heat the whole room VS in tank heater

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M

mopani

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Oct 18, 2012
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so atm my fish room is a 14 ft wide by about 20-24 ft long, odd dimensions but it will fit. it will have central heat/air at the moment. It will contain about 1000 gallons of water, would it be cheaper to try to heat the room, or have about 6 or 7x 300W heaters going at my house now my powerbill is about 130.00, with 4x 300 and 2x 150s going, well plus all other stuff. just trying to find the best option. I am NC if that means anything. also any tips on heating a room
 
If you have natural gas service, you might look into a ventless gas heater for just the room. Heating with gas would be less costly then all those heaters. If you went with a vented one it sould also help burn some of the humidity out of the air. A ceiling fan would help to circulate the air / heat.
 
With over 100 tanks running, I heat the fish building instead of individual tanks. I keep the temp around 79-80. During summer, I have to run A/C to keep the building down around 80. The building has been extensively insulated and moisture-proofed. All windows were replaced with double-insulated vinyl windows. Heating the building has advantages like the filtration/plumbing is heated, I don't have over 100 heaters plugged in. Natural gas heating runs my total utility bill for the building at around $125/month (gas and electric). The bill runs a little higher during peak hot and cold months. I have about 15 ceiling fans throughout the building to keep air moving to prevent stagnating moist spots. Heating the building also allows me to keep stored water (1000gal, 500gal, and 400gal tanks) at aquarium temperature for water changes. A single blower runs all the air injectors, sponge filters, skimmers, and air stones. There are also aerating bars in the storage tanks.
Downside is I can't keep cool-water species in the building.
I also keep steel or titanium large heaters (500w-1000w) on hand in case I need to treat a tank and boost the temp during treatment.
 
it depends, I would go for natural gas unless u keep cold water species, otherwise u would end up running a chiller which is far more costly than heating


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If you have central air/heat you will need a thermostat in the fish room and a furnace capable of dual zones otherwise you heating and cooling the whole house to the temp of the fish room. You can get a wall mounted natural gas heater for cheap but fr cooling you may have to cut in a window unit.
 
I run a 1,500W radiant heater in my 12x24 (sort of) fish room. Much cheaper than running individual heaters on tanks. 36 x 50W + 8 x 100W = 2600W

I say sort of, because my basement actually has another section on it that is about 10 x 12. I'm getting ready to wall it off, so I should see an increase in efficiency due to reduce room volume and air loss up towars the upper level due to crappy doors.

I estimate that I'm running about $100, but I haven't take the time to nailit down yet. Not sure if I want to. LOL

Not to mention new windows in a couple weeks.
 
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