JohnInSJ Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 Wow, nothing ever changes here, does it Been away for a couple months (from the board, anyway) So, pretty cold winter (for the Bay Area, CA) - got the gas fireplace fixed, added a sunroom with electric heat, and temps below average. Let's compare just the electrical... we see: 38 KWH/day this Jan, vs 27KWH/day last Jan - or 11KWH per day difference. Edit: PG&E has a nice analyze function... it says "The change in your average electric usage per day caused a $58 increase for this bill." The 1500 watt electric heater in the sunroom, on for 4-6 hours, burns 6-9KWH Last year we were out of the house for a week, and had no XMAS lights up... since this bill spans the XMAS holiday, I am guessing the lights added to the bill, possibly 1KWH... Still leaves 1-3KWH for the tub, per day. Seems OK to me. I was in that sucker a lot this last month, when it wasn't pouring down rain (and woohoo! my new energystar windows reduced my gas usage by 20%, even with colder temps year over year) Tiger River Caspian... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soakerman Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 Wow, nothing ever changes here, does it Been away for a couple months (from the board, anyway) So, pretty cold winter (for the Bay Area, CA) - got the gas fireplace fixed, added a sunroom with electric heat, and temps below average. Let's compare just the electrical... we see: 38 KWH/day this Jan, vs 27KWH/day last Jan - or 11KWH per day difference. Edit: PG&E has a nice analyze function... it says "The change in your average electric usage per day caused a $58 increase for this bill." The 1500 watt electric heater in the sunroom, on for 4-6 hours, burns 6-9KWH Last year we were out of the house for a week, and had no XMAS lights up... since this bill spans the XMAS holiday, I am guessing the lights added to the bill, possibly 1KWH... Still leaves 1-3KWH for the tub, per day. Seems OK to me. I was in that sucker a lot this last month, when it wasn't pouring down rain (and woohoo! my new energystar windows reduced my gas usage by 20%, even with colder temps year over year) Tiger River Caspian... No offense but I highly doub't your spa uses just 3 killowatts a dat to run, that's only 90 a month on average and at ten cents a killowatt that equalls $9.00 a month! I am getting ready to post temps with a infrared scan of my spa and a Hotsprings spa, Clearwater spa and a sundace spa. I took spme readings already of a two year old HS. Prodigy and it doesent look all that great at keeping in the heat as one would think, suprised the heck out of me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnInSJ Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 No offense but I highly doub't your spa uses just 3 killowatts a dat to run, that's only 90 a month on average and at ten cents a killowatt that equalls $9.00 a month! 3KWH/day. Can you not read? Unless PG&E is giving me free power or cannot give me a valid year over year comparison, its working out to that give or take. And yeah, 3KWH is actually a fair amount of power. 8% of my daily power usage. Could it be 4, or 5? sure could. And yeah, this is exactly what I was talking about, how nothing ever changes here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 I am getting ready to post temps with a infrared scan of my spa and a Hotsprings spa, Clearwater spa and a sundace spa. I took spme readings already of a two year old HS. Prodigy and it doesent look all that great at keeping in the heat as one would think, suprised the heck out of me! There's so many variables here that it will be meaningless. The operator of the camera alone can skew the results to however they want them to look just by pointing it away from heat loss areas on one and at those areas on another. And I won't even get into the many, many other variables that could skew the results to whatever tub YOU want to shine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soakerman Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 I am getting ready to post temps with a infrared scan of my spa and a Hotsprings spa, Clearwater spa and a sundace spa. I took spme readings already of a two year old HS. Prodigy and it doesent look all that great at keeping in the heat as one would think, suprised the heck out of me! There's so many variables here that it will be meaningless. The operator of the camera alone can skew the results to however they want them to look just by pointing it away from heat loss areas on one and at those areas on another. And I won't even get into the many, many other variables that could skew the results to whatever tub YOU want to shine. Dude! I will show the cover, ambient air temp and skirt temp as well as the equipment bay temp. I will post the average as well as the high reading. Why do I get the idea your sweating a bit? More andmore real users are