How Much Does it Cost to Run a Beckett Skimmer?
Electricity costs vary around the US and can certainly vary in other countries outside the US. We'll focus on costs within the US and let you draw your own conclusions about costs in other countries. Within the US the average residential electricity cost is 10.6 cents per kilowatt hour in May 2006, which was up from 9.55 cents a year earlier (see http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html for individual states). That means if your pump uses 100 watts (1/10 of a kilowatt), it will cost you 1.06 cents per hour or about a quarter per day to run the pump. Pumps used for Beckett skimmers are usually more powerful than this. Here's a chart of some of the pumps that can work well for a Beckett skimmer:
Pump Efficiency and Electricity Cost
* Flow is at 0-4 feet of head
** Assumes average residential electricity cost of 10.6 cents per kilowatt hour.
For comparision, here's the electricity used by my Euro-Reef CS-8 needlewheel skimmer. It has 2 Sedra KSP5000 needlewheel pumps and an Eheim 1260 to move water from the sump to the skimmer (gravity flow back to the sump).
In my case I was able to trade up from a 4 foot high Euro-Reef needlewheel skimmer with dual Needlewheel pumps to a high performance Beckett skimmer (in this case an Austin Oceans Foaminator MAX 4200 dual Beckett skimmer powered by a Sequence-Reeflo Barracuda pump) and my electricity cost is close to the same ($0.57 vs. $0.31 per day or about $0.26 cents a day extra). In addition, my Foaminator MAX skimmer significantly outperforms the Euro-Reef so it's been a good thing for my tank and it's inhabitants.
The bottom line is that Beckett skimmers have gotten a reputation in some quarters for requiring pumps that use a lot more electricity than needlewheel skimmers and their pumps. When you add the cost and kilowatts of the needlewheel pumps and the circulation pump to move the water from the sump to the skimmer (which is required in a needlewheel skimmer and not in a Beckett skimmer) the difference in cost is usually quite small. I don't want to start a religious war about what kind of skimmer is best. We firmly believe that our high performance Beckett skimmers are the best available and will outperform all competitors - needlewheel or even other Beckett skimmers. Other people may have different opinions and may prefer other skimmers. But the point of this article is that in many cases making that judgement on the cost of electricity for the skimmer pumps probably isn't an effective way to decide since the numbers are often very close. We encourage you to look up your electrical rates (see your electric bill or look on the web page link above) and do your own calculations.
Our Foaminator and Foaminator MAX single Beckett skimmers run very well on a Sequence Tarpon pump which is quiet, dependable, comes with a great warranty, and costs all of 175 watts to run (or $0.45/day to run at average rates). Compare that to the true operating costs of needlewheel skimmers ($0.31/day using the same electricity costs for my Euro-Reef needlewheel). There are other operating costs too. For example, Euro-Reef recommends that every 3 months you take the needlewheel pumps off your skimmer (usually flooding your floor in the process since all the remaining water in the skimmer will run out the bottom) and running it in a bucket of distilled vinegar and water for 10-12 hours. Then they recommend you disassemble the pump and scrub everything throughly with fresh water. They even sell a special brush to help you do a good job. Then you reassemble the pump and re-install it on your skimmer and hope you put everything back in the right place. My skimmer has 2 of these pumps that need this done quarterly. The larger ones have 3 or 4 of these pumps that need to be cleaned this way. This is another operating cost too. Even a big Foaminator MAX 5200 skimmer only takes 5 minutes (ok, 15 or 20 minutes if you are doing it for the first time) to clean the Beckett every month or two. The air flow meter on each Beckett injector tells me when it's time to clean the Beckett because I see a reduction in airflow through the skimmer.
Ok, we've run off the topic of electrical cost so let me rein myself back in. If you have other thoughts or comments on this topic send me an email. I like to talk with our customers (and our not-yet-customers) about the important issues in reefkeeping and electrical costs are a concern for all of us (now, if I can just figure out a way to get the same PAR, color, and glitter lines without 1600 watts of metal halide lighting....).
Bill
sales@austinoceans.com
