On May 6, 2:38*am, "olddog" wrote:
wrote in message

news:4a00d58d.784037665@localhost...





On Tue, 05 May 2009 15:23:09 GMT, in alt.home.repair, "olddog"
wrote:

You must get a pretty sweet deal on kWh. Our elec bills here are tied into
our city bill which seems to include the cost of the air we breath.

Power is pretty cheap here to be sure, for the past few months I've been
paying about 9 cents per kWh. *It's varied between 7 and 8.

It would be interesting to put your tub on a usage meter. Sounds like it's
using less amps than a coffee maker, which can be pretty expensive.

Indeed. *I don't know of a tracking meter suitable for 240V 50A, other
than
the kind the utilities use. *I'm not sure where to get one of those
without
breaking the bank.

If I remember correctly, when I bought my 120v ht, the spa store made
claims
of low energy consumption that didn't hold true. But you know how memory
is.
It's probably not quite as bad as I remember.

I'd guess the salesman was playing his pitch on the idea that 120V is "low
power" and 240V is "high power" in the minds of lay consumers. *You and I
know different.

Maybe you had a tub with poor insulation? *When I was looking at tubs, I
saw
a wide variance in insulation quality. *One (cheaper, but no less
expensive)
brand was completely without insulation, their pitch was that the empty
space under the tub would catch the waste heat from the motors to help
keep
the water warm. *If I'd bought that line I guess I'd be paying a lot more
to
keep my tub hot all winter. *I decided to pay a little more up front for a
well-insulated model.

When I bought my 1st ht the UV ozone things were available but I heard
later
they weren't that effective. Wouldn't they increase the elec bill too?

Not by much. *Spa ozonators run between 10 and 50 watts, I think mine is
30W. *It's only on when the main pump runs, which is when it's heating or
doing a filtration cycle.

Glad you enjoy your tub. I use mine because of an old back injury. After a
hard day there isn't anything more refreshing. But if anyone asks me I
still
say get a gas ht, and it's much better if it's attached to your pool.

I would also agree that gas is the way to go, if you have a choice.
Portable plug-and-play spas like mine are inevitably self-contained and
all
electric. *If you already had a gas heater, a place to house it, ready
access to gas, a certainty that you'll never move the tub, and a
willingness
to hack into the tub's plumbing and electrics, then the conversion would
be
worthwhile. *I have none of those things, so electric it is.

I wouldn't convert one of those portable hot tubs. I'd have a gas one made
or buy one of those ready made gas ht. I was fortunate to find mine already
made :-)

But I wouldn't own a stand alone ht anyway. Too much trouble keeping a small
tub of water clean. (for everyone who says "mine's easy" you don't know what
easy is) The reason mine is easy to care for is it's attached to the pool's
Baker Hydro sand filter. If you've ever owned a sand filter you'd probably
never use any other type. Virtually maintenance free other than occasional
backwashing. I was lucky getting this setup.

Gee, like taking the paper cartridge filter out of my spa every couple
months and rinsing it with a hose when I change the water isn't easy?
Pool filters aren't exactly maintenance free either. The sand or
diatamacous ones have to be pressure monitored, then manually
backwashed, replenished, etc.

But then you think a coffee maker is one of the large users of energy
in a house and that 240V has some inherrent big energy savings
advantage compared to 120V too.