# Heating the fish room vs heating each tank



## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

How many tanks or what volume in gallons do you need to have before heating the room becomes more efficient than having individual heaters in each tank?


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## nick a (Apr 9, 2004)

There is no magic number. For me, the primary calculation is in $s......How many watts of electricity are you burning with the individual heaters versus how many you would burn with a whole room type heater. Insulation values, temperature zone you live in and cubic volume of room etc....should play a role in your calculation. In Texas...in a well insulated room...with ~40 tanks, a single dehumidifyer took care of doing it's primary job AND supplied enough heat for the entire room. I can't remember exactly right now but say that dehumidifyer was rated at 5 amps:

"The conversion of Amps to Watts at fixed voltage is governed by the equation Watts = Amps x Volts
For example 1 amp * 110 volts = 110 watts" http://www.powerstream.com/Amps-Watts.htm#amps-watts

So, I'd estimate 550 watts for ~40 tanks and feel like I was way ahead on the $s vs having 30 or 40 200+watt internal heaters (and have none of the risks associated with the internal heaters)

HTHs


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## royrusso (Aug 13, 2012)

I gave up trying to heat my fish room in an unfinished part of my basement. The electric costs were through the roof... I ended up insulating the boat door in the room and insulating every tank with R-rated insulation sheeting from Lowes. I cut them to size, sprayed most of them black and used black duct tape. The room normally sits at 73F now and the tanks sit at 78F-80F. My electric costs are so low, my wife can't tell the difference between winter and summer costs.


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## slimbolen99 (Apr 28, 2006)

I finished my basement fish room using 1 1/2" polystyrene sheets of insulation glued against the concrete walls, then built the wall over those. I don't heat the room OR the tanks! Ok, I do have a single vent in the room from the house HVAC in the room, but the thermostat doesn't come on until it gets below 68*F upstairs...sooo. HOWEVER, I do use a dehumidifier, which is set on a timer to run 12 hours a day, that heats the room nicely and gets rid of my humidity everyday.


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