It is usually cheaper to heat the whole room, rather then just the tank. A basement shouldn't be that cold as a rule. The ground should keep a constant temp in the mid 60's. It may be a matter of sealing it better.
How to keep tank energy effeicient?
- Thread starter Oscar123
- Start date
insulate your house is the best way lol.
best cheap way would be.
thick glass lids 6mm + glass is a crap insulator so having 2-4mm is hardly going to make a difference 6mm + wont make much difference but it will work a lot better then 2-4mm.
a high density foam on the base and all 3 sides of the tanks and some on the lids. try to go thick. 30mm-50mm would be great. Yes your tank will look a bit odd but if get a good dense foam you can paint it with water based paints so it comes out nice or build a wooden box around the foam which in theory will add to your insulation r value.
place the tank away from windows etc.
at night place a thick blanket over the tank or a sleep bag if you have a spare one it will work better. At night it gets colder and the fish are sleeping so having a blanket or bag over the tank has no down sides.
if you do all that or most of it your tank should hold heat very well. heating uses the most power.
as for hob vs canister etc depends on the canister a eheim 2213 uses less - same power as most hobs with a decent media size
the way I see it a canister will hold more media which depending on your stock will be a larger benefit then saving a little on the 10W difference etc. Like I said heating uses the most power.
1x 100W heater = 2x fx5s almost (10W extra) if a tank is in a poor insulated house the heater will run non stop it may turn off a few minutes but will be running 98% of the day. reason being normal glass can not hold heat at all. so your 100W heater is trying to heat every room in the house. once you seal the tank off passing cooler air will not get in contact with the glass (apart for the front) the foam will not allow heat to pass the glass so your now only heating a small area.
best cheap way would be.
thick glass lids 6mm + glass is a crap insulator so having 2-4mm is hardly going to make a difference 6mm + wont make much difference but it will work a lot better then 2-4mm.
a high density foam on the base and all 3 sides of the tanks and some on the lids. try to go thick. 30mm-50mm would be great. Yes your tank will look a bit odd but if get a good dense foam you can paint it with water based paints so it comes out nice or build a wooden box around the foam which in theory will add to your insulation r value.
place the tank away from windows etc.
at night place a thick blanket over the tank or a sleep bag if you have a spare one it will work better. At night it gets colder and the fish are sleeping so having a blanket or bag over the tank has no down sides.
if you do all that or most of it your tank should hold heat very well. heating uses the most power.
as for hob vs canister etc depends on the canister a eheim 2213 uses less - same power as most hobs with a decent media size
the way I see it a canister will hold more media which depending on your stock will be a larger benefit then saving a little on the 10W difference etc. Like I said heating uses the most power. 1x 100W heater = 2x fx5s almost (10W extra) if a tank is in a poor insulated house the heater will run non stop it may turn off a few minutes but will be running 98% of the day. reason being normal glass can not hold heat at all. so your 100W heater is trying to heat every room in the house. once you seal the tank off passing cooler air will not get in contact with the glass (apart for the front) the foam will not allow heat to pass the glass so your now only heating a small area.
This calculator will "plot the change in aquarium temperature as a function of time in the event of a power failure." Love this guys site...it has all sorts of calculators with good info.
http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/HeaterChillerFailure.php
That heater probably is not putting too much of a dent in your electric bill.Look around the house for other ways to cut back,turn off rom lights and appliances if they are not needed.
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Ahhh, I see what all you mean.. Well, will do the styrofoam thing anyway and the blanket method lol
I was thinking aswell what if I got like 2x 25watt heaters for my 100 gal and just let them run all day ? And a single 25watt for my 20gal and let it run all day too? From my calculations works out cheaper.. As per day we use about 10-13KW in the house!
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I was thinking aswell what if I got like 2x 25watt heaters for my 100 gal and just let them run all day ? And a single 25watt for my 20gal and let it run all day too? From my calculations works out cheaper.. As per day we use about 10-13KW in the house!
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I wanted to save a bit of money with the hobby to I switched my lighting over to LED's. I was running two HO T5 fixtures that used 4 tubes at 39watts each. With the new LED's I figure I will pay for the cost of the fixtures (Beamswork) in a years time. I also have all my lighting on timers and make sure to have a very tight fitting glass top.
Going with undersized heaters is not a good idea. If you get undersized heaters that are just powerful enough to replace the heat loss of the tank, you will not save any money or reduce your electrical consumption. If you buy a properly sized heater (about 2 to 4 watts per gallon) they will cycle on, heat your water to the desired temp then turn off until the temps drops and the whole process starts all over again. In other words, you will be putting the same energy in to the tank to maintain your desired temps, but he likelihood of your heaters burning out goes up if they are being overworked.
Smaller heater will use less power while on, but they will run for longer periods of time.
Larger heaters will use more power while on, but they will run much less frequently because they will heat to the desired temp rapidly.
I wish I only used 10 to 13KWHrs per day. I'm at about 20 to 25KWHrs.
move away from tropicals. switch to native fish or north american fish. if you can that is, I have no idea as to your laws. while there isn't as much variety as with tropicals, there are still plenty of attractive and interesting fish that require no heater.
