ne_skier Posted August 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 The larger the exposed surface area of the water, the greater the heat loss, even a 5.75 kw element may not keep up with the loss at some point (your results may vary) but I can tell you how I solved this problem for a customer whose cabin is in Northern Idaho, and gets hit with -30F temps and sometimes a stiff breeze coming across a frozen lake.I had an electrician run an additional 50 Amp 240v service to the spa, and installed a compact Hayward CSPAXI11 11KW heater plumbed in after the existing equipment.I installed an air button and air switch to shut the heater on or off by wiring the air switch in series in the contactor coil circuit, and left the thermostat on maximum.When the customer wants more heating capacity, he simply hits the switch, when the pump shuts off, the pressure switch in the heater automatically shuts it down.This gives him 15KW of heating power, which means he can also heat the tub from stone cold in the dead of winter to steaming hot in about 2 hours. Brilliant! Can I hire you to do the same for me? :-) Unfortunately my wife would absolutely veto a modification like that. But it sounds great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spa_Guru Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 The larger the exposed surface area of the water, the greater the heat loss, even a 5.75 kw element may not keep up with the loss at some point (your results may vary) but I can tell you how I solved this problem for a customer whose cabin is in Northern Idaho, and gets hit with -30F temps and sometimes a stiff breeze coming across a frozen lake.I had an electrician run an additional 50 Amp 240v service to the spa, and installed a compact Hayward CSPAXI11 11KW heater plumbed in after the existing equipment.I installed an air button and air switch to shut the heater on or off by wiring the air switch in series in the contactor coil circuit, and left the thermostat on maximum.When the customer wants more heating capacity, he simply hits the switch, when the pump shuts off, the pressure switch in the heater automatically shuts it down.This gives him 15KW of heating power, which means he can also heat the tub from stone cold in the dead of winter to steaming hot in about 2 hours.Brilliant! Can I hire you to do the same for me? :-)Unfortunately my wife would absolutely veto a modification like that. But it sounds great! You ought to see his meter spin, LOL. But hey, that is what money is for, to create the level of civilization you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spa_Guru Posted August 17, 2014 Report Share Posted August 17, 2014 I shot video of his electric meter, check this out; http://vid1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa477/Spa_Guru/IMG_0260.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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