The great new cover & blanket test...

[pkillur]

So I got an excellent looking cover from Dr. Spa today along with a new closed cell floating blanket. 

As of yesterday, I am using an average of 60.54106061 for the last month and 63.73728571 for the last week (it's been pretty cold and I've been using the heater inside a lot).  BTW - I have a TED 5000 so these are up to the minute readings - one of the best home investments ever.

I am looking forward to seeing how much I save.  Even if I save little to none (which I doubt - my old cover was JANKY!) I can already feel the difference in weight - my last cover must have been seriously waterlogged.

[Bonibelle]

I swear that the blanket makes a difference. I love that you have TED and are monitoring your electric usage.. can you differentiate between what the tub is using and the rest of your house?

[Chas]

can you differentiate between what the tub is using and the rest of your house?

SUCH an excellent question.

 

[pkillur]

I swear that the blanket makes a difference. I love that you have TED and are monitoring your electric usage.. can you differentiate between what the tub is using and the rest of your house?

So, I have the TED 5000, which is theoretically able to differentiate between the types of electrical devices you have in your house.  However, to set up the profile, you have to kill it (whatever you want to profile), start the profiling on the device.  The catch is, there is too much "stuff" on the hot tub to accurately profile it, because I'd have to turn it off, open it up, let it cool down and then turn it back on.  I've thought about just profiling the circpump + heater because that will be the most frequent draw.

What I do know is that with my 2(x) 3.0 HP pumps 1/2 on and full on + 5.5kwh heater, I draw somewhere around 8.7 kwh steady when it's running. My base house load is somewhere between 1.6 to 2.5 kwh.  Ergo, my hot tub pulls a pretty solid draw with the heater on and the pumps must not use too much electricity - somewhere around 1-2 kwh.

What I CAN do, however, is see how much my daily consumption has changed at the end of the month.  I'm not going to count the next day or two since I'm screwing with the skirt and have been changing water / chemicals, etc.

As far as the TED - it was stupid easy to install.  The only obnoxious part about it is finding the circuit the PLC worked on (I am a network engineer, so I have a LOT of electrical "stuff" plugged in that messes up the power line communication.  Most people get the heebie jeebies screwing stuff into the electrical panel, but after all my hot tub endeavors - it was a SNAP!  It's already made a huge difference in our consumption patterns.  For instance, our oven used a LOT of energy - like 4.5 KwH.  We bought a toaster over that uses like 1.0.

[Bonibelle]

Keep us posted as to the difference you notice with the blanket and new cover. I know it is so difficult to accurately determine the savings because the outside temperatures..etc, but in my mind (which isn't saying much..lol), you should notice a difference.

[pkillur]

Keep us posted as to the difference you notice with the blanket and new cover. I know it is so difficult to accurately determine the savings because the outside temperatures..etc, but in my mind (which isn't saying much..lol), you should notice a difference.

OK - so after 1 entire week, and a cold snap, a new cover officially saved me on average 12.5 kWh per day.  The day after I installed it our kWh dropped from 72 per day to ~ 45.  Back of napkin savings is $3.41.  IN ONE DAY...

See the chart I uploaded to flickr below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35196617@N00/6971727537/lightbox/

[Waterbug]

Keep us posted as to the difference you notice with the blanket and new cover. I know it is so difficult to accurately determine the savings because the outside temperatures..etc, but in my mind (which isn't saying much..lol), you should notice a difference.

OK - so after 1 entire week, and a cold snap, a new cover officially saved me on average 12.5 kWh per day.  The day after I installed it our kWh dropped from 72 per day to ~ 45.  Back of napkin savings is $3.41.  IN ONE DAY...

See the chart I uploaded to flickr below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35196617@N00/6971727537/lightbox/

$3.41 a day comes to $102.30 a month.  That seems a little unrealistic.  Not many of us have tubs that consume that much electricitry.  If I turned mine off, my bill wouldn't drop $50/monthy.

[pkillur]

Keep us posted as to the difference you notice with the blanket and new cover. I know it is so difficult to accurately determine the savings because the outside temperatures..etc, but in my mind (which isn't saying much..lol), you should notice a difference.

OK - so after 1 entire week, and a cold snap, a new cover officially saved me on average 12.5 kWh per day.  The day after I installed it our kWh dropped from 72 per day to ~ 45.  Back of napkin savings is $3.41.  IN ONE DAY...

See the chart I uploaded to flickr below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35196617@N00/6971727537/lightbox/

$3.41 a day comes to $102.30 a month.  That seems a little unrealistic.  Not many of us have tubs that consume that much electricitry.  If I turned mine off, my bill wouldn't drop $50/monthy.

Yeah, it seems a bit extreme.  However, the average drop has been 12.5 kWh per day, which is realistically 12.5 * 30 (ish) * .11, which is realistically like 41.25 per month.  I'm curious how accurate the TED 5k is compared to my meter.  Will keep everyone posted.  Regardless of whether it's a buck a day or 3, this thing will pay for itself in a year if these rates hold up...

