Solar energy just for your reef tank: Have you thought about it?

[LMDAVE]

So, we want to harness the sunlight to operate a device that will drive a bulb that will emulate sunlight.

That's the most expensive window I ever heard of.

...and yes, that was a joke.

 

[Lasse]

So, we want to harness the sunlight to operate a device that will drive a bulb that will emulate sunlight.

That's the most expensive window I ever heard of.

...and yes, that was a joke.

I do not think it is a joke - I think it is spot on according to human behavior - especially from the male half

And I laught

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Allee]

I did look into it about 3 - 4 years ago. NJ has/had very good rebates deals, so made the payback that much quicker. The negative for me is that they wanted me to take down the one and only tree that shades my house. I also had roofs that faced east/west...still would work, but ideal is a south facing roof. So decided not to do it.

Here's the bottom line....and again NJ has/had some very nice rebates...check your States rebates. Here's the important part, outright buy your panels. Yes, you'll have to spend 10's of thousands of dollars, but all the rebates and benefits will go to you. What is very popular now in NJ are these companies that will give you panels at no out of pocket for you. You will initially get a small reduction in your electric bill, but are not entitled to the rebates (they go to the company that installed.) Eventually you will most likely end up paying more for electric as the years go by.

Highly recommend doing the math for your State to see if it will pay in the long run.

I live on a sailboat and have a saltwater aquarium. All is on solarpower. Except my lighting, so you just gave me a good idea! Thanks.

 

[JustuLloyd]

It's actually becoming more and more popular among reef tank hobbyists. There are many solar panel systems that are specifically designed for reef tanks.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

If I had the space and money for it I would definitely do this!

 

[kenjung]

Project was installed 2020 in Virginia, there was a 9 hour outage on Feb 2021, it was awesome powerwall acted at 1 am in the morning to pull power from the grid to fill up the battery just before the snow hit. Electricity bill is reduce to 50 to 75 on average per month that include the 400 gallon tank and charging the car.

 

[PeterC99]

Project was installed 2020 in Virginia, there was a 9 hour outage on Feb 2021, it was awesome powerwall acted at 1 am in the morning to pull power from the grid to fill up the battery just before the snow hit. Electricity bill is reduce to 50 to 75 on average per month that include the 400 gallon tank and charging the car.

“Electricity bill is reduce to 50 to 75 on average per month that include the 400 gallon tank and charging the car.”

If you don’t mind us asking - Reduced From What?

 

[kenjung]

“Electricity bill is reduce to 50 to 75 on average per month that include the 400 gallon tank and charging the car.”

If you don’t mind us asking - Reduced From What?

I used to pay 500 to 600 in summers month, reduce to 200+ in the winter.

 

[Timfish]

Yup, and solar has gotten a lot cheaper since this thread was posted. While a kw is only roughly 10 cents in central Texas seeing some of the prices around the country solar may be cheaper than utility companies.

 

[JadynDawson]

Solar power lets you do your part for the environment, reducing your carbon footprint and dependence on fossil fuels.

 

[Lasse]

In Sweden we have a system there we can "buy" renewable energy from our provider. Of cause they can´t say that exactly that electron is from solar, water or wind but - if a provider sell x MW renewable energy - they most show that they either have produced it by themself or buy from another renewable energy source. It was many years ago I start to buy renewable energy and today I buy my energy from one of Swedens largest provider of solar power, I pay a little bit more but all profit in the company will be invested in new solarpanels, hence the solar energy will grow up here. In that cold and dark, snowy country - can it work. Yes it works very well, In cold wether - the panels is much more effective and much of the spare light will be reflected by snow during wintertime. During spring, summer and fall we have much more light compared with countries more south. The days are longer.

Sincerely Lasse

Update - In late 2019 I bought 6 kW solar panels from my energy company - they produce around 5,400 kWh during a year - its the same as my households need for a year. Because I own these panels - even if they run them - I pay a lower kWh rate and I know for sure that I and my wife´s carbon footprint according to electricity is near 0

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Solar power lets you do your part for the environment, reducing your carbon footprint and dependence on fossil fuels.

Do you do it?

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I currently have solar panels and I am very happy with them. They are not exclusively for my tank though as they power my whole house. It covers approximately 75% of my yearly electric usage. I am currently considering whether I should add a few more and make my footprint 0, as we are planing to get a second plug in electric or whole EV car.

