Power saving tips and ways to save money!?

[ashr]

Hey all

We all know how much power our tanks can run and the ugly power bill that fallows. I wanted to know if anyone has any tips to help save power and keep our power bills down.

Has anyone noticed since the switch to smart meter (if you have switched) Has your bill gone up? Gone down? Share some of your tips and help us all save a little money!

[reefwars]

dc pumps!!!! love em!!!!~~~

[jagermaier]

Use LED lights...that will save on your power bill!

[Baldy]

Originally Posted by jagermaier

Use LED lights...that will save on your power bill!

+1. i have 160w worth of LEDs that would easily rival 500W of MH plus T5.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Baldy

+1. i have 160w worth of LEDs that would easily rival 500W of MH plus T5.

im not sure that the savings is all that much , realistically your heaters are going to run alot more now that you have leds,if you run 2 or 3 200w heaters does it save anything?? some savings yes but def not as much as what is led to believe.

[Baldy]

I would be curious to know the difference in heating. It would be very hard to prove, but i would argue that a small % of the total heat given off is actually absorbed by the water compared to dissipated in the air in the room. this is simply a guess, and like i said, would be difficult to test. the difference between the two without the heat changes is 4.08kwh per day @ $0.085 per kwh (as per my last power bill), is only 10$ a month.

[Baldy]

I should add that 2 out of the 4 40w drivers i have dont have enough LEDs to run at 100%, and the other 2 are dimmed to 80%. I dont have a par meter yet so i cant say definitively ywhether or not its equivalent to 2x250W MH. the par meter is on its way though

[jagermaier]

Originally Posted by reefwars

im not sure that the savings is all that much , realistically your heaters are going to run alot more now that you have leds,if you run 2 or 3 200w heaters does it save anything?? some savings yes but def not as much as what is led to believe.

Good point Denny, but how many people are running chillers as well with their Metal Halides so that kind of counters the whole heater savings aspect I would still say that led lighting is the biggest power savings for your tank...

[ashr]

Originally Posted by reefwars

dc pumps!!!! love em!!!!~~~

Can you give me some more info on this?

[reefgirl189]

We have a wood burning fireplace. It saves us on heating costs during the winter.

Whatever you do, don't put your sump in the basement and the DT on the main floor. The beefy return pump you'll need is heavy on power consumption, so I've learned.