Actinic on while MH is on

[hijinks]

I have an outer orbit with 2 actinic/daylight bulds and a 150 MH

My MH is on for 4 hours and right now the actinic is on for 8.. what are people's thoughts on turning the actinic off while thr MH is on

 

[MikeyZO]

I think thats just a matter of visual preference. However, if everything is growing well, why change it? (If its not broken, dont fix it) Are you just trying to save money or was there a reason you were thinking of this?

 

[hijinks]

money saving really.. even though 4 hours a day won't amount to a whole lot.

 

[KathyC]

You can go either way. Whatever you find more pleasing to the eye is what is best. Best to have them overlap at the beginning and end of the day

Why do you only run the MH's for 4 hours?

 

[reefs4life]

I agree with Kathy, why only 4 hours? IMO MHs should be on at least 6 hours. I run my 250s on my 75g for about 7 hours with the actinics supplementing them. The only reason I have the actinics on is because I have some crappy MH bulbs that I cant wait to get the money to replace lol

 

[Orca1]

Even though I'm new to the whole reef scene, I feel that I might be able to help out in this situation. I actually work for Con Ed and my primary job function is looking into high electric/gas bills.

How many watts are your actinics? If your MH is on for a total of 4 hours per day @ 150w, it's a total if 18k watts per every 30 days. That would add up to 18kwhrs per month or approximately $5.00 per month (give or take).

 

[MikeyZO]

lol now figure out how much a 250w MH at 8hrs a day costs LOL

 

[reefs4life]

lol now figure out how much a 250w MH at 8hrs a day costs LOL

yeah I did the same for 2-250w MHs and 4-65w actinics, depressing to think that those are just the lights...

 

[hijinks]

the antinics are 2 96 watt fixtures

 

[Orca1]

MikeyZO.......you're looking at 2 kwhrs per day or 60 kwhrs per month. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $13.00-$15.00 per month or .43-.50 cents per day for your 2 MH's alone.

hijinks..........if your actinic 96w bulbs X 2 for 8 hours per day you're looking at 46.08 kwhrs per month or roughly $10.00-$12.00 per month. 1/2 of that if you're going to reduce it to 4 hours per day.

Of course these are rough estimates.

The formula is pretty easy. Watts X hours used per day / 1000 equals your Kwhr usage per day. Figure the average month is 30 days multiplied by the price per kwhr (including delivery costs) and you get a neighborhood dollar amount per month. The same formula can be applied to your household lighting.

Hope this helps............Eric.