Insulation And Electricity Saving?

[Liz xty]

Whilst we're going through this cold spell, I wonder if anyone insulates their tanks?
Running a 350 trigon tank with a fluval 406 filter, 2x 24w and 2x 45w lights and 2 thermostat heaters, I'm wondering where I could make some electric savings and keep my fish happy!
We used to have regular power cuts and had a few prolonged ones in winter. So when I set up my previous 4' rectangular tank, I had 1" thick polystyrene left in place around the 2 sides against the walls and had the same for the front and other side, to put on, if we needed it.
I did wonder if that made any difference, but never compared the electric usage, so can't say.
Haven't done anything with this new tank, as I wasn't sure how I'd fix it (I just had it resting on the overhanging base on the old tank).
Wondering if its worth trying to do something around the back sides and also whether to lag the external filter pipes - as they're taking warm water from the tank and are adjacent to external walls.
My lights are t5s and do put out quite a bit of heat themselves. Is there any light worth considering which is less heavy on the electric usage?
I sound a right scrimper don't I? But I'm just being practical really!

 

[techen]

Many people have tried many things but if your trying to save money on your bills fish keeping is not the hobby you want to be in xD

 

[Mikey1]

fish dont care if the light is on or not, its really only for the viewing of the tank....if you want to save a bit you should turn your lights off anytime your not viewing the tank or in the same room as the tank

 

[Liz xty]

Many people have tried many things but if your trying to save money on your bills fish keeping is not the hobby you want to be in xD

Oh I realise that ;-)
More a matter of, if you can maintain standards AND save a penny or 2, then all the better ;-)

fish dont care if the light is on or not, its really only for the viewing of the tank....if you want to save a bit you should turn your lights off anytime your not viewing the tank or in the same room as the tank

And the plants? I don't have a heavily planted tank, as the silver dollars take care of that, but the few java ferns and moss balls?
I have both sets of lights on timers, but might start using the switch on the bigger set instead.

 

[techen]

If you have plants I suggest you leave the lighting as it is

 

[Liz xty]

Decided to make use of a hot water cylinder jacket that we had spare! It is in 4 vertical strips so have stuck 3 of them together and slid it down behind the back corner of the tank. It's very light weight so it's just needed a bit of parcel tape to stick the top edge of each side to the plastic trim. It therefore also covers the filter pipes going down to the cabinet. It's about 4" short of being seen at the front corners, so quite discrete. Because both the corner walls are external, I feel it will help reduce the heaters working overtime when the central heating goes off at night! If a power cut does occur, I have the 4th piece to wrap across the front of the tank.
Don't think I should enclose the top, as I recon oxygen would be reduced!

 

[Zikofski]

what you could do, is run a tank pipe near a radiator, when your normal heating comes on your heaters wont come on becasue then your radiator will help, also having a lid on the tank will help too, prevent water loss and keep heat in as with all things that have heat including animals most heat is lost at the top/head

also LED lights are the best of low power but high light, i had 2 T5 at 54W each, the both together gave me a low to medium light for the tank, i now have only 90W of LED's and its more powerful and brighter yet using less electricity as i now have a High light tank if you wonder where to get some from give PS3steveo a PM he made them for me and many other members of the forum

 

[Liz xty]

Mmm, considering the led alternatives. I do think that it's a bit bright when all 4 light tubes are on and the long ones kick out some heat, which may be too much in summer.
Will look into it further.

 

[dgwebster]

Many people have tried many things but if your trying to save money on your bills fish keeping is not the hobby you want to be in xD

Definitely do not try reptiles as well! I recently gave up and now permanently heat my bedroom at 23 degrees because I was running some much wattage on different ceramic bulbs and heat mats. I niw have under 100W of heatmaps making the hot spots on the 30's and a 40W basking spot for the beardies. Need to add insulation foam to the roof of the room, triple glazed window and a 4 tog rated underlay i the carpet.

Anyway onto the main topic (because its still cold here) the questions is more about heat transference: how quickly does the glass exchange heat with the cold room air. Guesswork is, you are talking under £1 per year: the water transfers its heat to the glass, the glass transfers it with air. So really, the glass acts as an insulator against this itself. Adding cell structure insulation after this will help, but not much. The water/air contact at the surface probably exchanges far more heat (think evaporation and how much energy it takes to turn water to a gas) so creating a buffer air zone in the hood will save more money by reducing the exchange rate of water into vapour that can take place.

Please note these are my thoughts. I did applied physics at uni but in no way have checked out my thoughts on the subject. Ive just subjectively thought it out.