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Author Topic: hot tub heating  (Read 19414 times)

CL-Ohio

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hot tub heating
« on: January 31, 2009, 09:46:01 PM »

Has anybody hooked their hot tub to OWB. Seen diagrams on it, just wondered how much money wrapped up in it. Seemed to me the exchanger was a bit pricey. And did you bypass tub's heating element.
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Jbuck

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2010, 07:32:18 PM »

I have the same thing in mind, I posted this question on a hot tub forum, can't recall the web address but searched pool and hot tub forum and found it said someting about powered by infovision.  Found one guy who had done it said he loved it and was working perfect and saving him tons of cash.  I asked the CB dealer in my county about it and he indicated the cost to be somewhere between 800 and 1,000 sounds high but my tub cost me about 60.00 per month in this cold weather so would pay out in a couple of years if there were no costley repairs.  Good luck I could not find much information on the subject.
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willieG

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2010, 04:37:56 PM »

Has anybody hooked their hot tub to OWB. Seen diagrams on it, just wondered how much money wrapped up in it. Seemed to me the exchanger was a bit pricey. And did you bypass tub's heating element.
i have no hot tub..and i am only guessing but i would say you would just need to cut into your hot tub return line (before the heater)use a heat exchanger and a mixing valve...set teh mixing valve to your desired temp and thats it..so the cost would be ( i agree ) around 600 to 1000..you would need an exchanger...the  mixing valve and the pex from the supply and return of your OWB to the tub and what ever fitting you need to do the hook up

your water would be circulating 24/7 and as your tub cooled to below your mixing valve setting it would open and add water at the desired temp
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home made OWB (2012)
Ontario Canada

willieG

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2010, 05:05:12 PM »

heating your hot tub will requir a lot of wood..
doing some easy averages using my last december electric bill after dividing my KWH by my total bill..counting all charges like delivery and such i came, to about 10 cents per KWH so 60 dollars would be equal to 10 KWH per 1 dollar..= 600 KWH per month 1KWH = 3413 BTU = lets say only 3000 and count even the  warm months... 600 x 3000 = 1,800,000 btu a month...x 12 months = about 21,600,000 btu to heat your water for a year now that is euqal to about 1 full cord of hickory wood. but now we must remember that your (most) OWB are only around 50% efficient so we need to double the wood supply....you would need about 2 full bush cords of wood

unless my math is real bad that is about it

somethingn to chew on...i am sure i will be told i am way off
lets see what other folks think
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home made OWB (2012)
Ontario Canada

dirtryder

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2010, 09:10:22 AM »

Yes I do and it works like a charm. I have a water to water HX installed in my return line to my tub right before it enters the tub. This way, all the other components of the tub, like heat probes flow sensors filters........really don't know the HX is there. I have boiler water coming into the HX with a 3 way 24V taco valve. I have 2 modes of heating my tub, electric or wood via a dbl pole dbl throw (on-off-on) 50 amp switch (looks just like a wall light switch) mounted to my tub skirt. You need to find which 110 hot lead to the heater shuts off when the tub stops calling for heat. This is on a 240volt heater and tub. Take that wire off the heater and run to switch. Take "wood" side of switch to a 24 volt transformer, run the "elec" side of switch back to the terminal of heater element.  Now, when the tub calls for heat, either the 24volt transformer wire  (which opens 3way valve to allow boiler water into HX) becomes hot, or the element like normal works, depending on what I'm heating with. With no power to wire (tub up to temp) the 3way valve goes into "bypass" and no boiler water goes to HX. My tub has a 24/7 circulator pump so it works perfectly. It sounds complicated (especially me trying to explain it) but it really is not. I did all the work myself. My tub holds 480 gal of water.
70K Hot tub HX  $319.00  (make sure it can take chemicals, that's why so expensive)
1"  3way 24V Taco valve $89.00 (e-bay)
Underground pex  left over from install but calculated when purchased
50amp on-off-on switch w/ outdoor mounting box  $95.00  (special order from electrical supply)
2- 20 amp ground fault breakers for OWB circ pumps $30.00ea. ..........I figure a very "remote" chance that one of my circ pumps would short and "electrify" my boiler water which in turn would "electrify" my hot tub.....not a good thought so ground fault breakers on pumps will eliminate that scenerio. I would HIGHLY suggest this.

