A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners
Electricity costs of aquaponics
I want to quantify the electrical power requirements of aquiculture. Between pumping and air, there is a considerable energy cost. Does anyone know what the required KWH/ :area of growbed, pounds of fish etc.?
Thanks, Josh
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keith Rowan on
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it's all going to depend on lots of variables..
air pumps are pretty low wattage, as air water pumps... or you can use air lifts to move water
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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It will depend on.......
The design of the system
The type of system
The type of fish
The type of water and air pumps involved
The particular models of pumps involved
The size of the system
The climate and environment the system is in even.
So I don't think you are likely to pin the exact electrical usage down to just grow bed square footage or pounds of fish.
I will recommend that you research pumps carefully before buying since a cheap pump might cost you way more in electrical usage than a high quality energy efficient pump for the same volume of water pumped. The heights you are pumping to also play a huge roll as well as your pipe sizing when it comes to water pump efficiency.
At very low head heights, airlift pumps can be very efficient but when you talk about lifting water from a shallow container up to flood and drain media beds, there is no way an airlift is likely to compete with a regular water pump at the higher heights and all.
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Permalink Reply by Joshua Vaughan on
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I realize there are many variables but was wondering if anyone had calculated electrical cost, and if so for what size set up. Having installed 6 water wells and storage/delivery systems, and built numerous fountains and koi ponds I understand pipe sizing for friction losses, head loss etc. You are so right about pump efficiency. I have a pondmaster pm-12 on a series fountain set up and it uses only 110 watts to run five water features. I am contemplating using solar and 12v dc pump, but have not yet found the pump of my dreams. I will start with a Rule bilge pump (that I have) and see how that works at 4-5' head. Do you have any favorite pump recommendations (12vdc or 110ac)?
TCLynx said:It will depend on.......
The design of the system
The type of system
The type of fish
The type of water and air pumps involved
The particular models of pumps involved
The size of the system
The climate and environment the system is in even.
So I don't think you are likely to pin the exact electrical usage down to just grow bed square footage or pounds of fish.
I will recommend that you research pumps carefully before buying since a cheap pump might cost you way more in electrical usage than a high quality energy efficient pump for the same volume of water pumped. The heights you are pumping to also play a huge roll as well as your pipe sizing when it comes to water pump efficiency.
At very low head heights, airlift pumps can be very efficient but when you talk about lifting water from a shallow container up to flood and drain media beds, there is no way an airlift is likely to compete with a regular water pump at the higher heights and all.
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Permalink Reply by Kenneth J Roche' on
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Good day,
I purchased a handy little device called a Kill-a-watt here in the states that plugs into your electrical outlet and all my devices plug through it, which tells me exactly how much power each of my systems requires. This allowed me to figure out what the load would be on my solar powered emergency back up.
Joshua Vaughan said:I realize there are many variables but was wondering if anyone had calculated electrical cost, and if so for what size set up. Having installed 6 water wells and storage/delivery systems, and built numerous fountains and koi ponds I understand pipe sizing for friction losses, head loss etc. You are so right about pump efficiency. I have a pondmaster pm-12 on a series fountain set up and it uses only 110 watts to run five water features. I am contemplating using solar and 12v dc pump, but have not yet found the pump of my dreams. I will start with a Rule bilge pump (that I have) and see how that works at 4-5' head. Do you have any favorite pump recommendations (12vdc or 110ac)?
TCLynx said:It will depend on.......
The design of the system
The type of system
The type of fish
The type of water and air pumps involved
The particular models of pumps involved
The size of the system
The climate and environment the system is in even.
So I don't think you are likely to pin the exact electrical usage down to just grow bed square footage or pounds of fish.
I will recommend that you research pumps carefully before buying since a cheap pump might cost you way more in electrical usage than a high quality energy efficient pump for the same volume of water pumped. The heights you are pumping to also play a huge roll as well as your pipe sizing when it comes to water pump efficiency.
At very low head heights, airlift pumps can be very efficient but when you talk about lifting water from a shallow container up to flood and drain media beds, there is no way an airlift is likely to compete with a regular water pump at the higher heights and all.
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The Kill-a-watt is a good device which I will buy one of these years. How much back up 12v power does your system need?
Kenneth J Roche' said:Good day,
I purchased a handy little device called a Kill-a-watt here in the states that plugs into your electrical outlet and all my devices plug through it, which tells me exactly how much power each of my systems requires. This allowed me to figure out what the load would be on my solar powered emergency back up.
Joshua Vaughan said:I realize there are many variables but was wondering if anyone had calculated electrical cost, and if so for what size set up. Having installed 6 water wells and storage/delivery systems, and built numerous fountains and koi ponds I understand pipe sizing for friction losses, head loss etc. You are so right about pump efficiency. I have a pondmaster pm-12 on a series fountain set up and it uses only 110 watts to run five water features. I am contemplating using solar and 12v dc pump, but have not yet found the pump of my dreams. I will start with a Rule bilge pump (that I have) and see how that works at 4-5' head. Do you have any favorite pump recommendations (12vdc or 110ac)?
TCLynx said:It will depend on.......
The design of the system
The type of system
The type of fish
The type of water and air pumps involved
The particular models of pumps involved
The size of the system
The climate and environment the system is in even.
So I don't think you are likely to pin the exact electrical usage down to just grow bed square footage or pounds of fish.
I will recommend that you research pumps carefully before buying since a cheap pump might cost you way more in electrical usage than a high quality energy efficient pump for the same volume of water pumped. The heights you are pumping to also play a huge roll as well as your pipe sizing when it comes to water pump efficiency.
At very low head heights, airlift pumps can be very efficient but when you talk about lifting water from a shallow container up to flood and drain media beds, there is no way an airlift is likely to compete with a regular water pump at the higher heights and all.