posting real world electrical usage reports on "high end" spas. Most recently Sundance, not shure why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flibotte Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 "soakerman, I am getting ready to post temps with a infrared scan of my spa and a Hotsprings spa, Clearwater spa and a sundace spa." LOL, This should be fairly unbiased. I think I know how this will go. The Hydro will do the best, the clearwater will do the 2nd best, the sundance will be third, and the hotsprings spa will be the worst. Gotta keep the big boys down at all costs. I am begining to detact a pattern in soakerman's 500 + posts in one year, I kinda get the feeling he doesn't like the evil dealer spas. Maybe time for a new hobby. I have to wonder soakerman about your motives, why so much invested in this? I can see the people in the industry, but why as a spa owner would you put so much into this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soakerman Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 "soakerman, I am getting ready to post temps with a infrared scan of my spa and a Hotsprings spa, Clearwater spa and a sundace spa." LOL, This should be fairly unbiased. I think I know how this will go. The Hydro will do the best, the clearwater will do the 2nd best, the sundance will be third, and the hotsprings spa will be the worst. Gotta keep the big boys down at all costs. I am begining to detact a pattern in soakerman's 500 + posts in one year, I kinda get the feeling he doesn't like the evil dealer spas. Maybe time for a new hobby. I have to wonder soakerman about your motives, why so much invested in this? I can see the people in the industry, but why as a spa owner would you put so much into this? Just a end user here that after a few years of owning spas myself I see alot of missinformation and innacuracies so I woud like people to know before they pay twice the price that in fact ther eis a option that isn't doom and gloom as dealers here would like you to think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thestallion Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 "soakerman, I am getting ready to post temps with a infrared scan of my spa and a Hotsprings spa, Clearwater spa and a sundace spa." LOL, This should be fairly unbiased. I think I know how this will go. The Hydro will do the best, the clearwater will do the 2nd best, the sundance will be third, and the hotsprings spa will be the worst. Gotta keep the big boys down at all costs. I am begining to detact a pattern in soakerman's 500 + posts in one year, I kinda get the feeling he doesn't like the evil dealer spas. Maybe time for a new hobby. I have to wonder soakerman about your motives, why so much invested in this? I can see the people in the industry, but why as a spa owner would you put so much into this? Just a end user here that after a few years of owning spas myself I see alot of missinformation and innacuracies so I woud like people to know before they pay twice the price that in fact ther eis a option that isn't doom and gloom as dealers here would like you to think. Soaker you speak in complete lies. I have given examples and asked you direct questions about this twice the price stuff and you ignore every example that shows you do not have pay anywahere close to twice the price for a name brand spa but you insist making these totally false cliams. Soaker how many Marquis or Jacuzzi brand spas do you want that have forty plus jets, full foam , full delivery, 2 pumps, etc for less than 6k how many do you need ? I am sure you will simply ignore this post as it goes against your agenda of trying to convince people that a name brand spa from a dealer are all over 10k which is again a total and complete falsehood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnInSJ Posted February 3, 2008 Report Share Posted February 3, 2008 More andmore real users are posting real world electrical usage reports on "high end" spas. Most recently Sundance, not shure why?Yep, and when they do post, you say they can't be right - lol All of this is moot to me, if anyone wants to know what I pay for electical use in San Jose, CA, in the winter, for my Tiger River Caspian, I have several months of year over year data now, since I didn't have a tub last year - makes it pretty easy to compare. Anyway, I'm going to go soak in my tub before the superbowl... nice cool weather today, should be pretty nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivieisme Posted February 4, 2008 Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 I just got my first bill! SCARY!!!!!! $341 in November, $460 in December!!!!!!!! OK, I have lights....so maybe $20? But, I used my A/C less in December, plus I was away for 3 days! Last December I used 2771 kw, this Dec I used 3590. Same amount of Christmas lights. Spa is a new Caldera Niagra. I'm in South Florida, where until today it has been very warm. I only keep the heat at 98, and soak about 3-4 times per week. Each time our toddler came in (maybe 4 times?) he turns all the jets on and off a bunch of times. How much should an average spa high end 6-7 person spa cost to operate per month? Should I have my house audited to see where the power drain is? Is there even such thing? Just got another bill for January....