Neptune Aquatics

Any suggestions on managing PG&E bill?

Blaise006

Blaise006

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Based on my APEX The tank adds about $95-$110 to the bill each month. Anyone have any suggestions for bringing the bill down? I am currently in the default two tier plan.


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Electricity is cheaper to run thr tank in the summer since heater isn't needed. But then I have to run thr ac for ourselves and the tank or else the tank will get to 85 still not cheap.

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A few easy things.
Efficient pumps and power heads. Make sure you have a good DC pump on return + skimmer.
Good lights. LED, and not all are equal.
Insulation as practical.

Solar power is obvious, but expensive.

Some people with large tanks have switched to gas heaters.
I have even heard of some interesting solar-heater (non electric) ideas.

You can consider time-of-use pricing if tank is a big percentage.
Then turn heaters and some equipment off from 5-8. Set lights to run early.

But really no easy way around it.
 
I'm on TOU (time of use). For me it makes sense since I also have a pool. The biggest reduction for me was moving from 250W MH to LEDs and switching to DC pumps.
 
I'll echo others here -- the only thing that really makes me notice my power bill is lighting. A good LED setup, such as Ecotech Radions or Kessil A360s, is extremely efficient.
 
When I switched to electric car time of use several years ago it made a huge improvement in my electricity bill, a couple hundred dollars a month. But that is in the setting of a lot of baseline use, blowing through to the top tier in the second or third week of every month previously. You should check to see if switching to TOU would save you.

DC pumps and LED lights are the main ways to increase efficiency without sacrificing function. Otherwise you just have to decide what is and isn’t worth it. For example, running lights brighter is generally better for your coral but obviously uses more electricity. Same with extra usage for reactors/filters/UV.

You can experiment with running your tanks a little cooler to reduce heating costs, but be careful.

If you aren’t in a position to buy solar panels you can “lease” them where it just reduces your cost per kW with little or no upfront cost.
 
Bringing down the bill. That's a hard sell, because anything to bring the bill down will have very high up front costs and the ROI could be way out in the future and possibly never if said equipment needs to get replaced before you see it. So going from a 120W pump to a 50W pump might cost you $375, and you'll save like 50 cents a day, so you'll see $15/month in savings but it'll take you 2 years before you break even on your purchase.

As for PG&E tiers, I wouldn't change them unless you have a way of producing and storing power, or use A LOT of power (which at $100/month isn't that much). Because PG&E has different tiers as a way to save THEM money not you. Now sure you could argue if you light your tank at night, and heaters work mostly at night you could save money, but things like your powerheads, pumps and skimmer will run 24hrs a day, so doing so needs to be done after a seriously electrical check to see what it will cost you.
 
sfsuphysics said:
As for PG&E tiers, I wouldn't change them unless you have a way of producing and storing power,
Click to expand...
I’m excited to see more power storage options come out since that’s a good way to utilize the time of usage rates.

I believe Milwaukee just released a big battery with inverter for powering job site equipment, I wonder if it could be used as a backup power source and for storing power during the day
 
max_nano said:
I’m excited to see more power storage options come out since that’s a good way to utilize the time of usage rates.

I believe Milwaukee just released a big battery with inverter for powering job site equipment, I wonder if it could be used as a backup power source and for storing power during the day
Click to expand...
PGE does not allow one to charge your batteries at night when electricity is cheap and then use them during the day when it is expensive on TOU rates, if that’s what you are referring to. You can charge them with solar and then use them whenever you want. It’s too bad because although this would cost PGE a little to subsidize, it would also help them stabilize their grid now, and avoid costly peaker plant use. And since they can modify the times of their high/med/low rates to tweak incentives to match their supply/demand curves, it would give them another tool to stabilize the grid in the future.
 
Yeah what PG&E does should be criminal. Complain about too much power demand during the day, and too little at night, but a solution presents itself with you buying up some of that cheap relatively "unused" power they make at night so you can stay off the daytime power when they have "too much demand" and they're like "nope... you can't do that". The reality is you "could" do that, but I think Tesla and other battery manufacturers have to put in certain software locks to prevent the user from doing it so that they can comply with local codes and what not.
 
max_nano said:
I’m excited to see more power storage options come out since that’s a good way to utilize the time of usage rates.

I believe Milwaukee just released a big battery with inverter for powering job site equipment, I wonder if it could be used as a backup power source and for storing power during the day
Click to expand...
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try this. not sure how much/power Milwaukee is.
 
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