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It is never a waste of time . It not only helps me keep up on things, but others I am sure can use the information for their tanks.Keeping looking for a good deal out there...you will find it. I know when I worked in pet stores there were always people asking me if I wanted their set ups (sometimes to buy, sometime for free).
________________________________________________ Keith "Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer
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Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 9/28/2008 5:49:32 AM
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| Thanks, And now, another lighting related question. In my 50g tank, I currently have 80w of PC lighting and a flourescent light of unknown wattage. Just a light I have had for over 2 years and can't be more than 40w because the balast is limited to 40. I was thinking of spending my hard earned money on a new light to replace my old one. I am on the verge of getting a 48" Current USA T5, which will give me 108w. My question is two fold. One, is this a good light? Two, is there a way to figure out what I an adding to my parent's electric bill and how do I figure that out? I keep my lights on for 10.5 hours every day. Thanks,
DRRT
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| 1) They are very good fixtures and I think you will be very happy with them. 2) Currently you are running 120 watts (assuming the unknown is 40 watts, if it is a 4 foot T12 bulb it is 40 watts, if it is a T8 bulb it is 32 watts so we will just figure 40). You are running that for 10.5 hours per day so your current lighting system is using 1260 watts per day. If you can find out how much your parents pay per kilowatt you can figure this out (or you can also call the electric company and they should know). Going to the T5 fixture of 108 watts and running it the same amount of time you will be using 1134 watts. So basically you should be saving some money on your electric bill by going with this light. But this is just comparing the bulbs. If there are fans running on either fixture that would also play a role in this. HTH,
________________________________________________ Keith "Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer
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| How did you do that? And that is replacing just the old light and keeping the 80w pc right? How does it come out to less? Please explain.
DRRT
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| I thought you meant replacing the old fixtures (PC and normal output bulb) with a new T5 fixture, so at that point you would only have a T5 fixture over the tank. Sorry for the confusion. If you are keeping the PC fixture and just replacing the old normal output bulb with the T5 fixture then you would have 80 watts of PC lighting (running 10.5 hours per day) and 108 watts of T5 lighting (also running 10.5 hours per day) for a total of 188 watts running 10.5 hours per day. 188 watts x 10.5 hours equals 1974 watts per day. I believe a kilowatt is 1000 watts, so almost 2 KW per day. If your KWH rate is 0.12, then your lighting will cost you around $7.20 a month to run (2 KW x 30 days in a month x 0.12=7.20). HTH,
________________________________________________ Keith "Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer
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| Ok, so it is simple. Here I was thinking it was a really complex equation to figure that out. Cool, now I know how to explain it all. Thanks again,
DRRT
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Group: Administrators
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| No problem...you can actually figure out your whole tank that way. Most pumps (unless on a wavemakers) will be running 24/7, your heater will usually run anywhere from 0 hours (summertime) to 12-14 hours (wintertime) a day, lighting already talked about, etc... Basically anything you plug in your tank should have a wattage reading on it, but if not they sell something called a kill-a-watt that plugs in to the wall and then you plug your electrical device into it and it lets you know the actual wattage it is using (google search kill-a-watt if you are interested in one or home depot carries them). Also depending on your usage, you may have different rates. For example the first X amount of KW are figured at 0.12, if you go over that amount the next X amount of KW are figured at 0.15 and if you go above that the next X amount of KW are figured at 0.20. This also doesn't take into account the generation rates charged by electric companies. I know the generation rate on my electric bills are about the same as what they are charging me for the energy. So while it is fairly simple, there are other factors that need to be looked at to get a true total. HTH,
________________________________________________ Keith "Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy." Wayne Dyer
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