Any questions just ask away.

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markc

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2010, 10:20:51 AM »

has anyone on here ever tried heating a swiming pool in the spring and fall, several people have ask me about it but i dont know anyone that has done it
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rosewood

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2010, 03:20:48 PM »

dirtryder...how much more wood do you think you'll burn for the tub? i see used tubs for sale and have been thinking about it,only cause i can heat it for free. i would use it only in cold months when furnace is burning. theirs something about sitting in a hot tub with a cold beer when its 20 deg out!
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Jbuck

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2010, 03:57:19 PM »

dirtrider,  thank's for answering my question on the spa fourm and can't believe you were here too.  Don't happen to live in Southern ILL. do you?  if I try this I will neen some tech. assistance I am sure.  Thanks for the response, I haven't been able to find much indormation on the subject other than you.
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dirtryder

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2010, 03:18:39 PM »

dirtryder...how much more wood do you think you'll burn for the tub? i see used tubs for sale and have been thinking about it,only cause i can heat it for free. i would use it only in cold months when furnace is burning. theirs something about sitting in a hot tub with a cold beer when its 20 deg out!

don't really know how much "more" it takes for the hot tub because I never burned not heating it. I am in my first year using a wood boiler for heat. Like you said, a beer and the hot tub after a day of cutting wood is awesome. I don't think it takes alot but that is purely a guess. I probably won't know becuse it dropped my electric bill more than $75+ for the month of Dec over last year.
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dirtryder

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2010, 03:31:52 PM »

dirtrider,  thank's for answering my question on the spa fourm and can't believe you were here too.  Don't happen to live in Southern ILL. do you?  if I try this I will neen some tech. assistance I am sure.  Thanks for the response, I haven't been able to find much indormation on the subject other than you.

No problem. Yeh, I visit the spa site just to pick up some pointers/tips....just like here. They have a MAJOR agenda over on that site.  I visit hearth.com and arboristsite.com also. There is great info there too on boiloers and my favorite subject....firewood.  You can never learn too much. I live in Southrn Jersey. If/when you want to takle this I will help out anyway I can. When i was looking to hook up my hot tub I couldn't find much either.  I found one place that had a kit and I called and the owner of the company gave me a brief run down on how he did personal tub. After a long chat he told me to get my stuff local and do it myself to save some cash. Pretty nice guy. When the time comes, ask away. Maybe you can pm me a fax # and I can do some primitive schematics for you and fax them over (pictures always work for me) ;D I have no clue how to post something like that here. I know it would take a scanner which I do not have.
Have a great day
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petersiva4

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2010, 03:28:41 AM »

i have no hot tub..and i am only guessing but i would say you would just need to cut into your hot tub return line (before the heater)use a heat exchanger and a mixing valve...set teh mixing valve to your desired temp and thats it..so the cost would be ( i agree ) around 600 to 1000..you would need an exchanger...the  mixing valve and the pex from the supply and return of your OWB to the tub and what ever fitting you need to do the hook up
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boyland

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2010, 09:04:31 PM »

I heat mine with 10 plate exchanger and rather than the expense route use a mixing valve works just fine keep tub 100 all the time.

I like the idea of after the pump in because it does mix better and will not mess with the tub controls.  I tried both before and after.

I divert a very small amount of water to the heat exchanger from my main loop on the boiler.  Really not sure I can hardly tell it is connected in wood usage summer or winter.

I do sell these exchangers for the tub however we use the 20 plates now same price as what I paid back in the day for a 10 plate.

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603doug

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2010, 02:33:22 PM »

heat mine with a tube exchanger hooked up to circ pump on a aquastat at 105 f. Pump comes on when temp drops and off at temp. I plumbed it to fill off my 70 plate exchanger so I can dump the water and refill it and it be at temp. We do not use any water treatment so I change water a couple of times a week
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MAYORGPH69

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Re: hot tub heating
« Reply #13 on: October 01, 2010, 04:49:33 AM »

Hey boyland how did u use a mixer valve.....i have a hot tub and want to put it on my system if you have pictures that would be greats.....i have a 10 plate exchanger and i want to just use 1 jet ....
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