Kill O Watt readings!

Some general readings around my tanks.

Normal 60W incandescent light bulb... actual reading 61W

4 new T5 lamps(3 ATI,1 UVL) 24" 24W lamps with advance ballast from hellolights: 108 Watts.

Odyssea Fixture built in ballast with 4 X 65W PC Lamps (Sunpaq 420/460) :
Should be around 260... reading is 106 Watts! Again a cheap ballast far underdriving bulbs.

Heaters:
I have 2 Catalina 500W heaters from Ebay. One was 596 and the other 580

Rio 1700:
I use this on my algae scrubber suppose to be 23W ... actual reading 48W! Very disappointed.

Seio 820 Powerhead:
Suppose to be 18 W ... actual reading 32W!

Koralia 2 should burn 8. brand new burns 19W

Koralia 4:
Should only burn 12W... actual reading 27W.

Reeflo Dart:
Should only burn around 150W ... actual 146W. Amazing considering 3600 GPH.

Moon lights:
Reads zero.

Koralia 6:
Should burn 10W ... and it actually reads 10W.

Odyssea Metal Halide 250W ballast.. Less than a month use.. It's been in my closet for a year. This is the silver ballast and the newer black ballast are suppose to run closer to 250W. Running New 10K XM bulb.
Drum roll please:
Only 60 watts!!! ...Wow!


Icecap 250W ballast on the same XM bulb:
262 Watts.



Note the purple haze (upper left)is actually purple in second photo and blue in the first. Only one bulb is on in these photos.

 

wow great info

 

Cool info, I've been meaning to get one of these, some day.

 

Ya, I really like the Kill a Watt meter. It is a very easy way to get electrical performance information for the toys in our lives.

My Dart pump is running 135 watts. So it is good to see them consistent. And my 48", one year old, T5s are still managing about 51 watts/bulb....

My chiller has decided not to start. With the Kill-a-Watt, I can see that there is a 9 volt drop in the line, 24.5 amps pulling before the Chiller's overload trips. The ckt breaker is staying closed, so the MFG has suggested I replace the starter pack in the chiller. Having the above information is likely to save me some repair $s....

 

I love.. it . I actually got a knock off version from Harbor freight for $25.

It's going to change my shopping habits and tank equipment for sure.
Time to tap my spare water line off the manifold and get rid of the RIO pump.

Wattage adds up.
Using this calculator:
Costs Calculator
It cost me $54 a year to run 2 Koralia 4's at my rate of 11.5 cents per KWH.
My K6 cost only $10 a year and pushes the same amount of water.
Yes it cost more but they're on sale every now and then so It would be worth buying at the cheaper prices.

$153 per year to run 524W of metal halides for 7 hours a day.

 

You should get one. Ya never know how much some equipment is drawing.

 

finally, something good about an odyssea product . . . apparently there very energy efficient :

~Will.

 

Just to be clear for me, the low wattage on the lights is actually a bad thing, right? That means the lights are putting out less light.

It would be interesting to see a comparison between the watts it is drawing and the par value. Don't happen to have a par meter, do you?

 

I don't have a PAR meter but the local club has one I just don't have time to mess with it this week. At 60W I'm sure the numbers are dismal.