Can I justify a hot tub?
dsmcn
| Posted in Energy Efficiency and Durability on
40 years of carpentry are catching up: my bones are getting creaky. I never thought I’d want a hot tub until I used a friend’s on a few chilly mornings, and now I see how it could become habit-forming.
Is there any way to make an outdoor hot tub acceptably green, without solar power? Could I wrap enough insulation around it to make it efficient?
Climate zone 4, natural gas available.
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Replies
Our solution to improving hot tub efficiency is to buy a very small two person hot tub and put it indoors. We've had one for 20+ years, either in basements or in master bedrooms. With relatively small (30-35 degree) temperature differential, we can easily use 110V electrical connection (with dedicated circuit). Any heat that is lost during the six cold months that we have it operating goes into heating the house. The increased cost of heating with electricity instead of natural gas is a factor, but it's 'way less expensive than mantaining a tub outdoors (in Michigan). With an insulated cover, we've never had any issues with smell or humidity, although I'd recommend installing a vent fan.
You could heat your house/garage w/ a wood gassifcation boiler and run a loop out to the tub. ???