Electric bill

Tethered_Limbs said:
you run a/c in yur house?
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My central AC/Heat system is on a timer so it's set to come on just before I come home and turns off just before I leave in teh morning. I came home during that first heat spell and the temp in my flat was 90 and several degrees warmer in my tank. Daisy doesn't like the heat but she stays cool in the bedroom but my tank is in the living room. On days like today, my AC is on all day and my chiller is on as well. It's set to 78.
 
helitaiwan963 said:
wow... that's crazy... I have 2x 250w MH's and 2 vhos and i never get above 83... even today, it's just 79.7 right now... Keep my house at 78*F
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With my shades/blinds and curtians closed, it will usually hover in the 80s but like I said, it can go into the 90s on really hot days. Couple that with the heat from the return pumps, LEDs and the skimmer pump and you get a few more degrees warmer in the water.
 
Greg said:
Some people dont believe me when I say leds (even radions) are cheaper than halides. They think it takes years to make the money back, but in reality its only a few months especially considering bulb replacement in the future. Halides are alot more expensive to run! Many people dont do the total math.
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If you run 3x250W MH, it is only 10 cents per hour at 13cents/kwh. Even if you assume another 10 cents to cool it, it's still only 20 cents an hour. If you light your tank for 8 hours, it's only 1.60 day. If you run LEDs, you save about 50%, so 80 cents a day. It will take years to get your money back. Also, LEDs do not last forever. It has MTBF of 50,000 hours. That's when LEDs lose half the output under ideal conditions. You will need to replace your LEDs way before that. I would be shocked if you can use it for more than 5 years. For price, nothing beats T5s..
 
Kevin Says said:
If you run 3x250W MH, it is only 10 cents per hour at 13cents/kwh. Even if you assume another 10 cents to cool it, it's still only 20 cents an hour. If you light your tank for 8 hours, it's only 1.60 day. If you run LEDs, you save about 50%, so 80 cents a day. It will take years to get your money back. Also, LEDs do not last forever. It has MTBF of 50,000 hours. That's when LEDs lose half the output under ideal conditions. You will need to replace your LEDs way before that. I would be shocked if you can use it for more than 5 years. For price, nothing beats T5s..
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Um yah, not even going to point out the mistakes in this lol. Goodluck! :D
 
Here's the formula to figure the cost of running a device:

wattage x hours used ÷ 1000 x price per kWh = cost of electricity

For example, let's say you leave a 100-watt bulb running continuously (730 hours a month), and you're paying 15¢/kWh. Your cost to run the bulb all month is 100 x 730 ÷ 1000 x 15¢ = $10.95.
 
If it's 1.60 per day, then thats $584 a year, and I think that's a very low estimate... If you half that, it's $292 per year, and that's half a LED unit. An expensive one at that. Not sure why you think it's not a significant cost savings....
 
Kevin Says said:
If you run 3x250W MH, it is only 10 cents per hour at 13cents/kwh. Even if you assume another 10 cents to cool it, it's still only 20 cents an hour. If you light your tank for 8 hours, it's only 1.60 day. If you run LEDs, you save about 50%, so 80 cents a day.
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The funniest part is he even calculated his own flawed numbers wrong lol.
Notice he took 50% of 1.60 (which is his price to run metal halides AND his price to cool from the mh heat).
Not to mention quality led's are 25%-30% less power (with same or greater par output) on power consumption alone.
Not going to bother going into the rest.
 
So, if it costs $1.60 for light and $1.60 for chiller, then that's $1168. Now consider half the lights alone is $292, and not ever running a chiller for 6 months (fall and winter and spring) and even then significantly less during the summer for halides, let's over estimate 1/3 of the chiller time. So that is $194 cost for the chiller (and even that is probably a high estimate), the total cost for LED's and chiller is $486.

1168-486= $682 per year savings.

So because I misread the original, he actually just paid for an Ecotech Radion in one year. Nice job man!
 
Greg said:
The funniest part is he even calculated his own flawed numbers wrong lol.
Notice he took 50% of 1.60 (which is his price to run metal halides AND his price to cool from the mh heat).
Not to mention quality led's are 25%-30% less power (with same or greater par output) on power consumption alone.
All around math fail. Be careful who you listen to online!
Not going to bother going into the rest that was too rediculous of a post lol.
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MH does not produce more heat than LEDs per watt. It is just dissipated differently. MH gives off radiation mostly and LEDs give off heat mostly through conduction. If LEDs and MH run at same wattage, you need to cool it just the same. Do not think that LEDs do not give off heat. That's false. Also, Ecotech Radions are advertised as being equivalent to 250W MHs. Radions use about 140W, about half of what 250W MH uses. The thing that probably requires most explanation is the assumption that the amount of electricity it takes to cool the equipment is equal to the amount needed to power it. This is a rule of thumb that is used when designing data centers and other applications. There are pretty good white papers on APC why this is true. My math is spot on. As Mark Twain said, it is not what you don't know that will kill you. It is what you know for sure that just ain't so.
 
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