Power usage

[zbrusko]

Hi,

I’m looking into whole home power backup options, and I think I am going to go with a battery that itself is backed up by a generator. Happy to explain my rationale to anyone interested, but at this point, I’m trying to figure out how much battery I need and how much of my total usage is from my tanks, of which I have 7. Many are freshwater & can go without lights or in some cases even heaters for a day or two. My real concern is the power draw from my IM SR60 in the winter when the heaters are most important. In it I have 2 100 watt heaters, 2 MP10s, the stock return pumps (22w) and 2 AI Hydra 32s that are on 12 hrs a day, never even getting to 50%. Also have a Tunze ATO. Does anyone know what an hourly draw would be on this system? While the pumps are 22w each, what is that? 22w per day? Hour?

Thanks!
Zach

 

[betareef]

While the pumps are 22w each, what is that? 22w per day? Hour?

No, it is continuous power usage. Energy for the home is purchased and stored with the usual measurement units of kilowatt-hours kWh). This specifies the amount of power (in Watts) you can consume over a period of time (hours). One kiloWatt for one hour equals one kiloWatt hour.On small batteries, often you will see millamp-hours. This is current for a period of time. Multiply by voltage to turn it into kiloWatt-hours.

Simple example, your 22 Watt pump. If it runs all day, you will use 22x24/1000 = 0.528 kiloWatt-hours. Two of them will use double that obviously.

A thing like a 100 watt heater that has a thermostat is a little more complicated as you need to know what proportion of the time is spends turned on vs off. Say it was 50% of the time, then treat it as a 50 Watt device, multiply by 24 and divide by 1000 to get the usage per day

 

[zbrusko]

Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Saltyanimals]

You can add up all the individual devices or you can buy a power monitor on that circuit(s) and see the actuals. Depending on tank size, 7 tanks can be alot for sure. For reference, I'm a Tesla Solar (12 kW) and Powerwall (2x battery) home. And my tank uses alot and that's a single 180g. The graph below is last week which is interesting to see how much it actual uses compared to a 26k gallon pool and an EV. I don't monitor all my circuits so below is just a subset for reference.

I do have automation running that powers down the most power hungry T5 lights when the home is running purely on batteries to conserve until the grid is restored in an outage situation. It is still spring so no AC blasting just yet in Houston. Come peak summer and the house consumption goes up 3x (5k+ kWh month). Unlikely your case in CT, but suggestion here is to turn on everything on your tank to see what the peak is.

 

[zbrusko]

Looking through some of my old posts & found this. I have some data on this now. My Span panel reports that last week, 4/1 through 4/7, the breaker that my saltwater tank is on used 39 kWh. This also has a small fw shrimp tank & all my kitchen outlets on it. I keep the house at 67 with the tank at 78, so that heater runs. Hard to say how much of that 39 kWhis the tank, but I’d bet mid 20s+. That seems high compared to your number on the 180.

 

[zbrusko]

Looking through some of my old posts & found this. I have some data on this now. My Span panel reports that last week, 4/1 through 4/7, the breaker that my saltwater tank is on used 39 kWh. This also has a small fw shrimp tank & all my kitchen outlets on it. I keep the house at 67 with the tank at 78, so that heater runs. Hard to say how much of that 39 kWhis the tank, but I’d bet mid 20s+. That seems high compared to your number on the 180.

 

[Saltyanimals]

Looking through some of my old posts & found this. I have some data on this now. My Span panel reports that last week, 4/1 through 4/7, the breaker that my saltwater tank is on used 39 kWh. This also has a small fw shrimp tank & all my kitchen outlets on it. I keep the house at 67 with the tank at 78, so that heater runs. Hard to say how much of that 39 kWhis the tank, but I’d bet mid 20s+. That seems high compared to your number on the 180.