$378. At least I leveled back down a little. I went from 75 KWH/day last year to 91 this year. Still seems like a big jump. I did, however replace all of my appliances this summer. They are SUPPOSED to be more energy efficient, but I have only seen my bills go up. My A/C is going on 11 years now, so I think I'll look into that. January's total was 3001 KWH vs 2485 last year, and we took down our Christmas tree & lights 2 weeks earlier this year, and went away for 6 days. Unfortunately, because of all new appliances, I guess I can't really have a good judge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soakerman Posted February 4, 2008 Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 Have you contacted your dealer to see what they think? Perhaps gettting a tech to look at the spa to make sure all is well might be in order, just be ready to pay the service call if he finds nothing wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IL Parrothead Posted February 4, 2008 Report Share Posted February 4, 2008 Yeah, Ivie, if it doesn't level out, you might want to get your spa metered. That Niagara shouldn't be draining a lot where you live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandi Posted February 8, 2008 Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 Mike, the difference between your September and October bill was a big difference. The difference between your November and October bill was big. The difference between September and November was huge! My point...it may not just be your tub effecting your bill. Dirty furnace filters, extra loads of laundry, longer showers, outside temperatures, can all effect power bills. One lady was on here absolutely freaked out about her huge power bills since owning a spa, ends up she had added a room onto her home. I think it's really hard for you to get a clear picture since you can't compare apples to apples (power bill for last year at this time). I am the lady who freaked out about the electric usage since owning a spa but forgot that we had added onto our house last winter. The bill I just received is the first one that allows me to compare electric usage from last year to electric usage from this year with the spa being the only variable (same square footage in the house, same heat pumps, same number of people living in the house, same temp setting on the thermostat, no new energy star appliances installed). Let me say right up front that, back in November, WE SPENT $100 AND ABOUT 8 HOURS ADDING ADDITIONAL INSULATION TO OUR INFINITY SPA. We also bought a floating blanket. Having stated that loudly and clearly, here is a comparison of last year to this year: Jan.2007/ Jan. 2008 total kwhs used 4376/ 3700 average daily temp 36 degrees/ 39 degrees avg. kwh usage/day 151 kwh/ 132 kwh total charge per kwh $0.10315/ $0.10332 avg cost/day $14.53/ $12.93 total bill $421/ $362 days in billing cycle 29/ 29 both bills were based on actual meter readings. The fact that it was, on average, 3 degrees warmer this year than last obviously accounts for the savings. Still, we used 676 kwh less electricity than last year and our bill was $59 less with the spa installed and keeping the water at 101 degrees. I am happy! The directions we used for adding the insulation were posted on this forum by Ken Gorman back in October 2007 - it's something that anyone can do and obviously well worth the time spent to do it. Sandi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark in Portland Posted February 12, 2008 Report Share Posted February 12, 2008 I have been looking at spas for the last few weeks, and have settled on Caldera, I think, but I'm still not decided on the model. Trying to choose between Niagara (bigger, more jets, heavier, 500 gallons), and the Aspire (smaller, stereo, weighs less, 380 gallons). Does a bigger tub, more water, cost significantly more to run/keep warm, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spatech (the unreal one) Posted February 12, 2008 Report Share Posted February 12, 2008 I have been looking at spas for the last few weeks, and have settled on Caldera, I think, but I'm still not decided on the model. Trying to choose between Niagara (bigger, more jets, heavier, 500 gallons), and the Aspire (smaller, stereo, weighs less, 380 gallons). Does a bigger tub, more water, cost significantly more to run/keep warm, etc? I wouldn't expect much of a difference in that scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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