Hot Tub Forum
Original => Hot Tub Forum => Topic started by: lagator43 on January 03, 2007, 05:17:28 pm
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I just received my first full electrical bill since getting my Arctic spa. Now take into account that I live in Edmonton Alberta, and November was unusually cold. My number of kWh more than doubled from last year. :o My bill was $200.00!!!!!
A normal bill is usually around $85.00 per month. It looks like I will be pulling the plug on my beer fridge in the basement. :-[
Has anyone else noticed such a dramatic change to their electricity bill???? :'(
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First question would be how often do you use your tub, for how long, and with how many pumps running?
My bill went up $50 for my first month of ownership compared to the same period last year. That's with a Sundance Optima used once a day (twice a day on the weekends) for 20 minutes at a pop. Temp is set to a constant 102...
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I just received my first full electrical bill since getting my Arctic spa.
Has anyone else noticed such a dramatic change to their electricity bill???? :'(
Only with Arctic Spas ;D OK, seriously, that sounds crazy that it could jump that much. I think my bill went up about $20 in November from last year, but it hasn't been as cold as it should here in Michigan. How long are you soaking in the tub and how often? Is the cover nice and tight?
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I knew some people would get a kick out of the fact that it is an Arctic Spa. :-?
I use my tub once a day for about 30 min. The lid is tight and I have only one pump.
We had probably a two week span when the temperature here was below zero. I am still not sure if the below zero temps could make that much difference.
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Does your beer fridge heat your beer? :D
Term
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did you buy any new appliances you didnt have b4???
In Edmonton you should a bought a Beachcomber ;)
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Did the cost of KWH increase as well?
I know that my combined gas & electric bill here in NJ was about $270 which is about $70 more than it was last year. Looking at BTUs used and KWHs used,they're almost identical but the cost has gone up tremendously.
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I was the queen of outrageous electric bills...and it is a really long story...I will try to find that old thread.
From months of research..I found that there are several things that contribute to the initial bump in that electric bill...Among them:
the first fill ...you will be heating the tub from about 45 degrees to 101 or so...the increased use of your washer and dryer due to the tons of wet towels..
to make a really long story short..my electric bills were more than double and they continued like that for months. Finally after months of monitoring Kwh.usage for virtually everything in my house..and reaching the point of total frustration...I was filling my tub after a cleaning and I had no water pressure. Then I had NO water at all..It turns out that my well pump had a hole in the pipe in the well and the pump was just pumping continuously. I guess it was leaking for a while, but the 500 gallons of water to fill the tub just blew the hole big enough that the pump ran and ran and ran.$$$$$$$ :o :o...I even had my electric company do an audit...that was a total joke, but anyway that was how upset I was with my mega electric bills.
Once I got a new pump, my bill dropped almost $100.00 a month!
I guess the point here is...be sure there isn't something else that either happened at the time you got your tub...or is related to your tub use.
On the bright side, I now have a very energy efficient house...all flourescent bulbs...
Good luck
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In Edmonton you should a bought a Beachcomber ;)
hehehehe.
Your bill should not have gone up thet much even with an Arctic, seriously though is it 110 or 240 volts?
Ray
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I thought the same thing when I first got my spa. I did all kinds of analysis comparing the change from the prior year for the 6 moinths before the tub vs the six months after I got the tub. My dealer worked with me and installed a meter directly on the box for the tub. I tracked usage and power consumption pretty close. After 20 days, I used an average of 7.3 kWh a day (about 219 kWh for a month) which cost me under $20 at the prevailing rates. I used the tub 3 - 4 times a week and a 35 minute soak used about 6 kWh with both pumps running. This was in the March timeframe so the temps weren't out of sight cold, but it wasn't summer either...
So... all in all it turned out to be more efficient that I would have thought and wasn't the cause of the usage increase that I saw in my bill.... But then again I do own a HotSpring!!! ;) (Sorry, I had to throw that in! ;D)
(I still haven't accounted for what the real cuprit was...)
