Alt Energy to power the tank

[Chad]

Hi, I have been looking into getting some solar panels to run my tank's pumps etc. Has anyone else tried this or thought about it? I was thinking I would have the tank run off the panels during the day, weather permitting, and as the power dropped off have it run off of the house electricity. Is it even feasible to seamlessly transfer to the house power? I only just recently began looking into it so I am not entirely positive I can even make it work.

Thoughts?

[BC564]

You can do it with solar panels...and batteries...inverters........
and as a last resort use the house electricity......

[hillbillyreefer]

Shouldn't be a problem for power. Run the system off batteries and inverters the entire time, set up a battery charger that runs off the grid for days when the solar cells can't keep up. Automating it shouldn't be too hard with the growth in technology. If you run MH you might need a pile of solar panels to keep up. Adding a wind charger might be a good idea too, would help a bit on dark days and at night. Good luck with the project.

Brad

[dsaundry]

Pricey?? :question: :question:

[UnderWorldAquatics]

its a little pricey to set up a system that works very well, but I did burst out laughing when I noticed your asking about solar energy and you live in the lower mainland.... lol.... we'll just say you wont be getting your full moneys worth....;) but power to you! Im a strong supporter of alt energy.

We just gota figure out how we can lynch the stupid mother $^%$%#'s promoting/suporting ethenol fuel as something good...........I could kill!!!

[hillbillyreefer]

The setup will probably not be cost effective, cheaper to use the grid.

As for ethanol, I get a huge grin everytime grain prices go up. The enviromentalists really shot themselves in the foot on that one. Let's use food to run motors, idiots. Obviously we had too much food to have that little respect for it. But hey I'm all for burning food as an energy source, maybe the next mortgage payment won't be such a problem.

[Chad]

Well, I was considering it more for such things as power heads, which generally have a very low wattage. I guess it would not be that cost effective unless you had the system running for a very long time but then you could use the panels for something else as well.

I will have to see, I found a few panels that produce 110w for a relatively decent price.

[hillbillyreefer]

It's an interesting topic for a slow Friday afternoon. How much are the decent price 110w panels? I just got some 12v xenon headlights I'm going to rig into a reflector for my tank. I was just going to use a storage battery and a charger to fire the bulbs. Solar panels may not be a bad way to go, in the future. I wouldn't need an inverter just the panels and a battery. hmmm.

[BC564]

Canadian tire had the solar panel battery regulators on sale for like $27...

[rdnicolas]

its a little pricey to set up a system that works very well, but I did burst out laughing when I noticed your asking about solar energy and you live in the lower mainland.... lol.... we'll just say you wont be getting your full moneys worth....;) but power to you! Im a strong supporter of alt energy.

We just gota figure out how we can lynch the stupid mother $^%$%#'s promoting/suporting ethenol fuel as something good...........I could kill!!!

Yeah Ehtanol is definitley not helping the world energy crises as an alternative fuel. Its killing global wheat prices and actually takes more energy to produce and refine it that it creates. Hydrogen fuel cells sound like a better "big picture" solution.

[mark]

you're talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a solar panel large enough just for a PH and thousands for a return pump and a set of lights.

[Chad]

Its not completely out of the ball park.. You can build your own for half the price of a kit.

here is a kit from Home Depot

http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=936506&Ntt=936506&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&recN=112101&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber

Granted it is expensive, but its also 1750watts and probably contains stuff you really do not require.

Anyways.. its an idea. I saw a few panels on Ebay for a few 100$ each one about 75w I think... a maxi jet 1200 is 20w. So for a small tank I think it might be interesting.

[hillbillyreefer]

$5500 for 1750 watts seems a little pricey to me, I'll have to do more looking though. Three big panels 4 deep cycle batteries and an inverter/charge controller, with some screws and mounting equipment. Shouldn't be too much trouble to pick your own parts off the shelf. I don't see anywhere the output of the panels. 1750 watt will be the inverter output, there is no mention of how long it'll maintain 1750 watts.

[mark]

The wattages given are at peak sun so factor that, then the cost for battery, charger, invertor and also consider the losses from those you need to make up for.

[iansfishy]

im all for alt energy. It costs a little more but my house is heated by goethermal and i dont know the exact number but a good majority of my tank is run off a wind turbine unit i got from canadian tire but is made by a diffrent manufacterer. The only one you can get at canadian tire. it is made in utah i think. it cost 2100.00 bucks in the end ( you need a place to store the "energy" and i have a real big unit). you can get a smaller one for around 1000.00

[Todd]

Very interesting thread. As an environmental economist (by degree), I have a hard time justifying the environmental impacts of having a large reef tank. In the future I would like to have a carbon neutral tank, by using alternative energy and by purchasing carbon credits (offsets) - once some of the kinks of these have been ironed out.

Keep us informed as to how your project goes!

