What are you doing to help

[ReeferRob]

I was curious to hear what other reefers here on CR were doing to cut cost on maintenance and utilities in their homes and with there reefs.

I've recently purchase high efficiency washers and dryers.

I turned the water heater down to 130 degrees.

Since a homes refrigerator can account for close to 20% of a homes energy consumption I recently upgraded to a HE fridge.

I try to use efficient pumps on my tanks as well, and have shorten photoperiod to almost 4 hours total on both tanks.

I dream of one day owning a 1:1 RO/DI unit, and having the entire tank powered by solar energy!

[pjr]

Would be interested to see if anyone has looked at PC and TV usage and determine their impact on the monthly bill.

Also: has anyone reviewed how much a heater in your sump can impact the total electric bill?

In terms of the tank, I've gone to LEDs for lighting, a below tank sump, and a high efficiency (small pump) skimmer to help drop usage.

[ReeferRob]

LED's are the other item on the wish list too! I've been battling with ordering them for months now. Would really be nice to not have to worry about bulbs and the energy they draw. Who knows the LED technology continues to grow and improve daily, as well does the price!!

[medwards]

Green cost to much green to get started, even with the long term savings. I do use energy saving light bulbs on the house though.

[tazzy695]

not really doing much but recently got rid of the mh lighting in favor of t5s also use tunze return and circulation pumps only pump in my system that isn't tunze and low power is the sedra 5000 that runs my skimmer

[fishtal]

Hmmm, let's see...

Home:

99% of my household bulbs are CF.

A/C is only used in the room with my main tank, only when needed. Once last summer if I recall.

New windows will be coming soon.

Heat during the winter is kept at 62 during the night and 68 during the day.

Anything that can be recycled, is. Glass, paper, plastics, etc.

I use re-useable shopping bags instead of plastic.

Purchase locally grown produce whenever possible.

Fish:

Main lighting is T-5s (Will switch to LED when I can) CF, T-12 and T-5s are used in the other tanks and breeding room.

RO/DI waste water is used for the washer.

Water for water changes is heated by placing the bucket in the sun when possible.

Water from water changes is used for growing copepod and rotifer cultures.

Low wattage pumps and powerheads.

All tanks in the breeding room are covered to maintain temp and limit heater use as well as lowering evaporation.

Oh, and I breed several species of marine fishes to help limit the impact of the hobby on the world's reefs.

[lionhead]

For my home I too have turned the water heater down. Replaced all light bulbs to the CF bulbs. I replace my furnace filters regularly. I use my water from RO for my washer as well. I only use my AC when it is really humid at night. I also have reptiles so don't like the AC on too much. Once summer hits I turn all my heaters down in my tanks. Me and my wife prefer the dark so the only lights on at night are from the fish tank or the TV. I made sure to buy a energy efficient AC last year. I replaced two wooden doors on my house to better insulated steel doors. Took down the window blinds and bought double coated curtains to hold heat in for the winter. I live in like a 100yr old house, so basically anything I do is an improvement. I want to get a electric instant hot water heater, new windows, a new roof, and put spay insulation in the walls.'
My tanks I try to use low wattage pumps and powerheads. I cut my light cycles back by 2hours on both of my setups. I took down a 20gal freshwater setup to cut back a little. I do group buys with my friends to save cost on shipping and to get better prices. I just added a canopy over my 90gal setup to help with evaporation. Put all my lights on timers so that I dont have to deal with the lights manually and forget about them. I buy made phyto instead of buying store brands. Win a ton of food at the swaps so I dont have to buy food for most of the year. I am sure that there are a few things I am missing but we all should make a good effort to cut cost and energy use.

[MizTanks]

Very interesting reads :)

[stunreefer]

Tal wins :D

[Tom@HaslettMI]

I have implemented a lot of the above mentioned strategies... but a unique one for me was switching my fuge light from 18 watt PC to 4 watt CCFL. I still have good caulerpa growth and since it runs 24/7 it adds up to a fair amount annually.

Tom

[tazzy695]

I will admit I tried dropping from a 14w cfl bulb for the fuge to a led bulb that only pulled 5w but found that the algae with the led didn't grow as good so went back to the cfl

[henry hill]

Sold my TANK.
New tank is coming this week (LED System) from NAno Customs.
HE fridge.
18" Insulation in the Attic.
New windows
Insulated garage door.

Biggest was our new wood burning stove. We spent about $300.00 total (Maybe) for gas this past heating season and were able to keep our home anywhere from 72 to 82 depending on how often we wanted to throw wood on. This also includes washing 2 loads of clothes a day and showers.

[Bella127]

I purchased a Kill a watt meter from Costco to see what everything was going to cost me. I fried it by hooking it up incorrectly with my metal halide ballast and light. :(

[Mike]

Re thinking Barracuda for closed loop. Looking for an ATB flowstar or a Red DRagon for that. Also going to break the Tunze's out again soon and run the second loop a few hours a day instead of 24/7.

Going with an all high powered LED build and nixing the MH's (might see these for sale soon on another forum or two ;) )

Hoping to be able to not run the chiller as much if at all once the LED build is complete.


My ultimate goal is to have as much DC equipment running my reef as possible. My Tunze's are 24watts (3100 gph) and the Barracuda is 360 watts (4200 gph). I can get a flow star or red dragon that pushed over 3000 ph at <100 watts