Knowing your Amps with big tanks

One of the many things that I failed to consider when moving up to larger tank water volumes is the amperage accumulation that inevitably happens as the required equipment needed to move such large volumes gets bigger. I first started recognizing the problem when I had to configure my Reef Keeper 2 not allowing the amps of any one plug to excede 6 amps and the total of the system not to excede 14 amps. I had never really considered the amperage draw of the equipment that I was using until then. It was fine untill I moved up to a 1/2 hp chiller which caused a momentary spike of amperage when my metal halides were on which the unit could not withstand despite being under the total amp maximum. A month later after repairing the unit I have placed two dedicated 20 amp circuits to my 300 gallon system. The Reef Keeper is on one circuit controlling two metal halides, heaters, main pump and chiller (12 amps) with the help of two Digital Aquatics Extension add ons to the Reef Keeper 2 which do not count to the total amperage of the Reef Keeper on that circuit but can not be plugged in to the same circuit for there power supply. So one is on a main house circuit (chiller at around 7 amps) and the other is plugged into the second dedicated circuit (heaters at about 9amsp). The second dedicated circuit contains the two 400 watt metal halides that are over the sump which house the frag portion of the system. I have yet to go over my amperages as these are just estimates and will not do so untill I am ready to put my chiller back online, but rest assured I have learned that amperage matters and is a major issue that can not be overlooked when upgrading to large tanks that require beefy equipement.

 

I have run into the same problems, but with different results. The house I live in is pretty old and the wiring cannot be re-configured without having to replace all the wiring in the house. New building codes do not allow this anymore and new wiring would have to be put in. This is costly so I decided to make the 400gal a fish only and not have the MH lights and actually remove 4 of the VHO's. I no longer have breaker problems, but if I add anything new I have to delete something running now. I guess this is a good thing as it keeps my hobby in check.

 

The Kill-a-Watt meters are pretty useful these days:

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

 

i'm glad you brought this up. i am trying to map out the power options for the new tank when i get it going. i have 3 separate breakers in the area i can run off so i believe i will be ok.

 

I agree.....thats why I added six new 20amp circuts, plus the origional 15 amp circuts.

 

You notice a bump in your light bill when you got your new system running?

It's good to hear from you Scubadog.

 

Lets don't even go there. Thats one of those things that only exists in the far back corners of your mind !!!!!!

 

OHH yes, the system alone runs about 200 a month....

 

Ouch!

 

Mine's a little better without the chiller hooked up, but still outrageous.

 

Our 75 gal, well 150 (or so) gallon system costs us about $85 per month.

I have a spread sheet that I use to calculate the cost. I have created a few pages that display how much I use per day. It is nice because I can adjust how log something runs in the list and see how much money I will save or lose. I can post it if you like.

 

i think that would be an interesting post. when you get time i would like to see it. then i can make a guestamite of what its going to run me monthly when i get the big one set up

 

I would really like to see that Blake.

 

Ok, here is the excel spreadsheet. http://www.oldlinuxbox.com/dl/upload/aqu_power_usage_all.xls

In that spreadsheet there are four sheets (the little tabs at the bottom). The first is a summary of our total electricity expense for our Aquariums. Second is a breakdown of the different equipment in the 75gal system, the watts or amps used by each piece, and watt hours (not kilowatt hours) used by each. The third page is for the 55gal... same thing here. And finally the fourth page is the equipment in the garage for mixing salt water and such.


If you do not have MS Excel, you can download the viewer on the MS office site here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...f4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=EN, or download and install Open Office for free and you can edit it as well! Here: http://www.openoffice.org (hahaha that was a plug!)

 

Oh, and by the way this text editor is such a pain to work with when inserting links. I was trying to display text that linked to the excel site instead of listing that huge link, but couldn't get it to work, so just gave up

 

How did you measure the usage for each item?

 

Since I do not own a Kill-o-watt (yet!) I had to go by what the rating is on the product label or information sheet. That being said, most of those numbers are approximate.

I plan on adding more info to the summary sheet or adding another for me to log our electrical bill price and KWh's and give a percentage of how much of the electricity is for the tanks. Does that make since?

 

Thanks Blake. That breakdown is really helpful. I didn't realize what powerhogs all of the pumps are. I guess the fact that they are on 24/7 makes a big difference. I for some reason just thought the lights would be worse. Good information, though.

 

I updated the workbook a little to reflect some changes to my systems.

 

Great Post

We have a guy in the club that works for FPL (Florida Power & Light)
He gave us all the formulas amps, watts, and volts so that we could calculate our bill down to the minute. These were the numbers for my 220 last month. Glad fall is coming so that the chiller wont be turning on as much. (MH & PC are not on at the same time)

[TABLE][TR][TD]Item[/TD][TD]Qty[/TD][TD]Watts[/TD][TD]Volts[/TD][TD]Amp[/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]ReefFlo Dartâ„¢[/TD][TD]1[/TD][TD]160[/TD][TD]115[/TD][TD]1.4[/TD][TD]Main Return/Chiller[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]MH[/TD][TD]3[/TD][TD]250[/TD][TD]120[/TD][TD]6.3[/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Power Compacts[/TD][TD]4[/TD][TD]96[/TD][TD]115[/TD][TD]3.3[/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Tunze 6080[/TD][TD]1[/TD][TD]20[/TD][TD]115[/TD][TD]0.2[/TD][TD]Power Head[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]1/3 HP Chiller[/TD][TD]1[/TD][TD]852[/TD][TD]115[/TD][TD]7.4[/TD][TD]Chiller[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]MAG18[/TD][TD]1[/TD][TD]145[/TD][TD]115[/TD][TD]1.3[/TD][TD]Skimmer Pump[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Total[/TD][TD][/TD][TD]1523.15[/TD][TD]695[/TD][TD]19.8[/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]kWh[/TD][TD][/TD][TD]1.52315[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Item[/TD][TD]Watts[/TD][TD]Hrs/Day[/TD][TD]Watts PerDay[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]ReefFlo Dartâ„¢[/TD][TD]160[/TD][TD]24[/TD][TD]3840[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Power Compacts[/TD][TD]384[/TD][TD]6[/TD][TD]2304[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Metal Halide[/TD][TD]750[/TD][TD]6[/TD][TD]4500[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Moon Lights[/TD][TD]4[/TD][TD]4[/TD][TD]16[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Tunze 6080[/TD][TD]20[/TD][TD]24[/TD][TD]480[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]1/3 HP Chiller[/TD][TD]852[/TD][TD]8[/TD][TD]6817.2[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD]MAG18[/TD][TD]145[/TD][TD]24[/TD][TD]3480[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD]kWh[/TD][TD]21.4372[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD]Service Days[/TD][TD]32[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD]Enery Usage[/TD][TD]685.9904[/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD]Fuel[/TD][TD] $ 41.30 [/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD]Non-fuel[/TD][TD] $ 28.36 [/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][TR][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][TD]FPL-Aquarium-Cost[/TD][TD] $ 69.66 [/TD][TD][/TD][TD][/TD][/TR][/TABLE]