 

[JadynDawson]

Solar power lets you do your part for the environment, reducing your carbon footprint and dependence on fossil fuels.

And you're right about the regional differences in energy costs. In some areas, solar power can indeed be more cost-effective than relying solely on traditional utility companies. It's like taking charge of your energy destiny and enjoying the benefits of clean, renewable power.
If you're intrigued by the solar energy scene, you might want to look into what's happening with solar energy Ireland. They're making some exciting strides in the world of sustainable energy solutions, and it's always inspiring to see how different regions are embracing renewable power sources.

 

[paintman]

I find it odd that when everyone talks about how the math all seems to add up to savings in the long run. They never factor in the cost of having to remove the panels when their roof needs replacing at the end of it's life span. Not to mention that when they do in fact replace the roof, there will most likely be an new and more efficient panel on the market thus starting the cost process all over. I just don't see the savings.

Not to open up a fire storm about the environment but here in my community the power companies are gobbbling up the farm land for sloar fields. The farmers are getting filthy rich by leasing or selling their land. I have a huge solar farm about 3 miles away from my home. The area where the solar farm is never ever flooded before. Now from the water run off from the panels, all the roads are flooding during heavy storms. Seems the ground can not absorb the water as it runs off the panels in a linear pattern.

 

[paintman]

Solar power lets you do your part for the environment, reducing your carbon footprint and dependence on fossil fuels.

wrong in so many ways. you bought into the narrative.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

wrong in so many ways. you bought into the narrative.

Wow, disinformation is running wild today. Not sure what your agenda is, but the statement you say is wrong, that solar power reduces your fossil fuel footprint is unquestionably accurate.

By the way, Jayden is likely a bot. lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And you're right about the regional differences in energy costs. In some areas, solar power can indeed be more cost-effective than relying solely on traditional utility companies. It's like taking charge of your energy destiny and enjoying the benefits of clean, renewable power.
If you're intrigued by the solar energy scene, you might want to look into what's happening with solar energy Ireland. They're making some exciting strides in the world of sustainable energy solutions, and it's always inspiring to see how different regions are embracing renewable power sources.

Hey Jayden, you appear to me to be a bot, and your refusal to answer a simple question coupled with responding to yourself reinforces that view.

Do you have a reef tank? When did you start it?

 

[NeedAReef]

My tank is in the front of my house... which gets sun all day long.. but thanks to an association we cant install solar panels..

I want to move so bad.. never again with assocoations... i love how they csn tell you what to do with a house you own and pay bills on..

strange where we live it is against the law for associations to block it. Never will live without an association, lost 6 figures in home value thanks to Joe the junkman neighbor who could not keep a decent property.

 

[NeedAReef]

I have an off-grid cabin that it is powered by solar. Solar works, and could easily work as a stand-alone system for your tank. It needn't be overly expensive, but would likely take years to pay itself off.

Start by getting yourself a Kill-a-watt meter. (You can often borrow them from a library) Plug your tank into the meter and monitor your usage for a few days or more. From this, you will be able to determine your energy usage in amp-hours (AH). You will use your daily amp-hour consumption to size your battery bank.

For example, if your tank uses 100 AH daily, and you want to be able to run your tank for 3 days off the system (to account for bad weather/no sun days), then you would, in theory, need a battery bank capacity of 300AH. However, most people use flooded lead-acid deep cycle batteries, and you generally don't want to run them below 50%, so you'd need to double the capacity to 600AH.

Once you've decided on a battery bank, you'll need to determine the size of the solar array required to charge them. A general rule of thumb is that the array will need to be able to produce enough current that equates to roughly 10% of the battery bank capacity (in our example, that would be about 60 Amps.) This would require roughly 2400 watts of solar panel. An array of this size has a fairly large footprint.

You'll also need a decent charge controller to take the energy from the panels and charge the batteries, and you'll also need a pure-sine-wave inverter to convert the DC current from the batteries into AC current.

A system of this size could be DIY'd for $7-8K. Note that it would be totally independent of your existing household electrical system.

You probably wouldn't need a system this large, but it will give you an idea of the steps required to plan it out.

are not the return pumps already dc in many cases? would there be any advantage to putting them to dc and not ac and leaving the sine-wave converter to handle the rest that is ac?