Electricity

[Vitaliy]

Before I even start I must warn you about my lack of knowledge as far as proper terms go - so beware! For those of you who keep more than one tank in one area, what do you do about the electricity plugs?

I have 4 electrical outlets in my room, each one has one of these in:

01 - 55 and 30 gallon tanks: 4 filters, 2 heaters, lights, air pump
02 - TV, VCR, DVD, Cable, etc.
03 - PC, Firewall (not a router - another workstation used as a server and firewall), Laptop, Digital Camera, etc.
04 - Generally lights, and my minor gadgets like my cell phone.

Since this is my bedroom in a tiny NYC apartment, fitting couple of 90+ gallon tanks in this room would not work. BUT I still want more fish, which means I want to stack 10 gallon tanks everywhere! I love the hobby in general, not just monsters - I would be happy with bunch of tanks with smaller fish as well.

Anyway, any ideas how I can gain more electrical outlets/plugs? How would I go about making everything run without blowing out the electricity, in the summer time I already got problems running all this stuff while having an air conditioner blasting?

 

[rumblesushi]

I've been wanting to ask the same question Vitali, all these people with 20 tanks etc, where the hell do they get the electricity? I don't have enough sockets for that.

My tanks require 4-6 sockets each.

 

[shekes]

From what I understand your problem are the fuses. You should check how many amper the fuse/s fro your room take. 1amper* 1volt = 1 watt. Therefore if your fuse is 10A (and your voltage 110 I suppose) you can plug in devices AND have them powered simulatanously up to 1100 watt.

Now, the AC, heaters, TV, PC monitor and lights need 60-500 watt each. The rest of the stuff - 5-25. Do you know if all outlets come from the same fuse? Check! And check the As!
If so you should distribute these watts more or less evenly among the outlets, and, if that's not enough, lay a cable from a differnet fuse. You can check if the adjacent room is powered through a different fuse. It should be easy to connect the AC to a separate fuse.

IMHO You, as responsible as I understand you are, should realize that having heaters and AC in the same room is a total waste of electricity. If you cover your tank very well to prevent evaporation and isolate it with something on non-transperent sides you'd safe some juice.

 

[rayman45]

my 180 uses
2-lights
1pump
2-heaters
i use one serge strip on each one of my tanks. no matter how many plugs i need

 

[rayman45]

From what I understand your problem are the fuses. You should check how many amper the fuse/s fro your room take. 1amper* 1volt = 1 watt. Therefore if your fuse is 10A (and your voltage 110 I suppose) you can plug in devices AND have them powered simulatanously up to 1100 watt.

Now, the AC, heaters, TV, PC monitor and lights need 60-500 watt each. The rest of the stuff - 5-25. Do you know if all outlets come from the same fuse? Check! And check the As!
If so you should distribute these watts more or less evenly among the outlets, and, if that's not enough, lay a cable from a differnet fuse. You can check if the adjacent room is powered through a different fuse. It should be easy to connect the AC to a separate fuse.

IMHO You, as responsible as I understand you are, should realize that having heaters and AC in the same room is a total waste of electricity. If you cover your tank very well to prevent evaporation and isolate it with something on non-transperent sides you'd safe some juice.

my basement dosent have a/c i have baseboards.. but i never use em

 

[rallysman]

Do a search and a quick read on Ohms law and its easy to understand....if i didnt have to take off i would get into this conversation

maybe when i get home i can throw my 2 cents in

 

[shekes]

my basement dosent have a/c i have baseboards.. but i never use em

I obvioulsy was addressing Vitaliy.
Since when are you responsible?

 

[guppy]

when running a lot of tank I find at least two circuits that run off different breakers then replace at least one outlet in each room with a 4 plug in GFI outlet that I then run surge protector strips from. I am partially color blind so I have it done by someone competent instead of doing it myself.