HOT TUB PUMP POWER

[noclue01]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and diy in general. