Looking for advice on how to heat multiple tanks as the electric bill is getting high with conventional heaters. I run 2 heaters in each tank so if there is an issue with 1 the tank won't freeze or cook, is this contributing to the high electric use. I would think it is easier to maintain temp with 2 heaters not working as hard and using less electricity or am I wrong.
Trying to cut down on electric bill
- Thread starter poppalina
- Start date
use the room heat? i live in an apt, keep my heat at 65, my tank stays no lower then 75. and also use sponge filters, way better on elec bill then HOBs or canisters.
Hello; My take is that two 100 watt heaters should use about the same amount of electricity as one 200 watt heater. The use of two heaters is a decent practice and I have used it. The savings may be that two heaters sharing the load may last longer than one big heater, so perhaps fewer heaters replaced over time. You should also get more even heat throughout the tanks.
Another way to think about it is that the heat leaving the tanks goes to heat the living space of the house if the tanks are in the living area. No joy if they are in a garage, perhaps a little if in a basement. Aquarium heaters I am familiar with use resistance wires to create heat. This resistance heat is a more expensive way to make heat from electricity. Should the house be heated with a high effeciency heat pump or gas furnace it may be that some savings can be had by increasing the ambient room temp so that the tank heaters do not have to work as much.
I do not know what fish you have or the temp you usually try to keep the tanks, but you may be able to lower the temps a bit and not harm many fish. Say 75 F instead of 80 F. Some fish may require higher temps while many do fine at lower temps.
Lights may be the best area to save on power consumption. I now have fluorescent bulbs on all my tanks. That has saved over the incadescent bulbs I used for many decades. I hope to try some LED types before long which should save even more. If you do not grow plants perhaps the lights can be left on for shorter periods.
Filtration may be a place to reduce power consumption. Based on what I have read in many posts, a number of members run much more filtration than is actually necessary.
One thing I do is to stagger water changes and alow the heated tank water to sit in buckets for up to a day. This allows the warm water from the tanks to radiate the heat into the house before it is discarded.
Good luck
last month my elec bill was in the 60 dollar range, i only use tank light and sponge filter, keep my apt at 65, the tank stays about 75 ( 10 degrees warmer ), well thats all i use..
This. Heat transfer through glass is disturbingly quick. Only thing worse would be metal or diamond lol Who's going to invent the double pane aquarium?
Sent from my DROID RAZR using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
This. Heat transfer through glass is disturbingly quick. Only thing worse would be metal or diamond lol Who's going to invent the double pane aquarium?
Sent from my DROID RAZR using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
wait i have glass lids on my 55 and 20 long, heat seems to stay in pretty good? atleast constant temps no lower then 76 degrees...
i would get something for your tank. i have glass lids then a cannapy ( which i dont use, so just stores away.. )