Power usage

[zbrusko]

Hi,

I’m looking into whole home power backup options, and I think I am going to go with a battery that itself is backed up by a generator. Happy to explain my rationale to anyone interested, but at this point, I’m trying to figure out how much battery I need and how much of my total usage is from my tanks, of which I have 7. Many are freshwater & can go without lights or in some cases even heaters for a day or two. My real concern is the power draw from my IM SR60 in the winter when the heaters are most important. In it I have 2 100 watt heaters, 2 MP10s, the stock return pumps (22w) and 2 AI Hydra 32s that are on 12 hrs a day, never even getting to 50%. Also have a Tunze ATO. Does anyone know what an hourly draw would be on this system? While the pumps are 22w each, what is that? 22w per day? Hour?

Thanks!
Zach

 

[betareef]

While the pumps are 22w each, what is that? 22w per day? Hour?

No, it is continuous power usage. Energy for the home is purchased and stored with the usual measurement units of kilowatt-hours kWh). This specifies the amount of power (in Watts) you can consume over a period of time (hours). One kiloWatt for one hour equals one kiloWatt hour.On small batteries, often you will see millamp-hours. This is current for a period of time. Multiply by voltage to turn it into kiloWatt-hours.

Simple example, your 22 Watt pump. If it runs all day, you will use 22x24/1000 = 0.528 kiloWatt-hours. Two of them will use double that obviously.

A thing like a 100 watt heater that has a thermostat is a little more complicated as you need to know what proportion of the time is spends turned on vs off. Say it was 50% of the time, then treat it as a 50 Watt device, multiply by 24 and divide by 1000 to get the usage per day

 

[zbrusko]

Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Saltyanimals]

You can add up all the individual devices or you can buy a power monitor on that circuit(s) and see the actuals. Depending on tank size, 7 tanks can be alot for sure. For reference, I'm a Tesla Solar (12 kW) and Powerwall (2x battery) home. And my tank uses alot and that's a single 180g. The graph below is last week which is interesting to see how much it actual uses compared to a 26k gallon pool and an EV. I don't monitor all my circuits so below is just a subset for reference.

I do have automation running that powers down the most power hungry T5 lights when the home is running purely on batteries to conserve until the grid is restored in an outage situation. It is still spring so no AC blasting just yet in Houston. Come peak summer and the house consumption goes up 3x (5k+ kWh month). Unlikely your case in CT, but suggestion here is to turn on everything on your tank to see what the peak is.