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Chiller HP depends on wattage in tank ?


hamannbmw
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hi,

I understand from someone that chiller HP got to depend on the amount of wattage in your tank. Meaning there is no standard term eg. 4 X 2 X 2 gotta use 1/2 HP etc. If the amount of wattage in the tank is too high, den gotta get a 1 HP chiller. The amount of wattage includes lights , circulation pumps etc etc. Heard there is a table to calculate it too :huh:

Can someone verify this :thanks:

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Nope,

I have 2x250watts MH in my 4x2.5x2.5 with eheim 1060 and laguna pump running externally. My atman chiller 0.5HP just barely chill the water temp at 0.2degrees/hr when the the lights are on and 1.5degrees/hr when the lights are off.

If you are not going to run the eheim pumps externally, it would not be able to cope with the heat load.

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i'll be running the 2 X eheim 1262 in the sump tank, not externally..... so Atman 1/2 HP not sufficient ? meaning i gotta get a 1hp ?

yes most likely it wont be able to cope with the heat. Depending on what is the heat load, you can even chill a 6ft with low heat load.

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so b4 i proceed to purchase, how would i know whether its sufficient ?

heard there is a calculating table :huh:

does anyone here using 1/2 HP with 2 X 250w MH ? care to comment ....

Ya i using 2 x 250W SE MH with 3 x submissible pumps inside my sump with no problem maintaining my tank temp at 25C using Atman 400CIRV. Only issue is the chiller cuts in and cuts out every 3 mins. So it will be running 12hrs a day. After some calculation, electricity bills is just $17.80/mth, so I just leave it.

320W x 12hrs x 30days /1000 = 115.20kwh

115.2kwh x 0.1544 = $17.78

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Ya i using 2 x 250W SE MH with 3 x submissible pumps inside my sump with no problem maintaining my tank temp at 25C using Atman 400CIRV. Only issue is the chiller cuts in and cuts out every 3 mins. So it will be running 12hrs a day. After some calculation, electricity bills is just $17.80/mth, so I just leave it.

320W x 12hrs x 30days /1000 = 115.20kwh

115.2kwh x 0.1544 = $17.78

Something is wrong with yr configuration. If the chiller starts every 3mins, very soon the compressor will breakdown.

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it could be

chiller underpowered

pump flowrate insufficent

cold water "shortcircuit", the cold water is being circulated between the input and output of the chiller hence giving it a false cold reading. This normally happens when the input and output is very near. E.g both in sump

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it could be

chiller underpowered

pump flowrate insufficent

cold water "shortcircuit", the cold water is being circulated between the input and output of the chiller hence giving it a false cold reading. This normally happens when the input and output is very near. E.g both in sump

Running 2 months plus liao.......so far so good, Inlet is from sump with 2000L/hr flowrate and outlet to main tank. I think its due to the 1 degree C differencial temp. of this atman chiller plus I using 500W MH for a 300L tank so temperature build up quite fast.

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In my opinion, always buy the biggest chiller you can afford. Reasons being:

1. Less wear and tear because the chiller will not have to work as hard as one which is less powerful. Do not think that a bigger chiller will use up more energy. Just think: Big chiller draws more energy but take shorter time to achieve preset temperature; small chiller draws less energy but takes longer time to achieve preset temperature.

2. Allow you to upgrade to bigger tank or add more lights.

3. More cooling power per dollar spent. (1hp chiller does not cost 2x the price of 0.5hp)

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yup, not much different actually cos even if I set it at 27C , the chiller will also cut in at 3mins. Atman chiller senses +1C increase in the temp, it will activate the timer which will count down from 3mins before running the compressor. Thus there is not much different even if you set it at 22C or 28C? With the 500W MH on, the water temp. will raise by 1C in less than 3mins.

If you are not prepared to foot $60/mth electricity bills for ur tank alone, I suggest you go for T5 with a temp. sensor probe to cut in/out ur fans, this will reduce the evaporation rate & a auto topup system to prevent too much fluatuation on the water parameters.

Its not a good idea to set your chiller's delta to only 1 degrees. You would be wasting alot of electricity although you would be having a small temperature range fluctuation in the tank.

A good setting would be 2 degrees. That way your chiller doesn't cut in so often.... (every 3 minutes and your chiller will spoil very fast).

I am using the Pacific Coo 1/2hp chiller (true rated compressor). My tank is a 4ftx2ftx2ft with 3ftx1.5ftx15inch sump. Running 800W of lights. My chilling is 0.1 degrees every 10 minutes when the lights are on and 0.2 degrees every 10 minutes when lights are off. My chiller kicks in every 2 to 3 hrs and runs for about 4hrs. I am using a titanium chiller and my heat from the lights and pumps are huge. My total pump wattage is almost 250W.

Wat Hp you require is highly dependent on a few things:

1)Your tank and water volume

2) Your lighting wattage

3) Your pumps used (internal or external) which contribute to heat

4) Your chiller's input pump size (whether its sufficient flowrate)

5) Your chiller input and output location (Best is suction from sump and output to main tank direct or to return pump area)

6) Your tanks flowrate (higher flowrate faster distribution of heat and cold)

Typically a true rated 1/2 Hp chiller can chill up to 6ft tanks using 2x150W of lights with a 3ft sump and using 4500L/hr flowrate return pumps.

Other considerations are whether the chiller's heat exchanger is copper or titanium.

Copper is a much better conductor of heat and hence is much much more efficient.

Titanium is a lousier conductor of heat and because its very expensive, off the shelf titanium heat exchangers use very little coils of the piping, resulting in poorer heat exchange performance, and hence much lousier heat transfer compared to copper.

As micheal suggested, the best method is to get a bigger rated chiller than necessary. This has the advantage of covering upgrades or increase in lighting wattage. It also will not stress your chiller and does not necessary equate to higher running costs because your chiller would be running more efficiently.

Frequent on/off results in much higher wattage consumption because compressors as well as all motors (cars, engines, etc) need much more power during the initial startup.

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