How Can I Reduce The Running Costs Of My Hot Tub?

There are so many factors that can increase how much a hot tub will cost to run whether it is a wood-fired hot tub or an electric hot tub. This shortlist shows how you can improve the efficiency of your hot tub, whichever type you choose. 

All work and no play is not a lifestyle that anyone strives for which is why luxury purchases such as hot tubs are a fantastic reminder that our playtime is just as important as our working ability. But you definitely want to know how you can minimise hot tub running costs if you can, as you don’t want to invest in a gorgeous new toy if the cost of running it turns your smile into a grimace, do you?

One of the benefits of wood-fired hot tubs is their sustainability, but we’re going to show you how you can go a step or two further to reduce the impact of running your hot tub on both your bank balance and the environment.

We will be sharing in our next blog a cost comparison of wood-fired hot tubs vs electric heaters, but we want to make sure you feel well-informed before you get to the simple cost comparisons. And we’re even going to keep our blatant wood-fired bias out of this  – how’s that for helpful??

Where Should I Position My Hot Tub?

You may be limited on where you can position your hot tub, but if you do have a few position options to choose from, there is much more to think about than privacy or accessibility.

Can Your Hot Tub Be Positioned Near Shelter, Shade Or A Windbreak?

Imagining your hot tub on a sunny day may conjure up images of glorious sunshine streaming onto your personal spa session, but the disadvantage to this is that open space has a significant wind chill factor too on less sunny days.

Think about a hot drink – we naturally put our hands around it to keep it warm if there is a breeze and this is what you want for your hot tub too – to place some shelter between the warm water and any potential windchill.

Look at the structures you have available to you to see if they can offer shade or act as a windbreak for your hot tub as even a gentle but regular breeze can rapidly cool the water temperature. Consider how this can impact how you use the hot tub when it is in use as well as when it isn’t.

Utilising fences and existing buildings or adding a permanent hot tub shelter solution such as a pagoda or gazebo, could make a significant difference to the long-term running costs of your tub by minimising the heat loss with a windshield.

Investing In An Insulated Hot Tub Cover

Whilst many hot tubs will come with a cover or lid, these are mainly to protect the water from uninvited guests like leaves or bugs (they need to pay their own way don’t they??).

Not all hot tub lids are insulated though so valuable heat could be escaping from your hot tub between uses that could have been at least partially retained. This will obviously depend upon how often you intend to use your hot tub, but if you will be heating it regularly, an insulated cover will be well worth investing in.

A good quality hot tub lid or cover can minimise how much additional heat will need to be applied with each use, often reducing the heat-up time by up to a half which is not to be sniffed at when you’re comparing the ongoing running costs of your hot tub.

Plan Your Hot Tub Refills In Advance

If you are able to, filling your hot tub with water that isn’t extremely cold will make a huge difference to how much energy will be needed to heat it up. We don’t recommend filling your hot tub with hot water from the tap (for many reasons which we’ll cover another time) but one thing you can do to help with this is to fill your hot tub the day before you use it.

This will vary greatly depending on which season you are in as tap water can range from a few degrees in the winter to around 20°C in the summer. Filling the hot tub up the day before and letting the ambient temperature around it do its work can remove the chill and warm the water by a few degrees over a 24-hour period.

Compare Hot Tub Sizes And How Much Water Will Be Needed

We won’t overwhelm you by doing a like-for-like comparison here for you, but be realistic about how you’ll use your hot tub the most. Yes, it might be a lovely idea to choose a larger tub if you want friends to join you, but if the reality is that friends will only be dipping their toes into the tub once or twice per year, you’ll be paying quite a hefty premium for that ‘friendly off-chance’ when averaged out across the full year.

Simply filling your hot tub to the minimum fill level instead of its maximum can make a difference to your running costs, so imagine what a smaller hot tub will do to that bottom line too. We have written a ‘Size Matters’ blog to help you decide which is the best size of hot tub for you and your needs which highlights the main things to think about when choosing the size of your hot tub. 

In our next blog, we’ll share a comparison of the running costs of wood-fired hot tubs vs electric hot tub heaters, but before we wrap up, here are a few more short and sweet tips to finish off your research list…

Reducing Your Hot Tub Temperature By Just 2°C Can Make a Financial Difference

Once everyone is in the hot tub enjoying the water and relaxing, they really won’t notice the difference between 38°C and 40°C. But this can make a significant difference to how much energy is used to heat the entire hot tub by that additional two degrees.

Should I Turn Off My Hot Tub Between Uses?

Knowing how you intend to use your hot tub will help you answer this question. If you will be using your hot tub for two or three consecutive days, and then not for a while, i.e. weekend use only, means it will be much more cost-efficient to turn your hot tub heater off completely. This way you are only heating it up once and then maintaining it for a couple of days. This will also work well if the water is already ambient i.e. it isn’t a full refill using cold water.One point to note there is that the need to monitor the temperature applies more to an electric hot tub than a wood-fired hot tub. In our experience, a wood-fired hot tub will only need one bag of logs for an entire evening’s use, so the need to monitor the water temperature to cut costs isn’t applicable. If you do wish to monitor the water temperature to make sure it’s a comfortable temperature however, our Bluetooth thermometer will serve this purpose perfectly!

Keep Hot Tub Water Jets and Filters Clean To Reduce Running Costs

If your hot tub water has to do additional work, it is going to require additional energy that you are paying for. If you’re actively trying to reduce running costs, limiting how much you use massage jets or air bubble systems will reduce the power required to move that water around. This is the same for the filters too – making sure they are clean and clear will mean that the water can flow more freely and need less filtration time while filling up or warming your hot tub.

Hopefully, this summary highlights how a little bit of additional thought before the excitement of your hot tub purchase takes over, can make a big difference in improving the efficiency of your hot tub.

Look out for our next article which will give you even more useful running cost comparison information, but if you have any questions at all or would love some advice on which would be the best hot tub for you, simply get in touch and any of our Royal Tubs team will happily help.