Power savers around the aquarium/house

[Joshlikesfish]

What things do people do to save power?

I'm going to run all my breeding tanks off an air compressor to save power, only lights when i'm looking in the tank. Insulated fish room.

Any other ideas?

[smidey]

you've probably done what you can.

if your worried about power flag fishkeeping & take up knitting :lol: to me that's like talking fuel economy for v8s

[Joshlikesfish]

you've probably done what you can.

if your worried about power flag fishkeeping & take up knitting :lol: to me that's like talking fuel economy for v8s

I worked out that if my tank heaters are on 24/7 during winter, in my stone cold garage, thats $180 in a 31 day month...

[smidey]

the heaters in my tanks in my stone cold garage aren't on 24/7, maybe get better heaters? if they aren't in your insulated fish room put poly around them.

[Joshlikesfish]

Going to get this room going in the next few weeks (hopefully)

Just need to find the money. Its my xmas present

[acara]

Hang lights to cover more than one tank,using lower wattage tubes,or even better(but more expensive to buy)use led tubes or spots.Dont buy all those fancy 'gro' tubes in pet shops,go to an electrical shop and get plain tubes,cost 10% of the fancy ones.Check the light specs on them if you dont believe me.

If you use dechlorinator,get the pond stuff,much cheaper,goes further.

Buy food in bulk,decant into smaller containers and use those on a daily basis,to avoid opening the big one.

Culture as much live food as you can,especially for fry raising.Micro,grindal and white worms,fairy shrimp,brine shrimp,daphnia,etc,are all brilliant(although feed whiteworms in moderation).Earthworms are one of the best,and the whole tank goes into a frenzy,again though,moderation.

As mentioned,insulating tanks will help.

[Ira]

the heaters in my tanks in my stone cold garage aren't on 24/7, maybe get better heaters? if they aren't in your insulated fish room put poly around them.

Better heaters aren't going to save electricity. Wattage in=wattage out. They're all 100% efficient.

[David R]

I found having all the tanks together in an insulated room makes a big difference, as opposed to having them all over the house. Building your room will be the biggest saving in power, even if you add more tanks.

[smidey]

Better heaters aren't going to save electricity. Wattage in=wattage out. They're all 100% efficient.

no but they wouldn't be on 24/7

[hovmoller]

David is right you can save the most power in doing a really good job insulating the room... by far the most power used in fishkeeping is for heating the tanks. It's very important to insulate the entire "shell" of the room with no "cold gaps" and the ceiling/roof is where you should insulate the most since 40% of the heat is lost through there.

only lights when i'm looking in the tank.

So do you have a window in this room to provide a bit of light?

If you are planning on having this room at a constant temp of 20+ degrees through winter then you might save more by insulating over the window and hanging some fluroescent lights in the room and run them say 10 hours a day.. a lot of heat will escape through windows.

How are you planning on insulating the room? It's a garage right? what are wall & roof/ceiling in your room built of? 100mm timber frame eg.?

[Morcs]

>Dont grow plants that require lighting

>Dont have big messy fish or highly stocked tanks that require beefy filters

>Turning your heaters down a bit helps too - nearly all tropical fish can live at say 24C rather than 27C

>Eheim jager heaters ARE more efficient - per watt they can heat greater bodies of water than other heaters. Mind you, if you go eheim filters too they tend to use up next to no power.

>Clean your filters more regularly - including impellor, shaft and impellor well - so they run more efficiently.

[Ira]

>Eheim jager heaters ARE more efficient - per watt they can heat greater bodies of water than other heaters.

Then where is the wasted energy from the other heaters going?

The only way a "300 watt" heater can heat better than another "300 watt" heater is if their actual average power draw is different. Resistive heaters are always 100% efficient, if two are actually drawing 300 watts while operating the only way that one can "heat better" is to stay on longer.

If one of the heaters due to thermostat being heated causing misreading switches off occasionally and averages only being on for say half an hour every hour that will add 150 watt hours to the tank every hour. But it would still be a "300 watt" heater because that's its peak power draw. But it will draw 150 watt hours for 150 watt hours heating. 100% efficiency.

But if another has a more accurate thermostat it could be on that full hour and add 300 watt hours to the water ever hour. Also 100% efficiency.

This would only happen if the tank wasn't up to temp though, both would just sit around the set temp adding the same amount of energy as is lost at the same efficiency using the same amount of power.

[alanmin4304]

Jager heaters are very good heaters and I like them because they can be easily reset to the temperature you want. As the man says---A one hundred watt heater will use the same amount of power no matter the make so they will not save power even though they may save other heartbreak. Heavy insulation and lower temperatures is the best way.

