About a month ago I picked up one of those Kill-a-Watt devices on sale for $16. (Current on sale now for $16 if you are interested: http://www.meritline.com/p3-international-p4400-kill-watt-electricity-detector---p-22980.aspx ) I was really interested in how much my aquarium was costing me to run so I plugged my aquarium in through it.
I found that my setup was consuming 43 watts with the heater off. What I found very interesting was that over this past month the power consumption slowly decreased??? Yesterday the power consumption with the heater off was 38 watts. I did my monthly water change as usual and the device was still reading 38 watts with the heater off as the incoming water is always a bit warmer (I have well water so I just pipe in the water directly from my kitchen sink without treatment).
I have a big DE pool filter that I have posted about many times (I love this filter!!!). The last bit of maintenance in my monthly routine is pull the sump pump power cord, Pump the DE filter handle a couple of times, Then plug it back in. Walla.... 43 watts power draw!!!!!
Contrary to what would seem intuitive since most aquarium pumps are not positive displacement pumps they actually work harder when more water passes through them! The head pressure in my case being the obstructions in the DE filter that lowers the amount of water that is being pushed through the pump hence the amount of power needed to move it. When I removed the obstructions (by cranking on handle that knocks off the DE media from the screens) more water was able to flow through the filter and the pump. More water flowing through the pump means more work. More work = more watts consumed!
The moral of this story being that when you restrict the flow in a non-positive displacement pump the pump is actually doing less work because it is moving less water!
Does anyone else monitor the power consumption on their aquariums? If so I would be interested in hearing your power consumption figures.
My equipment:
Eheim 2075
Sump with QuietOne 3000 pump going through a Hayward EC40 pool DE filter.
Azoo 300W heater.
I found that my setup was consuming 43 watts with the heater off. What I found very interesting was that over this past month the power consumption slowly decreased??? Yesterday the power consumption with the heater off was 38 watts. I did my monthly water change as usual and the device was still reading 38 watts with the heater off as the incoming water is always a bit warmer (I have well water so I just pipe in the water directly from my kitchen sink without treatment).
I have a big DE pool filter that I have posted about many times (I love this filter!!!). The last bit of maintenance in my monthly routine is pull the sump pump power cord, Pump the DE filter handle a couple of times, Then plug it back in. Walla.... 43 watts power draw!!!!!
Contrary to what would seem intuitive since most aquarium pumps are not positive displacement pumps they actually work harder when more water passes through them! The head pressure in my case being the obstructions in the DE filter that lowers the amount of water that is being pushed through the pump hence the amount of power needed to move it. When I removed the obstructions (by cranking on handle that knocks off the DE media from the screens) more water was able to flow through the filter and the pump. More water flowing through the pump means more work. More work = more watts consumed!
The moral of this story being that when you restrict the flow in a non-positive displacement pump the pump is actually doing less work because it is moving less water!
Does anyone else monitor the power consumption on their aquariums? If so I would be interested in hearing your power consumption figures.
My equipment:
Eheim 2075
Sump with QuietOne 3000 pump going through a Hayward EC40 pool DE filter.
Azoo 300W heater.
