If you could have 220V for your tank, would you?
 

Building my tank room, just wondering if I should string up a 220VAC circuit. The only things I have currently that could run on 220V instead of 120V is the halide ballasts (multi-tap). About the only advantage I could see is that the amperage draw is half since the voltage is double, but what is the real advantage to doing so? It's not like the energy consumption is reduced, I think it's just a loading issue. Plus I imagine that a 220V circuit takes up at least 2 slots in the breaker panel, so I'm sort of wondering if it's even worth it.

In a perfect world, would you want to have 220V available for your tank?

120 vs 240volt, at the end of the day a watt is a watt and that's how you pay for electricity.

You would still end up needing 120v, haven't looked but thinking probably a lot easier to find heaters, pumps for reactor etc in 120v.

Can see running a 240v sub-panel then tapping off either side.

I am electrically naive, so I am being responsible and not voting. However, QUICK! Someone nap a screen shot! Tony is working on his tank! :mrgreen:

Nice to hear of some progress on your monster tank.

Kevin says;

Its only beneficial to a tank if you buy 220v ballasts. That is the only thing in your system that will run on that voltage. Unless you buy european pumps.

It would be useful for some of the european equipment...

The ballasts I have, at least some of them, are multitap - I could run them on 220, 360 or 480 (or whatever the other voltages are).

But a watt is a watt. I still really don't know if there's a benefit to running one voltage over another.

Moot point anyhow now, looking at Home Depot though my jaw hit the floor when I saw the cost of copper. My plans to string 8 or 10 guage and use 20-amp breakers quickly dissipated. 14 guage and 15A will have to do, and this was already a dismaying cost for 200' of wire. Crazy.

Anyhow, so I more or less decided against running the 220V circuit on the spot then.

PS. Yeah, call the presses, I've been working on the tank project! :p I'll try updating the build thread soon.

The benefit of running higher voltages is that it draws less amps. And less amps = less heat and less heat is better efficency which translates to better over all power consumption.

I considered it in the design phase. While I thought that I could slightly improve my energy consumption (very, very slightly), I found it difficult to obtain 220V pieces of equipment...so I went with 110V.

If you're gonna run any bulbs that are 400 w or more I would suggest using 240 for your lighting. The coolest thing about the 240 power is that you can buy large scale timers and if you have multiple lighting systems in your fishroom(or living room in my case!) they can all run off of the same timer.
Also you gain the benefit of less heat on your ballsts 'cause they don't have to work as hard to generate the charge.:mrgreen:

Hmmmm, would the decreased heat really be noticeable? Ie., do they still get hot, just not "as hot" ? Or is it pretty significantly different?

I'd just hate to find out AFTER going through the effort and expense of stringing the wire for 220 (240? whatever it is) that it's a sort of "here's your nickle per month that you save! <pling!>" type situation.

One follow up question for you electricians, what gauge wire does a person need for 240? 8 gauge? 10 gauge? (Distance from panel to room is roughly 50' {including the distance to ceiling and back}, in case that info is necessary to make the determination..)