Ways to reduce electical bill?

[hrdneglcry]

I run a 180 with a 120 sump. Two Aquaclear 110's, Fluval fx6, Three Ebo Jager 300w, 250w and 250w I think, four Maxpect Ethereals, a Kessil H160 tuna flora, two Maxspect Gyre 300s, a Jebao DC12000, and a Rio 2100.
I also have a 29 with two Kessil h80s, a heater and an Aquaclear 50.
I have no corals in the 180. So I could shut the lights off a lot more.
Would this significantly cut the electrical cost?
I was told that lights and heaters anre the main cost of fish keeping.
I have 5 Triggers, two Groupers and two Eels is why I have so much filtration. But the filters are not costing much at all to run.

 

[Arie_Idaho_Reef]

You could cut the lights down to 8 hours on the coral tanks, but I doubt it will save you a “significant” amount of money.

Or move to a new state in California my bill was $500 a month, in Idaho it’s $120-180 a month

 

[UncommonSense]

I run a 180 with a 120 sump. Two Aquaclear 110's, Fluval fx6, Three Ebo Jager 300w, 250w and 250w I think, four Maxpect Ethereals, a Kessil H160 tuna flora, two Maxspect Gyre 300s, a Jebao DC12000, and a Rio 2100.
I also have a 29 with two Kessil h80s, a heater and an Aquaclear 50.
I have no corals in the 180. So I could shut the lights off a lot more.
Would this significantly cut the electrical cost?
I was told that lights and heaters anre the main cost of fish keeping.

Lighting and heaters, yes… they are your big power draws…

What many people miss though is the fact that their return pump(s) is(are) continuous duty. That is; your return pump runs 24/7.

Heaters are only on intermittently… (maybe look into insulating the tank/sump if the structure has mediocre insulation!)

Main Lights are only on ~50% of the time…

Pumps (return, skimmer, accessories not on return manifold, etc..) are lower draw, but run continuously; and are really a major component of the power bill… — my 180G has a 1 amp 120VAC return pump, that is 2.88 kilowatt hours (KwH) per-day… power here is expensive (>$.45/KwH!)…

By that math; my return pump alone would cost me roughly $45/month just in power… thankfully I’ve got a solar array!

 

[hrdneglcry]

Checking BRS energy calculator it says that my 80 watt return pump running 24 hours a day is $7.24 per month. My 165 watt main lights are 10.95 x4 per month at 12 hours. My heaters figured at 10 hours a day are around $10 each x3. My Aquaclear 110's are $1.43 per month x 2. My fx6 is $3.77.
It says I'm running about $80 per month for my 180. I could cut the main tank lights a bit as I have no corals.

 

[Tangdora]

if you don’t have a Neptune eb832. Go get your self a cheap kill a watt meter. From there you can test each device seperatly to see where your biggest draws are and adjust setting according to fit your needed. As others have mentioned headed and pumps are going to be your biggest draws.

 

[Useful_Idiot]

Any evaporation is cooling the water. So if you can cut down on evaporation by covering the tank or sump your heaters will run less. As long as there’s no concerns about getting enough oxygen.
I have full tops on my tanks but have a large skimmer using outside air. I have significantly more evaporation without them.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I run a 180 with a 120 sump. Two Aquaclear 110's, Fluval fx6, Three Ebo Jager 300w, 250w and 250w I think, four Maxpect Ethereals, a Kessil H160 tuna flora, two Maxspect Gyre 300s, a Jebao DC12000, and a Rio 2100.
I also have a 29 with two Kessil h80s, a heater and an Aquaclear 50.
I have no corals in the 180. So I could shut the lights off a lot more.
Would this significantly cut the electrical cost?
I was told that lights and heaters anre the main cost of fish keeping.
I have 5 Triggers, two Groupers and two Eels is why I have so much filtration. But the filters are not costing much at all to run.

The savings will be insignificant as electrical usage is part of owning a reef tank- Lights, heater, pump, skimmer, controller and evn dosers. All part of reef tank management. When I moved last, tank was down for about a week and I saw a drop of $9 and I run 6 orpheks controller, scrubber, skimmer, dosers, and more

 

[Tangdora]

I just made a small tweak this week to my Neptune apex. That is now saving me about 1kwh a day. Though I still run in the ball park of 15-25kwh a day. It’s not much but I try to save where I can. The heaters are the biggest source of energy draw. In my case 1200 watts. What I was rencently overlooking was at night how during the summer months the temps would drift down to my low end range 78-79 and kick on the heaters for a one time cycle usually 0-4 hours before my lights kicked on. Which in most cases then cause my tank to over heat as the lights on will then take it from like 79 up to 80-80.5.

I have decided now to utilize the apex seasonal temps. Instead of using it to change temps though out the months I’m now using it to cap the high range of execution. Will need to play with it month to month over the next year. right now for June I have it now only allowing the heaters to run up to 78.1. Since they are only turning on that one time mentioned, they now only run for like 10 mins one time a day if needed at all instead of an hour and 30 mins to bring it back up to 79. The 78.1 temp takes a few hours to drift back down below but by then the lights kick on and maintain temps. The rest of the day.

 

[Should I]

solar panels

 

[exnisstech]

I mean this with no disrespect but if the cost of electricity to run the tank is a burden perhaps choose another hobby. Apologies if i misunderstood the question.
I feel similar to @vetteguy53081 that electricity cost is just part of the hobby. I don't have anything running on my tanks that I don't feel is necessary so there is nothing I could do to reduce electricity use.
My bill did drop $50+ a month when i changed tanks and took my reeflo AC pump off line but it wasn't why I changed tanks.

 

[CookieM]

I think my heaters and lights are the biggest power draw. Probably invest in efficient heaters is your only luck. Higher electricity bill, I think it's just an accepted expense of the hobby.

 

[Larry64]

So the COVID lockdown and my retirement hit basically at the same time. I had a tank all my life, but I got bored. I wanted to try saltwater. In a few months I had my 90, two 75’s, a 40 breeder, and my 32 bio cube going. My local electric company sent I guy out to see it I had a grow opp going , nope, just fish and turtles.