New Hot Tub Electricity Usage by Kilowatts and Visualizations

[flipflopper]

My power company has a cool feature that lets me see what my usage has been. Prior to the tub with similar weather and habits, we were averaging about 15 KW/day. Once the tub was up to temp (heated it twice, once to run disinfection cycle on used tub with jet away and bleach and once to get it up to temp) we are averaging about 28 KW/day. It has been rather chilly lately so I expect it to get cheaper in the summer. But we'll certainly be looking at higher prices come winter.

Information:
The tub is a 2013 Sundance Cameo 880 series. They indicated it should cost about $18/month or about $0.60/day to run with an average temp of 60 (as I recall). Average temp for us has been about 55 according to the information below. We're a little over 2.5 times the estimate (at $0.12/KW in PA) but no surprise there as it's manufacturer sales information and nothing more. Without factoring in 4/29 and 4/30, our costs are $1.56/day (13 KW x $.12) for electricity. We keep the tub at 101 but I've taken it up to 104 and had it down at 98 degrees in trying to figure out where we want it. We've settled on 101 as I like it hot and my wife likes it cooler.

I keep my KW hour cost lost by jumping from temporary contract to temporary contract with different providers. Otherwise, it would be about $0.02 higher per KW. We went from AEP to Con Edison at some point in the following data information but that does not affect the readings.

There has been a slight increase in laundry as well at about one extra load a week. This is still a cost to run the tub from my perspective. Everything else is even in terms of our habits.

Here are some charts that give the gist of our usage. This should be helpful to those on the fence about a tub.

Pre and Post Hot Tub Usage



Pre hot tub average usage:



Post Hot Tub Usage



Daily Usage without 4/29 and 4/30 outliers

[bud16415]

I think to do any kind of fair comparison you need to factor in usage. Put a switch on the cover and track when it’s open and when its shut. We have a Caldera Geneva and it has amazing insulation. We live in northern Pennsylvania on the great lakes and we get winter temps down as low as -30f and many weeks of sub-zero weather at a time. We use our tub thru all that weather set on 102-103 and in the summer we set it down to 98-99 maybe 100 on a cool night and we run the feature where it doesn’t heat all day and kicks on about 6PM. Even though it is much colder in the winter usage is for shorter periods. A 15 or 20 minute soak is long enough in 103 water when the outside temp is -20f. in the summer the tub is open for much longer time spans and used more like a pool than a hot tub. And the monthly costs are much closer winter to summer.

I think the manufactures numbers come from an ambient temp of something like 60f and they figure the tub is used 30 minutes per day. I don’t know their real numbers but speculating.

I agree anyone thinking about a tub and if you live in cold climates buy a quality tub first and I am a fan of the fiber packed tubs compared to foam for a lot of reasons. Get a quality cover that seals tight and factor in the power cost realistically.

Say you are a couple and sharing your tub and power is even costing you twice flipfloppers amount. Look at it in terms of what else you might spend money on. How many people go to starbucks and get a couple coffees and spend $5-$10 a day on coffee. I could name a 100 things people do that cost way more per day than owning and operating a hot tub. I tell people get rid of HBO and you could afford a hot tub. If the person is a smoker they can pay for a $10,000 tub and the cost of operation if they quit smoking and the combined effect of the two will also add years to their life.

I don’t know if it costs us $1 or $3 a day to run it but for us the cost is well worth it. 

[flipflopper]

Good call on usage. I forgot to include that. The tub is being used approximately 1-2 times a day for 30-45 minutes each time. Jets are on full blast for 2/3 of that time.

[Tman122]

You know there is really only one way to find out your tubs exact usage is right?

Meter it. There are other places you use more power as a direct result of the tub and other factors.

Like instead of going out to a nice dinner and a couple drinks (lights and everything mostly off) Your home for a soak with more lights, music, kitchen, mixing drinks, dryer, shower, ect.

Cheaper to stay home still.