Your Hot Tub Energy Efficiency Ultimate Guide: After You Buy

If you’re thinking about getting a hot tub or if you own one already, chances are you want to know what more you can do to keep your energy costs down. 

We are frequently asked about hot tub energy costs by customers who are shopping or who have already bought their hot tubs. They’re typically looking for tips and tricks on how to keep their energy costs as low as possible, which is something that’s on all of our minds. 

We wanted to help people out in this area, so we wrote this article to spell out what we think are the best things you can do once you have a hot tub. 

We will go over elements like:

• Hot tub water temperature.
• Why it’s best to keep your hot tub running.
• The role your cover plays with your hot tub.
• How a clean filter keeps energy costs down.
• Power sources. 

We hope that by the end, you’ll have a good idea of how to reduce your hot tub energy costs as much as possible. 

 

 

Hot Tub Energy Efficiency: Water Temperature

With power, what we’re always trying to do is take things easy. More power used means more power costs for you. So heating something up takes a fair bit of energy. 

But it’s relatively easy to keep water at a set temperature. This is the same principle behind hot water tanks in your house. A hot water tank is heated to a set temperature and then is kept there. 

So if you’re using your hot tub every day, it’s a good idea to keep a set temperature in your hot tub. Also, a few degrees can add up significantly. So if you’re okay with 101 or 102F as your preferred temperature, you’ll save money over locking the temperature in at 104F.

Hot Tub Energy Efficiency: Keep it Running

For a variety of reasons, you want to keep your hot tub circulating water at all times, even if initially that doesn’t seem very energy efficient. “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just shut it off?” is a fair question and one we see frequently asked on chat groups. 

But here’s why it’s better to run it all the time: In most cases, if you shut your hot tub off, you will of course, save energy. But you will then end up paying much higher water cleaning costs. These costs will be significantly larger than any savings you will get on the energy side, so in the end you are not better off.  

Here’s why. The water being forced to circulate keeps it going through your filters, which in turn keeps you from having to either drain your hot tub and add in new water or use more chemicals to keep your water clean.

So as an owner the best thing you can do to reduce energy is keep your water as clean as possible.  

In terms of the pumps themselves, Hydropool uses a very low wattage pump for circulation. This keeps costs down and makes the process as energy efficient as possible. The energy used for circulation is about 216 watts per month, which is about the same as a really good modern refrigerator. Another way to think of it is that it is less than four 60-watt bulbs. 

Hot Tub Efficiency: Keep it Under Cover

Hot tubs need covers. You want one at least 4” thick. You get a lot more than that and you’re paying for insulation that you don’t need. Would you wear a 6” thick toque on your head? You wouldn’t: At some point, it stops making sense. 

Hydropool goes an extra step and insulates the seam on its hot tub cover. Like leaving a window open in your house in the winter, one little area can cause a lot of heat loss. Our engineers try to track those down. 

A cover will help your hot tub retain heat at all times. So once you’re done with it, flip that lid back on! It’s saving you money. And when it’s time, don’t be afraid to replace it. The cost will be worth it. 

Hot Tub Efficiency: Filters 

Your filter is a key part in keeping your hot tub clean. But if you don’t keep it clean, then your hot tub has to work harder to force the water through the filter. Hard work burns more energy! So one of the things you can do to ensure your hot tub is running smoothly is to keep your filter clean, so the water gets through it as easily as possible. 

Hot Tub Efficiency: Programming

Some hot tubs allow you to control when you can set your filtration times, so that your hot tub is working the hardest on off-peak hours – times when you are generally charged less. 

Hydropool has this feature with its Signature self-cleaning line of hot tubs, which allow you to run different programs on different days. This is so you can optimize when your hot tub works at the times when you are being charged the least for your power.  

Hot Tub Efficiency: Accessories Can Add Up

Lights, stereos, waterfalls – they are all great to have on a hot tub. But they all use energy too. If you’re trying to cut back, what makes hot tubs the most special is heat and massage. So you want to make sure you’re using most of your power for those functions. Adding air to your jets costs you more power than not adding it. 

Hot Tub Efficiency: Wind 

Wind is not your friend in a hot tub! A breeze is nice, but just like blowing on hot soup, wind will cool down your water. So any effort to keep your hot tub away from the wind will help you out when it comes to your energy bills. 

Hot Tub Efficiency: Vents

If your hot tub comes with vents, opening them up in the summer and closing them in the winter is likely to make a world of difference to your pumps. Hydropool keeps vents standard on all of its hot tubs for this reason. In the summer, you don’t want your pumps working at too hot of a temperature. And in the  winter, you want to trap in as much heat as possible into the cabinet of the hot tub, to help keep your hot tub water warm. 

Your Energy Efficiency Guide to Hot Tubs

These are our best tips on what to do to help your hot tub operate at its most efficient after you’ve bought your hot tub. This is a common line of questioning for anyone shopping for a hot tub or who already owns it, and with energy costs rising, we are frequently asked about it at our Hydropool retailers. 

How you use your hot tub and how often you use it will go a long way into determining what it costs you to operate it each month. But we hope with these tips and tricks, you’ll have gotten that bill down as low as it can go, so you can spend your time in the hot tub knowing you’ve done everything to make it as energy efficient as possible. Have more questions? Find the closest Hydropool retailer to you here.