Looking for some fresh ways to reduce your household expenses? Save energy as best you can with your hot tub or spa, and you’ll not only save some cash but also help the environment. Hot tubs are extremely greedy energy users; let’s face it, they heat and reheat the water on a non-stop basis. But not all spas are created equal and not all hot tub owners use treat their spas the same. Yes, there are things you can do. Here are seven of them.

1) Cover it up – there is no point keeping your hot tub open to warm thae cold night air while you sleep. Put the hot tub cover on right away, when not in use. This is the same principal as keep your door closed in winter to keep the heat in, or in summer to keep the air conditioning in. Remember when your mother used to admonish you to “Keep the door closed. Are you trying to heat the whole neighbourhood?” Well, the same goes for your hot tub – keep the spa covered, or you’ll heat the whole neighbourhood.

2) Turn it off. If you know you won’t be around, you don’t need the heat. That goes for vacations, long weekends, weeks when you know your schedule will be too busy to use the spa – any time when there will be more than two or three days in a row when you know you won’t need your hot tub…turn off the heat. (NOTE: In winter weather, keep some heat going so that pipes don’t freeze and equipment is not damaged. But you can still turn it way down while you are away for a week or more.

3) You might want also to buy a floating thermal blanket. Very cheap. Very light-weight. Very easy to put on your hot tub. You might consider buying a floating thermal blanket. They are lightweight. They are cheap They are easy to put on your hot tub. It will keep both heat and moisture in the tub and away from your cover. It saves energy and helps your hot tub last longer.

4) Let Mother Nature keep your energy use in check – with a little help from you, of course. A well-placed shrubbery or ornamental fence can also serve as a wind break. Wind blowing across the surface of your hot tub cools it down. A wind break keeps the wind from cooling the water, so you spend less energy heating it back up.

5. Try using a timer. If nobody is in the house during the daytime, and you use the hot tub only during the evening, use a timer to let the hot tub cool several degrees during the day, then reheat automatically for when you need it. You would not want to hot tub to cool too much, because that would actually put a greater strain on your energy bill reheating it each day.

6) Keep your filters in good condition, and replace them as they show their age. Clogged filters slow down the circulation of water, straining the equipment, and making your motors work harder – and consuming more power. An overworked motor will also have a shorter life and need to be replaced sooner.

7) Keep your temperature at 102 degrees instead of the typical factory set 104 degrees. It might seem like a small difference, but there is actually quite a lot more energy that goes into each incremental degree of heat at this level than at lower temperatures.

Hot tubs are so much fun, but we also know how much energy they require to keep warm. Keep the fun, let go of (some of) the energy. Make sure the hot tub you choose actually reduce energy rather than increasing it. These are some common-sense steps you can take to avoid digging too deep into your pockets and scarring too deeply the environment with your hot tub.

Author Bio: Freelance writer David Leonhardt writes for this Canadian Hot Tub Covers website. They offer a wide selection hot tub cover shapes custom-built make to fit your hot tub.

Category: Home Management
Keywords: green,energy,spa,hot tub,savings,expenses