Low Running Cost Heaters?

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thefirethief

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Evening folks, just been trying to work out the running costs of my two planted tanks. Ive worked out my heaters are the main energy users. Assuming my 150W heater is on for 12 hours a day, which is being generous with regards to time switched off, it will still cost me 17.5 pence a day which is 60 quid a year to heat a 36Gal tank!

So Im just wondering if anyone knows of any lower wattage heaters that can heat the same volume of water?


Any input is appreciated!
Ta, Mark
 
If you put a lower wattage heater in it will run more often, A bigger heater will run less offten. It takes a certain amount of calories to raise your tank so many degrees. The total calories (thus wattage/time) will be the same with diferent size heaters.
Heaters are very efficient in that almost all the energy from your power source will be converted to heat. So you can not buy a heater that will produce significantly more heat per watt. Don T.
 
The only real way to save money is to keep the tank in the warmest room of the house. This must be done with a little reason, an aquarium in the attic during the summer is a bad idea.
 
The wattage of the heater is not relevant because it is thermostatically controlled.
(more watts = less on time, viceversa low watts = more on time )

The cost of heating the tank is related to the heat being lost by the tank,
the only way to reduce that cost is to insulate your tank (or your house !)
 
PS
if you want to get 'deep' into energy efficiency then you should consider including the lighting gear within the thermal environment of your tank.
In the UK that can mean that you do not need a "heater" as such in the summer
in the winter it can greatly reduce the on time of your (classical)heater.

PPS Tolak :- he is in mid-south Scotland, not the warmest place on the planet, depending upon his house construction and his lifestyle the attic can be a good place :-!)
 
Cheers folks, that all makes sense. Apart from blistering hot days which are few and far between, my house is pretty much the same temperature all year round so I guess its up to me to insulate the tanks properly. Its given me second thoughts about changing one of them to an open top tank anyway.

thanks for the info!
Mark
 
The house we live in was built just 12 years ago. It remains 21 Celcius all the time and our heating has not been on for about 2 months or so. The internal fish tank heater is also rarely on.
 
I am at a similar latitude to the OP, (roughly the same as Aberdeen for the purists). The sea in the harbour here freezes every year, the open sea about every 5 years, thus the continental effect affects me here more so then coastal Scotland.

The first point to make has already been covered, to heat a certain volume of water above ambient by a certain number of degrees takes a certain amount of energy. Small heaters on a lot, large heaters on from time to time. There are no low energy heaters. Watts = Joules per second.

The thing missing though is where does the heat go? In winter, if my tanks heaters are on, the heat generated eventually escapes into the room. The tank is therefore, a radiator. Thus, the central heating system has to work less to keep the room habitable. Keep your house well insulated, and the energy cost of heating your tank is fairly small when factoring the energy saving elsewhere in a normal room environment.

In summer, even up here, my heaters hardly ever run. My lights use vastly more power than my heaters, although the same argument ultimately applies to the escaping light. It is just the maths gets more involved.

I only wish my computers used power in proportion to the ambient temperature in a beneficial way...
 
I believe Eheim heaters are more effient.

If you compare there 150 watt to your current one, theres would be much longer and fatter as the heater coils are longer, they tend to rate a lower wattage heater for the same size tank compared to other makers.
 
I believe Eheim heaters are more effient.
To raise a finite quantity of water by a finite quantity of temperature requires a finite quantity of energy. Efficiency normally relates to how much work is done in respect to losses, which are almost always heat. Thus, a heater, which has heating as it's raison de'tre should be very efficient since it's "losses" are what it does.

Ya kanner change the lors a fisiks. Scotty.
 

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