Energy Consumption

[mike31154]

On the subject of low power skimmers... I'm back to an old DIY air driven skimmer too after having run a Remora C with Mag 3. Don't recall what the Mag 3 uses for power, but the Remora was pretty noisy with that thing feeding the injector. The old air driven job is dead silent being run by a tiny Aquaclear 301 power head and Stellar S-30 air pump for a total of just over 11 watts. Produces nice dry skimmate too, whereas the Remora just made a lot of mildly coloured water which had to be dumped every couple of days. I've got a drain hose on the air driven, but there's never enough fluid accumulation to have to empy anything. Just scrape out the goo and wipe the collection neck every 4 to 5 days. Another plus is that at 11 watts I'm able to run that skimmer on back up power for quite a while.

[Marlin65]

I run a Ramora and mag 3 as well and have little collection I just assumed it was my low nutrient tank , but now you have me thinking.
PS did not want to seem negative saving money is always good and looks like you have made a difference good on you.

[skylord]

I ran into the same thing when I started setting up my new system. First power bill was 660 for 2 months. Got me looking at where I was wasting the power. Changed a couple of pumps.....removed a couple that were just a waste. All in all I looked at every peace of equipment. But I didnt stop there. I then went through the rest of the house to see were it was being wasted(got one of those power meters....worth the $35). I spent about $300 to change a few things and the way we were living in general. My last power bill was $310 for 2 months. Thats saving over 2000 a year. Well worth the effort.

Scott

[AndyL]

Can't argue with the fact that yes the powers a small component of this hobby, but if you believe that global warming stuff we should all be doing something...

I was just sharing what I found on the one tank - Across the 4 in the house the changes should actually add up to real money

I've got a bunch of solar equipment for the camper (we tend not to be around hookups), I've spent a bit of time lately pondering whether I couldn't run the tank lighting off a solar / wind system... But that'll have to wait until I've got a few grand to dump on a wind turbine

[WhoPoopWrasse]

I'm expecting the police to knock on my door soon thinking I'm running a hydroponics pot house!
I guess I should sit down and calculate all the power all my tanks are sucking up!

AndyL, how did you calculate your power consumption? I recently dyed my hair blonde and I'm lost!

[mark]

Originally Posted by WhoPoopWrasse

I'm expecting the police to knock on my door soon thinking I'm running a hydroponics pot house!
I guess I should sit down and calculate all the power all my tanks are sucking up!

AndyL, how did you calculate your power consumption? I recently dyed my hair blonde and I'm lost!

little calculator here: http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/tank_elec_calc.php

[WhoPoopWrasse]

Thanks Mark, that's a really cool little calculator
After calculating, it's not as bad as I thought it would be although I only calculated the lighting on my 90 gallon. Just the lighting is $15.86 a month. Maybe tomorrow I'll take the time to calculate the whole shabang!