add a chiller- pay an extra $200 a month (1 Viewer)

[ReefNoob]

Put in a chiller ( 1/4 hp) for my 55 gal.
Here's a look a my electricity consumption profile.



Can you guess when I put it in ?
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Do you guys think the chiller is not behaving right ( low on freon or somerthing else)

 

[i_am_poor]

HOLY COW! I'd look into selling $200 worth of frags every month.

 

[R-BallJunkie]

something is not right. what temp do you have it set to.....what size is tank and type of lights.

i have to force my chiller to come on, so the water does not stagnate too bad in the coils.

your chiller should only run every now and then, not constant.


c

 

[MarkieB]

Major wrongness!

When I upgraded to my larger tank I also upgrade to larger pumps, larger chiller, larger lights, etc. Also with the sump in the garage of course the LARGER chiller runs more.

All that said, I jump kilowatt usage up 300 a month with the upgrades.

IF it is the chiller my guess will be the compressor is nearly out or needs to be oiled, maybe freon if it is not cycling as chuck indicated.
Depending on the compressor you might simply need to oil it, some you can't.

It could also be a simple co incidence and something else is going on at home like the air conditioner going out.

If you want you can bring it over and I will hook it up to my kilowatt meter to see what it is pulling. That will give you a fast answer if it pulling what it should be or a lot more. A lot more will indicated compressor or possible freon issues. Call me if you want to do that!

 

[ReefNoob]

I have a 55 gal with 250w T5
My setpoint is at 80 deg F with a deadband of 2 deg F.
My house is set at 84 degF when during the day and comes down to 79deg F at night.

I can't believe it either

 

[Guest]

I think you have something really wrong....

Last year I had set up a breeding rack with like 10 tanks and multiple high light planted tanks and it never spiked like that and I think I might have added at least 4 chillers worth of electricity consumption.

 

[crvz]

How long does it run per day? My 1/4hp chiller sucked up 450watts while running, and if you're trying to keep the tank that much below ambient you're probably running it 10 hours a day or more. I'd bet if you kept the house cooler, you'd end up saving quite a bit of money.

 

[Rick]

Out house temp stays at about 76-78.
I've got an 8 T5 setup with individual reflectors, and run 2 small fans on the surface of the water, the heater will actually kick on a few times during the day when the lights are on because the fans cool it down to much.

I wouldn't use the chiller unless you have a big MH setup.
Fans should do the trick for you, much cheaper too.

 

[crvz]

Well my 58 gallon was really well insulated, it was hard to get enough cool air to get exposed to the water. I had to use a chiller on that setup too, but on my 150 I've been able to rely solely on fans.

 

[Reefaddict79]

The meter on your house could be acting up/out of calibration

 

[boudster]

Could this perhaps be a conincidence.....by Electricity bill tends to go WAY up around the June/July timeframe....most of the cost increase could simply be due to the fact that it's hotter outside.

 

[ReefNoob]

Major wrongness!

When I upgraded to my larger tank I also upgrade to larger pumps, larger chiller, larger lights, etc. Also with the sump in the garage of course the LARGER chiller runs more.

I think it's more efficient to have a larger unit(specifiically designed to handle a larger load) than spec'ed. It drops the temp quicker and therefore runs much less than an adequate unit.

Markie, thanks for the offer but I have a UPS that measure my power consumption and my chiller is pulling 530 W when working!
That seems perferctly OK

 

[ReefNoob]

How long does it run per day? My 1/4hp chiller sucked up 450watts while running, and if you're trying to keep the tank that much below ambient you're probably running it 10 hours a day or more. I'd bet if you kept the house cooler, you'd end up saving quite a bit of money.

you know,it runs maybe 5 to 6 times a day ( between 8AM and 6PM) when I let the house go up to 84;when it runs,it does so for about 10 to 15 minutes to drop the temp back.
By the way,I CAN'T lower the temp in my house that much,the AC unit would be running nonstop.
I have a Montrose 1923 bungalow,all in all excellent condition except the insulation
and a few $100's during the summer months can't justify a major insulation project worth $10-15 k at least.

 

[ReefNoob]

The meter on your house could be acting up/out of calibration

That's what I'm now hoping for!
Thanks for the out of the box thinking,I needed that

 

[ReefNoob]

Could this perhaps be a conincidence.....by Electricity bill tends to go WAY up around the June/July timeframe....most of the cost increase could simply be due to the fact that it's hotter outside.

agreed,there's a strong temperature to consumption correlation but that's been true for 2006,2007 and the bell shape curve makes sense.
What does not if the shooting straight up two data points from June and July 2008(see profile at top of thread) that's way out of line with the previous year,and no,I did not add a meth lab or aluminum plant in my backyard

 

[tedu]

Well, have you done the math ?
Let's say it consumes 5 amps ~= 600 watts.

If it ran
(24 hours / day * 30 days * 600 watts ) /1000 watts / kw = 432 kWh

432 kWh * $.16 / kWh = $70 / month

Your last month's usage looks like it jumped close to 1000 kWh, which definitely seems disproportionate to the projected usage.

 

[Scott]

Don't forget that as the unit starts the motor from a dead stop the amperage required to move the motor and compressor to obtain the rated amperage is exponentially higher. Startup amps are rarely remembered but always a factor that should be considered, especially if it is starting and stopping several times a day. If it's rated at 5A it may take as much as 30A to get it running from a dead stop.

 

[tedu]

Sure, but for what duration?
Even if it was 15 seconds (which would probably trip the breaker) and it did it 20 times per day that's 5 minutes of 30 amp usage... which is another 0.3 kWh / day, so nowhere near double.

 

[ReefNoob]

Well, have you done the math ?
Let's say it consumes 5 amps ~= 600 watts.

If it ran
(24 hours / day * 30 days * 600 watts ) /1000 watts / kw = 432 kWh

432 kWh * $.16 / kWh = $70 / month

Your last month's usage looks like it jumped close to 1000 kWh, which definitely seems disproportionate to the projected usage.

That's exactly what I did,worst case scenario does not even come close to making sense!
That's gotta be the meter that's out of calibration...

 

[RR-MAN]

ReefNoob,

Why are you running a chiller on a 55/g tank (unless the tank is in the garage)? I'm running
5-250/watts MH on my tank with 3 clip on fans and my tank's temperature does not exceed 81 degrees (reefkeeper 2).
T&T Fish has a display tank (full of SPS Corals) running 3-400/MHs with just one small fan and no chiller. IMO, get rid of the chiller and save your money for other reef toys.

Good Luck!!!!