In many of the threads on lighting between LED's and MH's. I see allot of comments stating that there is not very much savings in going from MH to LED"s. This is what inspired me to start this article. Just a little back ground. I have been reefing for a long time. When I first started, I was using Power Compacts. Not even sure they even make them any more. LOL. Then I moved to MH's, and there was basically only 6500K bulbs at that time. As they became more popular, more and more MH bulbs came on the market. Me personally I settled in on the Radium bulbs.
As my aquariums got bigger and bigger and started getting around the 200 gallons mark I would always use 3 MH bulbs and 2 SVHO bulb combo. I first started with 3-250MH SE bulbs and 2 SVHO actinic bulbs for pop. With this combo, I didn't need a chiller living in Texas. I could keep the tank cool by putting a fan over the sump when needed. As most of my aquariums were 30" deep, I bumped my MH's from 250watt to 400watt SE bulbs. Once I made this bump, the heat from that fixture was tremendous. I had to add a chiller.
My aquarium is in the living room, so once I added the chiller you would always hear the chiller kicking on and off all day long keeping the aquarium cool. Well it was just a matter of time before the boss put the end to that. It was basically a night mare for me. The chiller would kick on and export hot exhaust into the house. The hot exhaust would cause the AC to kick on to cool the house and cost me more money in electricity. I was having bills around $500 bucks a month. Now when it comes to electricity, the amount you pay per month means nothing. As everyone does not pay the same for their electricity. Its how many Kilowatt hours you consume. This is the only number that matters.
Below I have prepared the total power consumption of my 3-400watt x 2 SVHO bulb (2 -160watt) and 1 chiller combo for my aquarium. I had a total of 1520 watts of lighting over my aquarium. I would run the MH's 8 hours a day and the actinics 12 hours a day. So the actinics would come on 2 hours in the morning before and after the Halides for a 12hour lighting cycle. I dug up an old picture below from about 9 years ago
Yearly Power Consumption for 3- 400 watt bulbs
Yearly Power Consumption for Actinics
Yearly Power Consumption for Chiller
So the yearly consumption of the lights and chiller for what I call "The best lighting setup" form me was 8194.98Kwh for the year. So just to get a figure in front of you. If your electric company charged you 0.12cents kw your yearly cost for the lighting would be $983.40.
I then switched to LED's. Mainly to get rid of the noise in the living room and reduce the electric bill. No more fans on the fixture running that I could hear, and no more chiller kicking on. I first went with three GHL mitras. This is what was recommended by the manufacturer.
Upon watching the tank over some time, I could see that I needed more light spread. The intensity was nice, but I wasn't getting the spread like I was on the MH's so I bumped it up to 4 fixtures. I stayed with 4 fixtures for many years. I was really happy with the lighting and coral color etc. No issues and no thoughts of going back to MH's.
Moving forward. I upgraded the lighting to 5 fixtures over the aquarium. I purchased the 5th one to try and get more blue in the aquarium to get one of the sps I had to be the same color I saw on the internet. Well this didn't work but the spread was just like butter. It didnt hurt anything.
So with all the setups above from the 3 to 5 fixtures. I run a 14 hour schedule of lighting. It has dusk to dawn and a peak of several hours of white of around 45%. Everyone's lighting setup is not the same and will vary for each fixture. Following below is the power consumption for the 5 GHL Mitras. I run my mitras in High Ouput Mode. They are rated at 208watts a piece if you run them with all channels at 100%. The only channels I have that ramp to 100% are my blues and UV's. Ramping figures are below.
Yearly Power consumption for 5 GHL Mitras
So to compare apples to apples. For 5 GHL Mitras running the program I have the yearly consumption is 2726.55Kwh. So if your electric company charged you 0.12cents kw your yearly cost for the lighting would be $327.19
MH setup yearly Cost : $983.40
GHL setup yearly Cost: $327.19
This is a savings of $656.21 per year. i have been running them for 7 years. Thats $4593.47. So for me that is a Huge Savings!
The power readings were taken with a Kill-A-Watt Meter. You can get one anywhere. One as simple as below can be had for less than $20. Its an easy way to determine your cost instead of guessing. Since LED"s are not linear in power usage unless you max everything out and turn them on, one of these gadgets below is your best friend. You can record power over time, get instant values etc.
The power consumption above does not include the Air Conditioning kicking on more due to exhaust from chiller, but you get an idea of savings. I hope this helps someone whom is wondering what cost of fixtures may cost you. If you dont plan on taking an LED fixture and moving all the sliders to 100%, you may want to do a bit more research on power consumption. If you dont have a chiller in your mix, the power consumption will still be in your favor in most scenarios.
I will be doing the same with my new Orphek light in the future.
Update 10/15/2019
I have been testing the Orphek V4-2 on my display and I'm running a 14 hour lighting schedule. Its the "coral color" pre defined schedule that I have spread the hours out to come on and off around my GHL mitras seamlessly. Heavy clouds is enabled. The power consumption for the lights is as follows:
If I replace the GHL's with the Orphek v4-2. I would run 4 of them. So if your electric company charged you 0.12cents kw. The yearly cost is below.
Orphek setup yearly cost: $295.74
As my aquariums got bigger and bigger and started getting around the 200 gallons mark I would always use 3 MH bulbs and 2 SVHO bulb combo. I first started with 3-250MH SE bulbs and 2 SVHO actinic bulbs for pop. With this combo, I didn't need a chiller living in Texas. I could keep the tank cool by putting a fan over the sump when needed. As most of my aquariums were 30" deep, I bumped my MH's from 250watt to 400watt SE bulbs. Once I made this bump, the heat from that fixture was tremendous. I had to add a chiller.