That mid 20s doesn't seem high to me but best that add up the individual devices (watts) then use an online calculator to convert. Hard to compare based on tank size alone as they're all geared up differently. Those heaters and in general heat devices suck alot of power. I don't use heaters in my tank often. And if that circuit has kitchen devices like toaster or mini ovens, you'll see the drain. My family can drain our powerwalls dry by deciding to bake cookies in a middle of a power outage. =)

 

[zbrusko]

That mid 20s doesn't seem high to me but best that add up the individual devices (watts) then use an online calculator to convert. Hard to compare based on tank size alone as they're all geared up differently. Those heaters and in general heat devices suck alot of power. I don't use heaters in my tank often. And if that circuit has kitchen devices like toaster or mini ovens, you'll see the drain. My family can drain our powerwalls dry by deciding to bake cookies in a middle of a power outage. =)

That makes sense. I wish my breakers weren’t so oddly combined. The oven isn’t on that circuit, but small kitchen appliances are for sure. It does seem to vary from day to day, and I’d assume the tank has a fairly consistent draw. It does draw less than the circuit that has my 150 ciclid tank on it, but that breaker has a ton more connected to it. I could do more digging, but I already got my batteries, and it seems if we keep other power draw to a minimum (no laundry, baking or AC), my 40 kWh of charge will last 1.5-2 days. I’ve got a portable generator to charge batteries beyond that. Too many trees for solar.

 

[Saltyanimals]

That makes sense. I wish my breakers weren’t so oddly combined. The oven isn’t on that circuit, but small kitchen appliances are for sure. It does seem to vary from day to day, and I’d assume the tank has a fairly consistent draw. It does draw less than the circuit that has my 150 ciclid tank on it, but that breaker has a ton more connected to it. I could do more digging, but I already got my batteries, and it seems if we keep other power draw to a minimum (no laundry, baking or AC), my 40 kWh of charge will last 1.5-2 days. I’ve got a portable generator to charge batteries beyond that. Too many trees for solar.

Glad you got that sorted. I can see my total home consumption spike every time we use the microwave, toaster etc. each of those is 1800-2000 watts when compared to a main pump that will use 150 watts max when it runs at 100%. All those add up quickly. And yes the breaker wiring spaghetti can drive you nuts. I had our electrician run a separate 20amp line to my office just to power my tank which helps me keep everything in one circuit. Actually I did that because my tank sometimes would pop when the laser printer kicks on things coincidently happen at the same time. All this really makes you think about power consumption. And we're now a two EV home so huge power demand monthly.

 

[zbrusko]

When I get my new reef tank, having it on it’s own circuit would be ideal. We have a Span panel with limited open breakers & I want to add an EV charger at some point. When we have an outage, I can have circuits auto shut off. Problem is, pretty mich every circuit has a frdge, freezer, smoke detector or tank on it!

No kidding about the usage spike with certain appliances. Put the oven & clothes dryer on at the same time!

 

[Saltyanimals]

When I get my new reef tank, having it on it’s own circuit would be ideal. We have a Span panel with limited open breakers & I want to add an EV charger at some point. When we have an outage, I can have circuits auto shut off. Problem is, pretty mich every circuit has a frdge, freezer, smoke detector or tank on it!

No kidding about the usage spike with certain appliances. Put the oven & clothes dryer on at the same time!

Nice. Your comment about every circuit has something on it that you may not want OFF at the breaker level is spot on. Maybe better to leave all of the breakers ON, but put smart controls at the device level instead. Much more control on what goes ON/OFF.

I'm a home automation nut with homeassistant which takes all this to a new level. Even my HA is connected to my Apex. I let the Apex do it's thing for the most part, but more control if needed. Example my T5s are supplemental to LEDs and a HUGE suck of power. So it has a grid down override use case or simply doesn't turn on for cloudy days. I wouldn't use it to control main pumps or anything, but fun to have a google voice trigger to feed fish.

 

[zbrusko]

In all honesty, do I need my oven or dryer circuit off when running on battery? I’ll know not to use those things, and depending on timing of the outage, maybe I want to finish drying clothes or cooking a meal. You’re spot on that device controls are the way to go.

I have a lot of voice control/automation as well. With my new tank build happening this summer, I’m planning to integrate that as much as I can.