Welcome to our forum.
Stuart or Mendo, since I now have my water maintence in control, shouldn't I be able to reduce my clean cycles?Or at least the duration of the clean cycle? I am so happy that my tub wiring is right and $80.00 is about what I expected so I am good with that. I just need to figure out the other $70.00 and I will be happy.
Yes...I agree I would leave the setting as they are.....2 times a day for 2 hours and a 1 hour clean up but something I want to point out if I read your post correctly your cost of 80.00 is soaking in it everyday for an hour with a clean up cycle ....most makers when speaking about estimated monthly cost use 3 to 4 soaks a week for 30 minutes....I say this only because some may see $80.00 as high but when you take into consideration what you are accounting for it is very much in-line with any efficient running spa....
WOW and my Hot Spings dealer just guaranted  me that my electric bill will not increase more than $1.30 a day. What brand do you have that is spinning the meter off the wall?And by the way, is that a guarantee that I will ever collect on??? How could it be proved? How could the HS dealer make such a claim?He lives in the same area as I do, one town over so he has to know what I pay for power.Just to throw out a number like that is very deceptive, IMO.
Mendo, It's not that we do use it that often or for that amount of time or with both jets on high  (most of the time my husband likes to soak without jets on). My electrician and I were doing a "worst possible case scenario" so that no matter what the electric company countered with, I could safely say we took that into account. His estimate of a realistic usage was about $65.00. I even asked the  electric company rep if rates increase after so many kWh and she said only in the summer.( SpaTech, I am in the suburbs of Philadelphia, my rate is actually $0.0657 kWh). She said that items that typically generate that kind of increase are either related to heating or cooling. The really strange thing is how did my usage drop to the level that it was before I had the tub, when the tub was up and running normally? It was funny she put me on hold while she looked for information that the electric company had published about hot tubs...she wasn't able to find it  :-/I am just so happy it is not my tub wiring!