost R. 64 per month.
Pump for the algea scrubber - 100W - 24 hours per day - R.48 per month.
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Rather run a refugium with chaeto of caulerpa in your outdoor sump for no extra cost.

Chiller:
480W - I've estimated a run time of 6 hours a day in summer - R. 58 per month.
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I don't have any personal experience with one, but I do believe that Aqua Medic makes an evaporative chiller, which uses MUCH less electricity than a normal compressor-type chiller. It's pretty expensive to buy, though...

I'm thinking of insulating all 4 my sumps, the back of my display and maybe the sides of the display tank with polystyrene....
(still thinking about the side panes, the position of the tank only allow partial view on side panes in any case..)

The heaters and chiller will/should work less not so?
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Agreed - I have been doing this on my tank for some years, now, and it does save some heating/cooling. It also reduces the noise from the tank/sump by quite a lot, as a bonus.

Hennie
 
Reef Maniac said:
Yup, it's expensive - and it's probably going to become a killer in the near future... I wonder how many of us are going to be forced to downgrade, or give up totally...
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This is a very true but sad thought...

Hennie - do you think the extra 2 sumps (+- 220l) will make a huge difference in temperature control? Will it be more stable?
I mean once heated it should stay at a constant temperature for longer, or not?
 
Hennie - do you think the extra 2 sumps (+- 220l) will make a huge difference in temperature control? Will it be more stable?
I mean once heated it should stay at a constant temperature for longer, or not?
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Yes, it will make the system more stable, in that the temperature swings will be slower. It will, however, require more energy to heat up or cool down, so over-all I think that it will cost you slightly more in terms of electricity.

Hennie
 
This is all nice and an eye opener...but how many of us have factored "everything" into the running costs of our tanks.

for example...things that my tank needs in the month

Carbon.
Bateria (for those who are using it )
Water changes
Supplements . iodine, strotium, calcium,alk.......amino acids
fish food
filter floss


im still trying to think of other things that we generally use witin a 3month period.


Guys..please put down possible items that we will be using or you are using and we can add this on the spreadsheet on page 1. id like to get a true cost of running my tank
 
Hmmm seems there are more costs!!

that then brings the next question how much of whatever is being done is enough? do we need 400 watts of light? do we need millions of ltrs of water movement? when & what is enough?
 
Junz said:
This is all nice and an eye opener...but how many of us have factored "everything" into the running costs of our tanks.

for example...things that my tank needs in the month

Carbon.
Bateria (for those who are using it )
Water changes
Supplements . iodine, strotium, calcium,alk.......amino acids
fish food
filter floss


im still trying to think of other things that we generally use witin a 3month period.


Guys..please put down possible items that we will be using or you are using and we can add this on the spreadsheet on page 1. id like to get a true cost of running my tank
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Sjoe...I don't think I really want to know...
But fire away.
 
for the above i worked out close to R200pm without adding the cost of electricity and MB7. that was a few months back.

a few things that can help...might work for some reefers but not all

1. cut your photo period to about 6hrs
2. buy supplements and Carbon locally - works out alot cheaper and lasts longer. i use waterboy for my carbon and Supps (lasts me up to 6months )
3. do a waterchange once a month (bag of real ocean salt will last you +- 4-6 months depending on how big your tank is.
4.keep your lighting unit cool (apparently your lamps will last longer..not sure how true this is but worth a try )
5. improving husbandry will indirectly lower costs when it comes buying expensive bacteria's and PO4 removers.
6.but filter floss in bulk from a fabric store they sell them at next to nothing.
7.stop impulsive buying.


guys please add more..im sure there are hundreds of ways to lower our costs, even if its just by a few rands
 
Cancel DSTV, will put 500 bugs back in your pocket and give you more time for better things to do i.e . reefing. :)
 
Adee said:
U could try and run your scrubber outside using natural sunlight.
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Nope sorry disagree.
Any open flowing water outside will lead to high evaporation rates. Perfect if you want to cool your tank down (thereby eliminating the use of the chiller) , but totally useless and countering your heaters in the winter.

Only option is to have the box sealed, but that will lead to water condensate all over, allowing algae to grow all over and you will have a nice green box. Blocking the light from the screen.

And this box must be kid, ball, gardener proof. So no glass boxes, or it should be totally in a safe place. And out of view in full sun.

A scrubber should be gravity fed. Saving a pump. But be designed such that blockages can not give problems and it is easy to clean.
 
If your sumps are outside, you must totally enclosed and isolate them for the winter, else you will have your heaters running 100% all the time.
 
a trick we implemented in th old days was to dig a 1000lt container into the ground and use it as a sump.. or end compartment thereof.. this helped to regulate the occurence of temp swings quite nicley other than having quite a big pump to make up a bit of head for pumping im sure this will save a few $. thus removing a electricity hungry chiller.

as for the lighting id say 150w instead of 250w (although you could probably run 250w for a shorter period and achieve the same results electricity consumption wise) but this would only work in tanks of .600mm in depth most efectivley as the corals would still recieve a substantial amount of light...
 
RiaanP said:
Nope sorry disagree.
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Riaan, you don't understand - this advise was meant for Raven, and not as general advise for everyone. Raven DOES have an outside, open, sump already - so using it this way would not change anything except save electricity for lighting.

As a general implementation, I agree with your remarks, although one could actually use the outside tank to both cool down and heat up the water, depending on insulation, shading and selective isolation of the system (e.g. adding heat by only circulating the water to the DT during the afternoon, after the sun has heated the water to certain degree, and then stopping the pump during the night once the water temperature falls below the DT temperature...). I suppose if one wanted to experiment, one could do something similar with a totally sealed tank above the ceiling, where the temperature goes very high during the day (even in winter) and very low at night (even in summer)...

Hennie
 
Here are some pics on how I've insulated the filters outside.
A wall was build around the filters. This was done at least 3 years ago.

Today I've used polystirene to pad the tanks first. The gaps between the wall and filter I've filled with sand.
DSCF4597.jpg
 
Only option is to have the box sealed, but that will lead to water condensate all over, allowing algae to grow all over and you will have a nice green box. Blocking the light from the screen.
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I don't think this would really happen. I've run a sealed box before... the lights and the acrylic were just 1.5" from the screen. No growth on the acrylic. You need flow for growth to occur. There is a bit is salt spray, but wiping it weekly gets it.
 
:) Temperature more stable!

Whoaw - what a difference!:thumbup:
After I've insulated my tanks on the outside and added the extra sumps my temperature is constantly between 26.5 and 27 degrees!

It used to fluctuate alot - but now - no problemo!
The best news is - my chiller does not even come on (it's set to come on at 28 degrees) - so electricity usage is minimal...
I think even my heater is not working overtime....
I borrowed a meter from an electrician measure the electricity - it looks like the meter in your box where they do the electricity readings each month.

Currently my tank is using 10-11 kW per day...
It more than half less than what I've calculated.

I can even add more padding to the filters outside, hoping to see a bit more difference, and hopefully it will be the same during winter months. (I doubt that it will be as stable as now, but it should be better than before)
 
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