[TwinCitiesHotSpring]

Keep us posted as to the difference you notice with the blanket and new cover. I know it is so difficult to accurately determine the savings because the outside temperatures..etc, but in my mind (which isn't saying much..lol), you should notice a difference.

OK - so after 1 entire week, and a cold snap, a new cover officially saved me on average 12.5 kWh per day.  The day after I installed it our kWh dropped from 72 per day to ~ 45.  Back of napkin savings is $3.41.  IN ONE DAY...

See the chart I uploaded to flickr below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35196617@N00/6971727537/lightbox/

$3.41 per day would be nice, but its very unrealistic imo...a lot depends on kw/h and I didn't see anywhere where you mentioned what you were paying.  I'm monitoring a 500gal. HotSpring Vista right now and to even accrue that much in one day I would need to run both pumps 2 - 2.5hp on high and turn all the lights and run in that way for nearly 7 hours based on 8cents per kw/h, so its kind of hard to imagine you are saving that much per day unless your electricity rate is sky high.  btw I use an OWL wireless monitor hooked directly up to the spa breaker..its a handy little thing

[pkillur]

Keep us posted as to the difference you notice with the blanket and new cover. I know it is so difficult to accurately determine the savings because the outside temperatures..etc, but in my mind (which isn't saying much..lol), you should notice a difference.

OK - so after 1 entire week, and a cold snap, a new cover officially saved me on average 12.5 kWh per day.  The day after I installed it our kWh dropped from 72 per day to ~ 45.  Back of napkin savings is $3.41.  IN ONE DAY...

See the chart I uploaded to flickr below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35196617@N00/6971727537/lightbox/

$3.41 per day would be nice, but its very unrealistic imo...a lot depends on kw/h and I didn't see anywhere where you mentioned what you were paying.  I'm monitoring a 500gal. HotSpring Vista right now and to even accrue that much in one day I would need to run both pumps 2 - 2.5hp on high and turn all the lights and run in that way for nearly 7 hours based on 8cents per kw/h, so its kind of hard to imagine you are saving that much per day unless your electricity rate is sky high.  btw I use an OWL wireless monitor hooked directly up to the spa breaker..its a handy little thing

"Yeah, it seems a bit extreme.  However, the average drop has been 12.5 kWh per day, which is realistically 12.5 * 30 (ish) * .11, which is realistically like 41.25 per month.  I'm curious how accurate the TED 5k is compared to my meter.  Will keep everyone posted.  Regardless of whether it's a buck a day or 3, this thing will pay for itself in a year if these rates hold up..."

I'm suspecting since we're having 70+ degrees the savings will drop a bit - I will keep everyone posted.  Regardless, even if it's nothing to little in the summer, quite positive I'll save money in the winter.  Hopefully bold and red helped out - but I'm paying 11 cents per kWh

[Spatech_tuo]

Keep us posted as to the difference you notice with the blanket and new cover. I know it is so difficult to accurately determine the savings because the outside temperatures..etc, but in my mind (which isn't saying much..lol), you should notice a difference.

OK - so after 1 entire week, and a cold snap, a new cover officially saved me on average 12.5 kWh per day.  The day after I installed it our kWh dropped from 72 per day to ~ 45.  Back of napkin savings is $3.41.  IN ONE DAY...

See the chart I uploaded to flickr below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35196617@N00/6971727537/lightbox/

$3.41 per day would be nice, but its very unrealistic imo...a lot depends on kw/h and I didn't see anywhere where you mentioned what you were paying.  I'm monitoring a 500gal. HotSpring Vista right now and to even accrue that much in one day I would need to run both pumps 2 - 2.5hp on high and turn all the lights and run in that way for nearly 7 hours based on 8cents per kw/h, so its kind of hard to imagine you are saving that much per day unless your electricity rate is sky high.  btw I use an OWL wireless monitor hooked directly up to the spa breaker..its a handy little thing

"Yeah, it seems a bit extreme.  However, the average drop has been 12.5 kWh per day, which is realistically 12.5 * 30 (ish) * .11, which is realistically like 41.25 per month.  I'm curious how accurate the TED 5k is compared to my meter.  Will keep everyone posted.  Regardless of whether it's a buck a day or 3, this thing will pay for itself in a year if these rates hold up..."

I'm suspecting since we're having 70+ degrees the savings will drop a bit - I will keep everyone posted.  Regardless, even if it's nothing to little in the summer, quite positive I'll save money in the winter.  Hopefully bold and red helped out - but I'm paying 11 cents per kWh

If that is accurate then not only do you have a good cover and blanket now but you must have had a VERY poorly insulating cover previously so I understand why Twin was skeptical.