Have had to turn ours off due to our ever mounting power bill! They say they cost around $1 per day. (It is an older spa as in 8 years) Even if it was $50 a month I would be happy! Have had electrician out trying to work out why our power bills are going through the roof. Only mum & dad @ home now. Water is heated through wet back. Short showers anyway. Our one & only luxury was the spa but last months actual reading was $686! We nearly died! Any with low dairy payout hubby has said "it can just stay off"! Have heard from Otago spas that you can now get a spa with it's own heat pump, much more cost efficient. Apparently all spa pools are "heat on demand". Does anyone have theirs set up to ripple control? Does it keep the water hot enough?
For the sort of thing you have, put it on a timer and heat during times of lowest power pricing - generally very early morning.
Once you have the 'smart meter' you may as well put timers on all other appliances that can be used off peak. Dishwsher, Clothes drier, clothes washer.
A heat pump spa is a good idea - I have a friend that has had one for about 30 years. :)
macandrosie,
Aug 9, 7:39pm
Thanks for that. I didn't realize heat pumps on spas had been around for so long! The guy told me you can save up to 75% of your heating annually with the heat pump. So when you say a smart meter are you referring to ripple control?
tintop,
Aug 9, 8:12pm
My friends one was a special of some sort at the time. They are more mainstream now.
The price that power retailers ( Genesis etc ) pay for their power varies during the day, typically high during the morning and evening peaks, and sort of average during the day. At night however, the wholesale price drops considerably as the total NZ wide load drops. The industry spot price is for a 30 minute period.
The price that a consumer pays is an approximate average regardless of time of use, so during the am and pm peaks the power retailers profit is low, or may be actually negative, they catch up during the day and especially at night. That is why the 'ripple' control system is in place, any load they can shed during the day, and pick up again overnight ( like water heating) is a bonus to them. It also reflects back to the consumer as a reduced power bill.
By going on to a 'spot price' supplier, you pay the 'spot price' for the time period, plus a margin for the retailer. The 'Smart Meter' measures the amount of power you use during each spot price period and totals up the bill for the period at the spot price for thatperiod.
So by running heating devices during the very early hours where possible can have a huge effect on your total power cost. So Spa pools, water heating, washing machines, clothes driers, dishwashers, night store heaters can all be run from individual timers set to run at the cheapest rate - generally midnight onward.
macandrosie,
Aug 9, 10:18pm
Thanks for that, so does Genesis Energy offer that? I'm with trust power
t_naki,
Aug 9, 10:38pm
The ripple control is run by the lines companies not the generation and retail companies, it is more used in times when there might be a network constraint. If the retail and generation companies had control of large amounts of load in that way they would use that to create large peaks and troughs because they make more money that way. However that places a high amount of stress on the supply system and so no lines company in their right mind would ever give over control like that.
The load control system was used to reduce peaks to save in line losses but since the market has been deregulated they don't care about the losses as much because they measured and averaged out across all consumers.
underconstructy,
Aug 10, 1:10am
I can't believe people fool for that $1 a day line. Otago Spas told us it costs about a cup of coffee a day to run a spa. Bit of a difference between $1 and a cup of coffee.
lovelurking,
Aug 10, 1:16am
. Perhaps it's $1.00 for energy and the rest on chemicals?
macman26,
Aug 10, 2:16am
Our spa and pool are both through ripple control. Spa just heats as required and loss of power doesn't worry the controller at all. The pool I adjust the mechanical timer every week or so. The spa has extra insulation packed around it. Costs about $20 a month in power. Chemicals are $20-30 a month
macandrosie,
Aug 10, 2:25am
What power company are you with macman26?
tintop,
Aug 10, 3:11am
a 100W ( 0.1 kW) lamp running 24 hours a day for a month will use:
0.1 x 24 x 30 = 72 kWh of electricity. At $0.50 / kWh this comes to $36.00
I really do wonder if a 100W bulb will offset the heat losses that occur in a spa. ?
macman26,
Aug 10, 4:57am
Contact.we pay around 14-15 cents controlled / kwh. To save we use the spa 6-8 months during winter and the pool runs 3 hours a day. During summer we don't use the spa and run the pool about 8 hours a day
jane310567,
Aug 10, 5:02am
ours cost around $1.50-$2 per day depending on season about 5 yrs ago. We had to sell it as CCC came around to inspect and we didn't have a fence! It had a locked cover though. I like the idea of heat pump ones tho!
schnauzer11,
Aug 10, 5:32am
EscAlating. Just saying. Best of luck.
maccachic1,
Oct 30, 12:58am
I have an older spa (prob 15 years) costs us about max $80 in the middle of winter to run for a month. We use it regularly. We did beef up the insulation - packed with batts, filled in metal frame with polystyrene and sat it on thermal camping mats. Temp set to 38 degree's. Doesn't get really cold in Tauranga. We did have a bubble wrap cover on it at one stage but hasn't made a big difference - good cover is essential as the older ones can get water logged.
When we first got it I did monitor the consumption daily as I was scared of a large bill. Worksmates got a falsh one which requires 2x motors to run the many jets and heater there bill jumped $200 so I would recommend checking full power output if buying.
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