my shed to keep a fish tank

[flumperboy]

hi everyone just joined , you guys must be the best to ask, so here goes
last year i built a 8 meter by 2.5 meter shed out of pallet wood and sheet metal which was going waste in work. the walls roof and floor has 80mm polyisocyanurate insulation, and i have 240 volt power going to the shed,
but im looking to build an eco system of cichlid fish with 3 tanks' so ill need to run 3 lights 20 watt each, 3x 150 watt heaters, a filter which is 23 watt and an air pump 30 watts , to run 3 130 litre tanks,

could anyone shed some light on my quest to run this day and night, summer wont require as much heating as winter , and in very cold winter id run a 1200 watt heater to keep the shed room warm.

costing materials and batterys etc ,
any info would be fab or you can tell me to get off here for wasting your time,

cheers dale

[inetdog]

hi everyone just joined , you guys must be the best to ask, so here goes
last year i built a 8 meter by 2.5 meter shed out of pallet wood and sheet metal which was going waste in work. the walls roof and floor has 80mm polyisocyanurate insulation, and i have 240 volt power going to the shed,
but im looking to build an eco system of cichlid fish with 3 tanks' so ill need to run 3 lights 20 watt each, 3x 150 watt heaters, a filter which is 23 watt and an air pump 30 watts , to run 3 130 litre tanks,

could anyone shed some light on my quest to run this day and night, summer wont require as much heating as winter , and in very cold winter id run a 1200 watt heater to keep the shed room warm.

costing materials and batterys etc ,
any info would be fab or you can tell me to get off here for wasting your time,

cheers dale

Hello Dale and Happy New Year. Using solar PV for heating is a very large waste of money, would require several thousand dollars worth of batteries, and cost you more than $1 per Kwh at the very best. Since you have grid power at the shed already, your two best options are
1. Grid tied solar PV (use the grid as your battery!) or
2. Solar thermal heating, either direct air heating or water heating to allow heat storage for the dark hours. You will find lots of good information about this alternative in the associated forum here. If you go this route, you may want to have a solar electric backup system to run your heat in case of a grid outage, or you could go the inexpensive way and just get a generator.

And you are definitely not wasting our time by asking questions and listening to the answers! That is why we are here.

[bonaire]

Instead of keeping the room warm - consider just doubling up on the tank 150W heaters which have thermostats in them. You were thinking of keeping the room warm for the fishtanks, correct? Use the grid power for this as it's the cheapest route and you already have power out there.

You can offset your power bill by using one or two 250W solar panels and Enphase 215 micro-inverters (one per module) to back-feed 240V into the sub-panel in the shed. They shut off when the grid is down but they provide power when the sun is out and can negate some of the power used by the fish ecosystem. By not doing a lot of solar, you don't need to setup net metering and we hope that the power output from the solar never exceeds the power through the primary meter. Still, two panels and two microinverters plus racking, wiring and inspection will still be over $1K when it's all done even if you do it yourself. This is supplemental power. The power is "extra" to that coming in from the grid. It is not meant to run the shed or any heating you intend to do "on its own".

Where do you live? Are there any ordinances about permitting there and what's the fee? Factor that into any electrical jobs along with the inspection fee. Of course, if you live outside the USA, much of this is moot as permitting and inspection may not be necessary.

[Sunking]

Sorry but this is not a solar application. You will end up paying some 10 times more for electricity that you do now, and it is paid all up front in cash in 5 year increments with each battery replacement.

[inetdog]

Sorry but this is not a solar application. You will end up paying some 10 times more for electricity that you do now, and it is paid all up front in cash in 5 year increments with each battery replacement.

Sound advice, but keep in mind that not all Solar Energy applications are solar PV. The OP started out assuming that PV was the only way to go, and that assumption needs to be questioned too.

[flumperboy]

Hello Dale and Happy New Year. Using solar PV for heating is a very large waste of money, would require several thousand dollars worth of batteries, and cost you more than $1 per Kwh at the very best. Since you have grid power at the shed already, your two best options are
1. Grid tied solar PV (use the grid as your battery!) or
2. Solar thermal heating, either direct air heating or water heating to allow heat storage for the dark hours. You will find lots of good information about this alternative in the associated forum here. If you go this route, you may want to have a solar electric backup system to run your heat in case of a grid outage, or you could go the inexpensive way and just get a generator.

And you are definitely not wasting our time by asking questions and listening to the answers! That is why we are here.

thanks very much for your time and advice , my dad i looking into alternative fuels , he is building his retirement house and looking for a cheaper future, but sounds to me it more complicated than it looks, the wife dont want me to keep fish tanks in the house just incase 1 in a million chance a seal fails and floods the house, but my space is in the shed but its always cold,
if it was in the house the heating would keep it up to temperature but out in the cold would require my tank heaters on full time and cost a pritty penny,
thanks for the sound advice keep up the good work

[bonaire]

A cheaper future is not bought with today's money. If you can invest strongly in good investments, the future will be cheaper then. My purchase of solar for my house this year was not done to save money. It may start to be net positive in 12 years but I would make far more money if I had invested the cash spent for my solar project into the right investment vehicles. For example, a high yield corporate bond fund is paying up to or more than a 10% annual return. Conversely, people take out a HELOC and finance their solar PV project. Not cash productive.