[fencer]

Okay, this is what we all really need to drive the MH lights and pumps. Why go green when you can have free power for the next hundreds years or so.....
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-toshiba-micro-nuclear-12.17b.html

[hillbillyreefer]

Can't wait to see the environmentalists go into convulsions when they release that baby. Sign me up for one!!!!!!

[saltyrockbox]

Todd

I feel the same way about the energy demands of a large tank.

I have read many articles about reef bleaching it is very clearly related to sea level temperatures and acidity which are increasing due to CO2 pollution.

(Detailed article from 1999- from a highly acclaimed Marine Bio University and Researchers)

http://www.jeffwalden.com/PowerPoints/PowerPointsBio20/Climate%20change%20coral%20bleaching%20and%20the%2 0future%20of%20the%20worlds%20coral%20reefs.pdf

I used to live in Waterloo Ont and worked in hte engeneering department of the untility company. We were installing 2-way meters that allowed coutomers to feed electricity from wind or solar cells back to the grid. This made the technology viable becasue it cuts out the need for batteries and allows seemles transition from the your source to the grid...good for reef tanks.

Also in Calgary where i live now, You can easily choose to buy WIND electricly
from Enmax our main utility company. It cost 12c/KWh I believe, before I think I paid 9c/KWh. Good deal for piece of mind and relative to a personal onside generation cost. Many business use wind energy here and like to show off that fact;)

[spreerider]

you can use a computer UPS for short term power outages to run heaters and pumps but lights would kill one in hours.

best method is to get a small honda genset and use that in the event of an outtage,

if you used a bunch of solar pannels and a battery bank and an inverter you could feed power back into the grid on bright days and get a credit from bchydro then get a slight decrease in consumption when its cloudy.

[hillbillyreefer]

Does anyone know if feeding power back into the grid is allowed in Alberta? Seems to me that it is but the hoops are almost impossible for the little guy to jump through.

[PoonTang]

Okay, this is what we all really need to drive the MH lights and pumps. Why go green when you can have free power for the next hundreds years or so.....
http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-toshiba-micro-nuclear-12.17b.html

Interesting for sure but the cost hardly justifies it, its not that much cheaper than regular hydro and the initial costs must be phenominal.

[rdnicolas]

Interesting for sure but the cost hardly justifies it, its not that much cheaper than regular hydro and the initial costs must be phenominal.

But think of all the double headed fish we can have! jk ;)

[StirCrazy]

don't forget that the solar foot print we live in will only give us about 50 to 60% of the rated power at best in the summer and down to 30 to 40% in the winter. also using an inverter and running AC equipment is very waistfull in DC power, to do it right you would have to get DC pumps, storage batteries.

here is an example. a 50 watt load will drain 236 amphours in 24 hours, this is a DC 50 watts so for an AC load you can add 10% so 21ish hours. this means you will need atleast four 236AH 6volt batteries as you don't want to discharge below 50% if possible. this also means you will need to be able to put that 236AH back into the battery box in aproximatly the 6 hours of good sun we have for solar purposes. a 110 watt pannel will put 9AH in every hour so this is 56AH. so 4 of thoes pannels will keep up.

so lest see, 1600-2400.00 worth of solar pannels (depending on price) 50.00 for a regulator, and 720.00 for good batteries. all this to save maybe 60.00 a year. if you buy the expensive pannels(which you would if you are smart as cheep ones are rated at a lower voltage and don't actualy preform as good) you are looking at 53 years for the pannels to pay themselves off.

now a better alternative would be the 110 watt wind generator from cannuck rubber, you still need the good batteries but it is 400 instead of 2400 and puts out 24/7, if there is a wind over 14mph (the thing you have to read in the small print) if wind is slower they put out less. there are also several links on the internet for building wind generators from car altanators and such.

Steve

[mark]

Wind's the way to go.

For our high arctic auto weather stations used to run solar only and large battery packs but have been adding wind generators. We've been able to reduce the size of the battery packs because of with a relatively light wind, can dump the current into the battery through the charger. They over come the issue of frost build up, cloud and fog and of course have the panels beat on that 24 hr darkness thing.

Still think long way to go before cost effective to run a reef tank.

[spreerider]

the best method of solar power doesnt use pannels it uses parabolic mirrors to heat water in a pipe then use that water to turn a turbine, its simple to build and generates AC current, so no need for wastefull inverters and no pollution manufacturing pannels.
but large scale projects are more efficient than many small ones so it makes more sense to buy power from the local supplier (depending on your price) but in bc power is relitivly cheap 6.5cents per KW/H

[kwirky]

you could probably use it for heating the tank quite economically. the most efficient method of domestic solar panels is pool heating. supposed to save tons of money.

[kari]

240w Costco solar panels and equip.

http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10302772&search=solar&Mo=31&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-CA&Nr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&Sp=S&N=0&whse=BCCA&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&Ne=4000000&D=solar&Ntt=solar&No=11&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1


900W Wind Generator

http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10307170&search=wind&Mo=2&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-CA&Nr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&Sp=S&N=0&whse=BCCA&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&Ne=4000000&D=wind&Ntt=wind&No=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1