I just converted to all Led's.Allot of people are doing this so I thought I would show you the diffrence with Apex charts.The first link shows power consumption and temp variation with MH.As you can see the power use is very large running four 250w MH.The swings in temp are huge also which means the chiller ran allot.These amps are not shown on the chart but my chiller pulls 7.2 amps or 864 watts.That's allot of power when all the lights are running.The other chart is after replaceing all lights inclueding the T5's on the fuge.I basicly dropped my power consumption down to 8 amps and when the chiller is on it goes to 15 amps.The chiller basicly now only comes on twice a day now.I believe when I elminate the mag pump that feeds the frag tank the temp swing will become even more spread out.I'm hopeing this info will help anyone on the fence of makeing this change and show the massive diffrence in cost of operateing a system and how LED's can make this alittle less costly.If you consider power consumption savings and bulb replacement costs these payoff in fair amount of time.
key to apex colors
Red is the PH
Blue is temp
Green is the amps for power dc8 #1
Purple is the amps for power dc8#2
Teal is the amps for power dc8#3
Last edited by binford4000; 05-26-2011 at 09:27 AM.
I would love to be able to read those graphs but the resolution is so bad I cant make anything out as far as colors...
if you zoom to 150% it clears up,but the key is fuzzy.Photo bucket won't download the the pdf.I will get on my apex and then typ a key up so you know what color represents what.Give me a min
Color code is in the orignal post hope that helps
Last edited by binford4000; 05-26-2011 at 09:29 AM.
Well the the low wattage conversion is completed now with the removal of the mag pump for the frag tank and chiller.I replaced it with a reef octopus water blaster hyd 5000.1300 gph at only 60 watts.My complete system with the lights on when the heaters off is below 7 amps.I use to pull more then that with just the lights.The complete change over is a drop of 9.8 ampps and no bulb replacement for ten years and the chiller comes on only once a day most of the time.Just some FYI if anyones reading this lol
I just went to LED and I just did some reading on a 'KILL-A-WATT'.
LED: 2x60W
Start up Wattage: 46W each so a total of 92W
Running Wattage: 45W each so a total of 90W
Metal Halide: 2x250W (Im not sure if these are the electronic or magnetic ballasts.)
Start up Wattage: 165-175 each so a total of ~350W
Running Wattage: 280-281 each so a total of ~560W
Is it possible for the drivers to be outputting more light (suppose to be running 3Wx20 = 60watts of light) than how much electricty it is using (45w of electricity)..???
Either way... my tank looks happy and my electric bill and A/C (more electric) will love me a little more next month.
FTR... I installed these in June... My June DTE bill was higher than my July or Aug bill. Remember we had 2 weeks of 100 degree temps and my A/C never turned off in July/ Aug.. June was mostly in the 80's IIRC.
FTR... I installed these in June... My June DTE bill was higher than my July or Aug bill. Remember we had 2 weeks of 100 degree temps and my A/C never turned off in July/ Aug.. June was mostly in the 80's IIRC.
Not sure if I am following... LED conversion = good or bad?
I have a couple of LED and energy conservation threads on AzReefs Forums . Overall I am extremely pleased with my 2xAI SOL Blues which replaced 2x250w MH and 2x140w VHO. Between the lights an a few other things I have done both to the tank andmy home my bills have dropped as muc has 60% per month. The lights were a huge part of that when I went from 800 watts to less than 80 watts for 6-8 hours a day. The other big savings was going with a two speed swimming pool pump and digital timer, on low speed the 1.5 HP pump draws only 1/12 HP which is plenty to circulate chlorine in the Phoenix AZ heat.