Enclosing and heating tank - again.

[nfored]

I keep going back to the thought that it just has to be cheaper to completely close the tank on 5 sides within a small room that has maybe 2 or 3 inches of space in the enclosed tank. If this space is well insulated, you would be trying to heat maybe a couple sq feet, a 500 watt wall mounted heater should be able to keep that space 90.

So in this thread http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...vs-water-with-a-twist&highlight=enclosed+tank we talked about if it would work and be safe.

However I am wondering about what we think about is it cheaper in the long run for big tanks? I mean cheap plywood and maybe 2 bags of insulation would set you back maybe 100. or 150.00. In my mind if you need 1000watts or more to heat your water that you would recover this cost in 5 to 6 months if you can heat the enclosed room using only 500 watts or maybe 1 year if you need 800watts.

If you are not using that much because of your ambient temp or for any other reason it wouldn't makes sense.

 

[hondas3000]

The tank area is much smaller then the room so heating small space is cheaper in my opinion. But as for my tank I have to use 1000Watt heater even my tank is insulate and well cover and my heater still run almost 20hours a day because of my drip water system. I drip with with cold water and the temp from the drip water come out about 2 degrees Celsius. If its not for the drip system I think my tank can hold the temp fine with the heat from the light and the pump. Now I need to figure out how to increase the temp for my drip system so I can lower the electrical cost.

 

[Dan F]

You don't need to leave any space around the tank, just insulate the tank itself. By insulating the panes you don't look through with foam-board insulation you can dramatically reduce the amount of heat needed. All my garage tanks are insulated this way.

 

[broken]

I built a small room thats insulated for my 560gal tank thats in my garage and I have no issues with heating it with only 2-300 watt heaters in the winter time. But you do have to keep in mind that the temps only drop down below freezing for maybe 2 weeks a year in Louisiana.

I also put a vent for heating/cooling thats hooked up to my ac unit in the ceiling of the small room.

 

[nfored]

I wonder if you even need water heaters at all, other then interact emergency back up. If the enclosure ifs 90 then shouldn't it be enough to keep the water maintained? I guess I wonder of people who lived in hot places can chime in on if they get buy without heaters