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Even when I sold spas here in Edmonton for Beachcomber, we would get the odd person come in once a year telling us how much the spa has increased their bill. I think I've heard it from almost all manufacturers and it ALWAYS comes down to a culmination of the spa and OTHER FACTORS not considered.
Even though the average quality spa will operate close to a dollar a day here in Edmonton, the initial fill may cause a slightly higher number due to the fact of heating the vessel of 1000+ litres of water. I could see a monthly cost of $40 or $50 higher that first month so you just need to find the difference as I guarantee you, it isn't the spa. Even if it IS an Arctic! ;) ( a very good quality spa)
*Good to see another Edmontonian 'round here!
Steve
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this is the link to that old thread
http://www.whatsthebest-hottub.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1153231325/0
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I think that there are so many variables that this information is not going to be all that helpful, but I have an Arctic with 3 pumps, keep it at 103 F (but live in temperate CA) and I have seen about a $20-40 difference in my bill that I attribute to the tub. There are only two of us in the house with fairly similar habits this year as last. It is so hard to know exactly how much the tub contributes to my KwH usage, but that is my estimation. We also have seen a bit of an increase in cost per KwH here, too which makes it seem like the bill just skyrockets.
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It may cost a hundred or so dollars but the only real way to know how much your tub draws in hydro is to meter the tub. But if your going to meter you should do it from now until June so you get a better average.
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Ya there is a problem there! But the tub doesn't cost that much to run NO way . UNLESS somthing is defective and drawing more then it should or you are using a 110 and not 220. I would say my tub costs AT MOST an extra $20 to $25 per month and that is only in the COLD months and that is using once per day for a 1/2 hour.
I would say any good quality tub would be the same. Even with a fresh fill I don't notice the hydro cost being more even during the winter when the water is at 50.
Seriously look at your hookup for your tub OR perhaps there is somthing else drawing all that power. Beer fridge, doubt it unless its ONE HELL OF A HUGE beer fridge. Or older the the hills.
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there is actually a website that will let you put in model numbers of older refrigerators and freezers to see the estimated Kwh.I even did that....I monitored my meter like crazy and in retrospect, I should have realized that there something that was consuming electric 24/7. My usage wasn't too much different night time vs day time when there was much more activity.
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This debate rages in my house daily.
Rayman, what is your Beachcomber costing you? I know there are SO many factors that determine it, but my latest foray into this exact issue is interesting.
We recently had a traveling neighborhood Christmas party. At this party I cornered a good neighbor who is an engineer at SoCal Edison (SCE). I told him of my concern: Our bill is around $230 a month now! The latest one, which just arrived, showed we used 1000KWh in a 29 day period. I complained enough to him that he agreed to schedule an auditor to come out and check the house (I know bonni says that's a joke, but...)
My suspicions are numerous: I drained the spa in August when we went to Boise for the US Regional soccer championships. It was powered OFF for 12 days, and we weren't even home for 9 of them. Our next bill went down about $20. I also talked to another neighbor, one who has the same number of kids about the same age, who did a remodel and addition with the same contractor as me (approximate same footage, appliances, lighting, etc.) He SHOWED me his bill, and it was $80!!!! He says it never gets higher than that! I then talked to my neigbor right across the street. He has four kids to my two, has a two story house to my one, and HIS bill averages about $70 a month!
I have yet to get the auditor out, but I can't see that my Beachcomber is costing me between $2-$3 PER DAY. Hopefully the audit will reveal a faulty meter that will yield me a $50,000 rebate from Edison....... ;D
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Lag, mine last month- $396.76.
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I had a Beachcomber 578 for 3 years here in Edmonton and it never was more than $30 per month to operate it. We used it 5 times a week on average and usually twice a day.
I'd meter the spa...
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is it 110 or 240 volts?
All the Arctic line is 240V.
Tom