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Good day Joshua,
Both my systems together are just under 300 watts (this includes heaters), I have .4KW power generation capacity and (2) gel solar batteries with 320 amp/hours at a 20 hr. rate storage capacity. I run everything off of a 1000 watt inverter. The system would be more efficient if I ran it on 12v dc but that would me more initial investment. I also have 5500 gas generator should the batteries fail, but I have never had to use it even when the power was down for 1-1/2 days the batteries did fine.
Joshua Vaughan said:The Kill-a-watt is a good device which I will buy one of these years. How much back up 12v power does your system need?
Kenneth J Roche' said:Good day,
I purchased a handy little device called a Kill-a-watt here in the states that plugs into your electrical outlet and all my devices plug through it, which tells me exactly how much power each of my systems requires. This allowed me to figure out what the load would be on my solar powered emergency back up.
Joshua Vaughan said:I realize there are many variables but was wondering if anyone had calculated electrical cost, and if so for what size set up. Having installed 6 water wells and storage/delivery systems, and built numerous fountains and koi ponds I understand pipe sizing for friction losses, head loss etc. You are so right about pump efficiency. I have a pondmaster pm-12 on a series fountain set up and it uses only 110 watts to run five water features. I am contemplating using solar and 12v dc pump, but have not yet found the pump of my dreams. I will start with a Rule bilge pump (that I have) and see how that works at 4-5' head. Do you have any favorite pump recommendations (12vdc or 110ac)?
TCLynx said:It will depend on.......
The design of the system
The type of system
The type of fish
The type of water and air pumps involved
The particular models of pumps involved
The size of the system
The climate and environment the system is in even.
So I don't think you are likely to pin the exact electrical usage down to just grow bed square footage or pounds of fish.
I will recommend that you research pumps carefully before buying since a cheap pump might cost you way more in electrical usage than a high quality energy efficient pump for the same volume of water pumped. The heights you are pumping to also play a huge roll as well as your pipe sizing when it comes to water pump efficiency.
At very low head heights, airlift pumps can be very efficient but when you talk about lifting water from a shallow container up to flood and drain media beds, there is no way an airlift is likely to compete with a regular water pump at the higher heights and all.
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Kenneth, Thank you for the info.
Joshua Vaughan said:The Kill-a-watt is a good device which I will buy one of these years. How much back up 12v power does your system need?
Kenneth J Roche' said:Good day,
I purchased a handy little device called a Kill-a-watt here in the states that plugs into your electrical outlet and all my devices plug through it, which tells me exactly how much power each of my systems requires. This allowed me to figure out what the load would be on my solar powered emergency back up.
Joshua Vaughan said:I realize there are many variables but was wondering if anyone had calculated electrical cost, and if so for what size set up. Having installed 6 water wells and storage/delivery systems, and built numerous fountains and koi ponds I understand pipe sizing for friction losses, head loss etc. You are so right about pump efficiency. I have a pondmaster pm-12 on a series fountain set up and it uses only 110 watts to run five water features. I am contemplating using solar and 12v dc pump, but have not yet found the pump of my dreams. I will start with a Rule bilge pump (that I have) and see how that works at 4-5' head. Do you have any favorite pump recommendations (12vdc or 110ac)?
TCLynx said:It will depend on.......
The design of the system
The type of system
The type of fish
The type of water and air pumps involved
The particular models of pumps involved
The size of the system
The climate and environment the system is in even.
So I don't think you are likely to pin the exact electrical usage down to just grow bed square footage or pounds of fish.
I will recommend that you research pumps carefully before buying since a cheap pump might cost you way more in electrical usage than a high quality energy efficient pump for the same volume of water pumped. The heights you are pumping to also play a huge roll as well as your pipe sizing when it comes to water pump efficiency.
At very low head heights, airlift pumps can be very efficient but when you talk about lifting water from a shallow container up to flood and drain media beds, there is no way an airlift is likely to compete with a regular water pump at the higher heights and all.
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The Quiet One 4000 has been a favored pump of mine for several types of medium/small aquaponics set ups. It only uses about 50 watts and moves a lot of water for a little pump. I have only just lately had one fail on me and that poor thing had been running on/off cycles at 9 minutes on and one minute off 24/7 for the past year and a half. And I don't think it's totally failed because I think with a minor part replacement it will work again. So that pump gets my vote for systems up to 300 gallons. It also moves enough water at a good height to handle a 300 gallon system with up to 10 towers. It has a small enough energy draw to make it a possible pump for an alternative energy install that still requires pumping to height.
If going for extreme low energy I would probably look into a low head system design and use air to move the water and provide aeration but that requires constant flood beds and lifting the water only a few inches or less.
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Glad you are one to favor repair over replacement. The PM-12 mentioned earlier was making a lot of clicking noise then finaally clicked but pumped no water. The plastic teeth between the drive shaft (magnet on ceramic shaft) had stripped and I glued using a two part marine glue for dissimilar plastics. Pump performs like new and is silent. Hope to get another 3 years of 24/365 service. I will check out the Quiet One 4000.
TCLynx said:The Quiet One 4000 has been a favored pump of mine for several types of medium/small aquaponics set ups. It only uses about 50 watts and moves a lot of water for a little pump. I have only just lately had one fail on me and that poor thing had been running on/off cycles at 9 minutes on and one minute off 24/7 for the past year and a half. And I don't think it's totally failed because I think with a minor part replacement it will work again. So that pump gets my vote for systems up to 300 gallons. It also moves enough water at a good height to handle a 300 gallon system with up to 10 towers. It has a small enough energy draw to make it a possible pump for an alternative energy install that still requires pumping to height.
If going for extreme low energy I would probably look into a low head system design and use air to move the water and provide aeration but that requires constant flood beds and lifting the water only a few inches or less.
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