My aquarium is in the living room, so once I added the chiller you would always hear the chiller kicking on and off all day long keeping the aquarium cool. Well it was just a matter of time before the boss put the end to that. It was basically a night mare for me. The chiller would kick on and export hot exhaust into the house. The hot exhaust would cause the AC to kick on to cool the house and cost me more money in electricity. I was having bills around $500 bucks a month. Now when it comes to electricity, the amount you pay per month means nothing. As everyone does not pay the same for their electricity. Its how many Kilowatt hours you consume. This is the only number that matters.
Below I have prepared the total power consumption of my 3-400watt x 2 SVHO bulb (2 -160watt) and 1 chiller combo for my aquarium. I had a total of 1520 watts of lighting over my aquarium. I would run the MH's 8 hours a day and the actinics 12 hours a day. So the actinics would come on 2 hours in the morning before and after the Halides for a 12hour lighting cycle. I dug up an old picture below from about 9 years ago
Yearly Power Consumption for 3- 400 watt bulbs
| 400 Watt Ballast | ||||||||
| Daily Hour Use | Kwatt/hr per day | Kwatt/hr Monthly | Kwatt/hr Yearly | |||||
| 8hr | 3.712 | 111.36 | 1354.88 | |||||
| 3 - 400 Watt Ballast | 4064.64 | Kwh Yearly |
| Actinic Suppliment | ||||||||
| Daily Hour Use | Kwatt/hr per day | Kwatt/hr Monthly | Kwatt/hr Yearly | |||||
| 12hr | 4.596 | 137.88 | 1677.54 | |||||
| 1- 660 Ballast | 1677.54 | Kwh Yearly |
| Chiller | ||||||||
| Daily Hour Use | Kwatt/hr per day | Kwatt/hr Monthly | Kwatt/hr Yearly | |||||
| 14hr | 6.72 | 201.6 | 2452.8 | |||||
| 1- Chiller | 2452.8 | Kwh Yearly |
I then switched to LED's. Mainly to get rid of the noise in the living room and reduce the electric bill. No more fans on the fixture running that I could hear, and no more chiller kicking on. I first went with three GHL mitras. This is what was recommended by the manufacturer.
Upon watching the tank over some time, I could see that I needed more light spread. The intensity was nice, but I wasn't getting the spread like I was on the MH's so I bumped it up to 4 fixtures. I stayed with 4 fixtures for many years. I was really happy with the lighting and coral color etc. No issues and no thoughts of going back to MH's.
Moving forward. I upgraded the lighting to 5 fixtures over the aquarium. I purchased the 5th one to try and get more blue in the aquarium to get one of the sps I had to be the same color I saw on the internet. Well this didn't work but the spread was just like butter. It didnt hurt anything.
So with all the setups above from the 3 to 5 fixtures. I run a 14 hour schedule of lighting. It has dusk to dawn and a peak of several hours of white of around 45%. Everyone's lighting setup is not the same and will vary for each fixture. Following below is the power consumption for the 5 GHL Mitras. I run my mitras in High Ouput Mode. They are rated at 208watts a piece if you run them with all channels at 100%. The only channels I have that ramp to 100% are my blues and UV's. Ramping figures are below.
| Color | Max Peak Reading | |
| Blue | 100 | |
| RB | 100 | |
| CW | 23 | |
| BW | 100 | |
| TG | 45 | |
| Hred | 20 | |
| SW | 45 | |
| UV | 100 | |
| HV | 100 |
| GHL MITRAS | ||||||||
| Daily Hour Use | Kwatt/hr per day | Kwatt/hr Monthly | Kwatt/hr Yearly | |||||
| 14hr | 1.494 | 44.82 | 545.31 | |||||
| 5 - GHL MITRAS | 2726.55 | Kwatt/hr Yearly |
MH setup yearly Cost : $983.40
GHL setup yearly Cost: $327.19
This is a savings of $656.21 per year. i have been running them for 7 years. Thats $4593.47. So for me that is a Huge Savings!
The power readings were taken with a Kill-A-Watt Meter. You can get one anywhere. One as simple as below can be had for less than $20. Its an easy way to determine your cost instead of guessing. Since LED"s are not linear in power usage unless you max everything out and turn them on, one of these gadgets below is your best friend. You can record power over time, get instant values etc.
The power consumption above does not include the Air Conditioning kicking on more due to exhaust from chiller, but you get an idea of savings. I hope this helps someone whom is wondering what cost of fixtures may cost you. If you dont plan on taking an LED fixture and moving all the sliders to 100%, you may want to do a bit more research on power consumption. If you dont have a chiller in your mix, the power consumption will still be in your favor in most scenarios.
I will be doing the same with my new Orphek light in the future.
Update 10/15/2019
I have been testing the Orphek V4-2 on my display and I'm running a 14 hour lighting schedule. Its the "coral color" pre defined schedule that I have spread the hours out to come on and off around my GHL mitras seamlessly. Heavy clouds is enabled. The power consumption for the lights is as follows:
| Orphek v4-2 | ||||||||
| Daily Hour Use | Kwatt/hr per day | Kwatt/hr Monthly | Kwatt/hr Yearly | |||||
| 14hr | 1.688 | 50.64 | 616.12 | |||||
| 4 - Orphek v4-2 | 2464.48 | Kwatt/hr Yearly |
Orphek setup yearly cost: $295.74
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