Putting the heater on a timer

[Mjb24]

I have a 100 watt heater in a 55 gallon tank and have it on an energy monitor.  I was looking at the stats from the monitor the other day, and it has always bugged me how many times a day it comes on. 

Stats for last month are.

Times on averaged 176 times per day

Run time 7.4 hours per day 

Watts 0.8 kw per day 

 

I have noticed every heater I have had works similar to this one. I also have my heaters on a smart plug so if the monitor catches it on for to long I can turn it off from anywhere it and then figure out if it is broken. 

 

Cory has said in past live streams that what kills heaters the most is the on off cycle. So I was thinking of using the smart plug to limit when it can come on. I made a schedule for it to come on for only 25 minutes every 2 hours. Today was the first full day of trying this and the stats are. 

19 times on

Run time 2h 3m

And .2kw used

 

I also tried to keep an eye on the temp and I run my tank at 77 degrees and the lowest I saw it get was 75 degrees. I have no idea if this is going to help the live of my heaters, but based on stats for one day the energy savings is about $22 per year. I know the savings are not huge for 1 tank, but for people like my dad who has 18 tanks it adds up. 

 

Has anyone else tried something like this?

[Tony s]

Just curious, would the inkbird controller give you a rang of temperature settings? While giving you much better accuracy 

[Mjb24]

To be honest I forgot devices like that existed, but ya it would probably do a better job for one tank. But if you have multiple tanks it would not work were you could set 1 smart plug on a power strip and run 10 or 11 tanks, just making sure to stay under the 1300 watt rating on the plugs.

[rgb_aquarium]

I believe it keep turning on because a 100 watt heater is not strong enough for 55 gallon. Your heater is going to get burn out.

The industry standard is 5 watt per gallon to raise the temperature within 10 degree of room temperature. 

[Pepere]

On 7/5/2024 at 9:03 PM, rgb_aquarium said:

I believe it keep turning on because a 100 watt heater is not strong enough for 55 gallon. Your heater is going to get burn out.

No. It keeps turning on after the tank loses temp.  If it was too small for the heat loss the heater would not shut offas the temp would not be reached.

 

I plug my heaters in to Inkbirds and set it for a 2 degree range, it turns the heater on when the tanktemp drops to 74, and back off when it hits 76.

 

you would see your heat cycles drop significantly and have an added failsafe.  I set the heater temp setting to77. That way if the Inkbird fails to turn off rhe heater has the ability to save the day…

 

The industry standard is well in excess of what is needed.  I run 50watt heaters in 29 gallon tanks.  I never see them not keeping up.