Solar power for Aquariums
- Thread starter coalcut
- Start date
If you can afford the initial financial hit get a full grid connected rooftop system. Not sure how costly they are in the U.S but they aren't cheap here but there are government subsidies available to help a bit. Any excess power is fed back into the grid and the power company pays you for it, does that happen there? They pay next to nothing for the energy but if your tanks are sucking up the juice during the day then eventually the power bill savings will pass the cost of your bills and then the system has effectively paid for itself.
How much is your power bill? Payback period is likely to be in the decades.
How much power is your tank actually using? Get a watt meter or similar and actually find out.
What size tank? What temperature are you running it at? What temperature is the room the tank is in? How long are your lights on? Is your tank insulated? Biggest bang for the buck to save power frequently is taping sheet of foam to the tank to reduce heat loss, dropping the tank temp. And possibly heating the room more if your home heating is more efficient and your house better insulated.
Don’t know how serious you are about a small scale solar system for just the tank, but coincidentally, this popped up on Craigslist today. Located in Temecula. About an hour and some change from you depending on traffic.
Solar Panels 50 WATTS - general for sale - by owner
Solar Panels by SUNTECH Buy 10 panels and get one free! Perfect for small solar projects, fish...
inlandempire.craigslist.org