Chiller Stats

I agree with Luna too. My 1/5 on my 150 is stressed since it is on the top end of the max. It's going on my 65G when I get that going again.
I'm sure your tank is going to thrive, you spared no expense my friend.

 

Thanks for the compliment.

I think if I owned an LFS, and sold chillers, I'd tell every customer that although I'd love for them to buy the most expensive chiller I sell--It's honestly in their best interest to at least overdo it one size over which specs call for.

Buying a chiller that's "just" rated for my tank would have caused the thing to run nearly 24/7. That would heat up my whole room and negate the air conditioner to boot. A chiller oversized will cost less in the long run. It will run less frequently, consume less energy, and have greater longevity.

 

You're right Sparky. Since I installed my chiller, which runs 4 out of 5 minutes in the dead heat of the summer, the room my reef is in is about 3-4 degrees hotter then the rest of the house..

 

I'm not totally sure what your concerns are. It is all a matter of moving heat. Your chiller is removing 1300 btu in 20 min of run time averaged in the hour. Your system is adding that 1300 btus every 40 minutes.

The chiller will have to run more to reject that 1300 btus at 78 that it will at 84. The heat transfer rate increases as the temp spread increases.

As far as a running a small chiller all the time, well yes, it will wear out faster because of the run time. However, it will not heat the room up more. It is only a heat pump. A chiller removing 2000 btus from your tank has to put that in the room. A chiller rated at 2000 btu/hr will take an hour to do the job. Your chiller will do it in 30 mins. However, the 2000 btus rejected to the room is the same.

 

That is because you are taking the heat out of your tank and putting it in your room. Water has a very high thermal capacity.

 

Well stated Powerman. It's the same BTUs being pumped out, I just know I hate walking into that wall of hot air when I walk by my tank when I come home from work, yuck! I wish I could exhaust the heat out the window somehow. I'll have to figure that one out sometime.

 

Yeah, I used the JBJ calculator, and they are very liberal in what they call for in terms of what is big enough. I think I went up to a 250G system with 500W of lighting and it still said the 1/5 was good enough. My 150 is a FOWLR, so I don't have strong lighting over that at all. I'm sure the 1/4hp will be along the lines of run time like your's. But I agree, always go bigger than just right in this hobby.
I cried a lot more when I had to buy the second chiller than if I just went and bought the bigger one to start off with.

 

Well first I put my chiller in my fish closet..... uh... ya... that didn't work out so well.

 

Mine is sitting next to my stand, so the hot air blows into my front entry room of my house. During the winter, my dog loves to sit next to it to stay warm.

 

i have bene using the 1/10 hp that i had on my 29 gal tank on my 90 now for 2 years. house keep at 79 chiller, comes on when tank hits 79 and off at 77 it runs 1 hour a day about 3/4 of the way through the light cycle. wish i could keep the house at 70 but that would cost like $800 a month to keep it that cool. so kind of out the window got to love cali