My electric bills are killing me, I’m at ~300% of baseline. My power company jacks the rates up x2.5 for use over 200% of baseline and x3 for use over 300%. So I need to get my use down to under 200%.

I recently got a watt meter and I’ve been measuring everything in my house to figure out where all the power is going. Based on my analysis so far, I think my reef tank is consuming ~20-30% of my overall power right now. So I need to figure out how to make my reef tank more efficient.

My tank is ~110g (48w, 24h, 21d) + ~25g sump.

Power usage data I have on my tank so far is:
516W = Lighting used by two 250W HQI MH lights, runs 10-12 hours.
430W = 1/4HP Chiller while running, I’m not sure yet how much this runs per day, probably ~3 hrs.
81W = Main pump (Iwaki MD30RLTX external), runs 24×7.
61W = protein skimmer, runs 24×7
32W = Secondary pump for chiller (Mag5), runs 24×7
13W each = Two Hydor power heads.

So I’m thinking of getting rid of the MH lights and going with T5’s. For example, I could install a set of retro 4×36 inch 39W T5 lights which would use ~160W vs the 516W I run now. Specifically, I’m considering, one of these two:

- http://www.championlighting.com/prod…cat=913&page=1
- http://www.championlighting.com/prod…cat=913&page=1

I realize that I won’t be able to keep any hard corals or clams. I’m perfectly fine with that and I actually think I may like this better, because I have observed that many soft corals extend themselves more and look more attractive with lower light.

Reducing the light, will likely also mean my chiller will not have to work as hard with less heat load.

Another idea is to get rid of the dedicated chiller pump and just add a Tee & valve on the output of my main pump to drive the chiller. This will cut 32W and also the heat load created by this submerged pump on the chiller.

I could also try to plumb the skimmer pump to be outside my sump so that it’s air cooled instead to cut down on the heat load.

So I was wondering of anyone has feedback on the choice of lighting or other power savings ideas?

Thanks!