2 heaters cheaper to run than 1?

[CODzilla]

I think I remember reading somewhere that 2 heaters work out cheaper than one, did I dream this or is there any logic behind it?

The heating in my house is terrible and we are having some very cold weather in the UK so my single 300W in my Juwel Rio 400 seems to be working harder than usual and I am on a very tight budget due to a change in circumstances so is there a case for another heater or should I stick to one?

Thanks in advance.

 

[philfreenode]

2 small heaters is better than one big one, because if one gets stuck in the on position your fish wont be boiled as quickly, or at all

2 small heaters is better than one big one ... because if one fails to heat, the other is still there to try to keep the temp up


I don't know about power use.

 

[cichlid2006]

I think I remember reading somewhere that 2 heaters work out cheaper than one, did I dream this or is there any logic behind it?

The heating in my house is terrible and we are having some very cold weather in the UK so my single 300W in my Juwel Rio 400 seems to be working harder than usual and I am on a very tight budget due to a change in circumstances so is there a case for another heater or should I stick to one?

Thanks in advance.

In the weather we are having at the moment I suggest throwing in a 2nd heater, a 200-250w one just to back up your 300w heater. Reducing the load on the single heater will work out cheaper because they will have a longer life.
I also suggest getting a spare heater (in total 3 heaters) in your box of goodies you no doubt have under your tank so you will never go without a heater. Avoid the Hagen Elite heaters, I went through 2 new ones and both would have boiled my fish if i wasn't so paranoid about new and untested equipment. Two stores also also warned me that they each have had hundreds back.
The Fluval Tronics are good, they are quite long but they come with a 2 year gurantee.

 

[CODzilla]

Cheers, I gave my spare away to a friend who had an accident so might have to go shopping. Thanks for the heads up on the Hagen Elite too!

 

[brutonsbrew]

as a person who teaches electical theories that aplly to hvac a watt is a watt with out good ciculation may have a larger temp diffirential as far as saving one is always cheaper because of less plugged in less electic used in off cycle

 

[DMasker]

I have two 150w in my 180 and one of them is almost always off. My temp has also never varied more then one degree Fahrenheit. So I think two is better then one for reasons mentioned above, and rather then always have a 300W on in mine, its mostly just a one of the 150w's on in mine.

 

[yodaLBC]

I believe it would be cheaper for the reason being...it doesn't take as long to heat up to desired temp, so that means your heater won't be on for on for a long time ust to reach the temp.

 

[gravelpit]

I also had this problem in the Uk. My rio 240 came with a 200 watt heater and as soon as the weater started to freeze so, quite frankly, did the tank. Now, Juwel Heaters I have heard can be a problem, some it would seem love them but quite a few have had problems. In fact it seems that they vary considerably. When I explained my problem to my LFS he claimed that he did not infact sell juwel heaters and that he could sell me another to run alonside the Juwel. So I now have a 200 watt Juwel at one emd and a 250 watt (Aquamel is it????) at the other and oh boy what a difference. I have found that with both turned down quite low I can maintain a really nice heat. My Angels now swim all over where as with the one heater they used to stay over the side nearest. In fact I have gone double crazy and purchased a Eheim classic external fitler to run alongside my Juwel internal. Now what are all your thoughts on running two filters. The reason I have done it is that I found the Juwel pump / filter good but not quite able to hold the ammonia totally at bay. Thoughts please on filters and doubling up.

Cheers,

Kit

 

[bbortko]

Power usage should be the same. No mater how many heaters you have it takes a certain amount of energy to maintain the temperature, whether you have 1 heater on for 20 minutes/hour or 2 for 10 minutes/hour your drawing the same amount of energy. Having 2 heaters is a good practice especially if your tank is over 4' long.