[Joshlikesfish]

David is right you can save the most power in doing a really good job insulating the room... by far the most power used in fishkeeping is for heating the tanks. It's very important to insulate the entire "shell" of the room with no "cold gaps" and the ceiling/roof is where you should insulate the most since 40% of the heat is lost through there.

So do you have a window in this room to provide a bit of light?

If you are planning on having this room at a constant temp of 20+ degrees through winter then you might save more by insulating over the window and hanging some fluroescent lights in the room and run them say 10 hours a day.. a lot of heat will escape through windows.

How are you planning on insulating the room? It's a garage right? what are wall & roof/ceiling in your room built of? 100mm timber frame eg.?

Windows during summer. Poly over windows during winter. During winter I'll run a few light fixtures in the room.

We're going to put 50mm poly on the three existing walls, and in the wall i'm planning on building, i'll be using batts or poly. Stuck for a door though. The roof was just going to have poly also. The concrete floor was going to have outdoor carpet, artifical grass. Something like that

[Morcs]

Then where is the wasted energy from the other heaters going?

The only way a "300 watt" heater can heat better than another "300 watt" heater is if their actual average power draw is different. Resistive heaters are always 100% efficient, if two are actually drawing 300 watts while operating the only way that one can "heat better" is to stay on longer.

If one of the heaters due to thermostat being heated causing misreading switches off occasionally and averages only being on for say half an hour every hour that will add 150 watt hours to the tank every hour. But it would still be a "300 watt" heater because that's its peak power draw. But it will draw 150 watt hours for 150 watt hours heating. 100% efficiency.

But if another has a more accurate thermostat it could be on that full hour and add 300 watt hours to the water ever hour. Also 100% efficiency.

This would only happen if the tank wasn't up to temp though, both would just sit around the set temp adding the same amount of energy as is lost at the same efficiency using the same amount of power.

Wrong, its how they produce the heat. In a really simple concept its like cars, take every 2.0L car on the market, they arent all going to get the same economy are they? It will be something in the design of the heater, typical germans. They can get more power out of an engine half the size of one of those crappy australian v8s.

[acara]

Jager heaters are much longer and thinner than other brands,it could be that the heat transfers more readily in them,therefore they wouldnt need to run as long?

Incidentaly,they're one of the cheapest on the market too.

[alanmin4304]

Jaeger are good but not cheap. Any brand of 100 watt heater will use 100watts while it is on.

[Ira]

Wrong, its how they produce the heat. In a really simple concept its like cars, take every 2.0L car on the market, they arent all going to get the same economy are they? It will be something in the design of the heater, typical germans. They can get more power out of an engine half the size of one of those crud australian v8s.

Hahaha, no, you can't compare internal combustion engines producing torque and wasting energy as heat to an electric heater creating heat with...What as the wasted energy?

Efficiency is basically your desired product vs your wasted energy, which always ends up as heat. Unless the heater is creating vibrations or light that are escaping the tank before being absorbed by the water or the tank and turned into heat then it's going to be turning all the electricity into heat.

[Caryl]

All heaters are pretty much 100% efficient. If you put 2 in a tank and the tank is up to temp you will probably find only 1 will ever turn on as their thermostats will be slightly different. It is quite possible that some heaters rated at 300W are not actually 300W. We must assume they all are so it won't matter what brand you buy as it won't matter what the brand, they will still heat the water the same amount.

[smidey]

all heaters of the same wattage use the same amount of energy. i had a discussion with a sparkie about this recently & he confirmed that which is no great mystery but he also said the performance can vary due to how they transfer that heat, things like how long the heating element is or the diameter of the coil or wire used & looking at mine he also suggested the material used to make the item as well. there is so much more to how a heater performs than just how much power goes into it.

[acara]

Another method of saving on heating(I havnt actually tried it yet,the relevant tanks are sitting empty),is to get a larger tank(in my case 48x18x15,last being height)and dividing them.I have some divided into 3 tanks,and will try a heater in the end 2 portions,and hopefully won't need one in the middle tank.If it dosnt heat too warm,which I wouldnt expect,then you can keep species requiring cooler water.

Thats the theory anyway!

[hovmoller]

Another method of saving on heating(I havnt actually tried it yet,the relevant tanks are sitting empty),is to get a larger tank(in my case 48x18x15,last being height)and dividing them.I have some divided into 3 tanks,and will try a heater in the end 2 portions,and hopefully won't need one in the middle tank.If it dosnt heat too warm,which I wouldnt expect,then you can keep species requiring cooler water.

Thats the theory anyway!

You can also put separate tanks hard up beside each other along your long wall perhaps only with a layer of polystyrene between them and thereby eliminate heatloss on the sides (or at least loose it to the tank next to it)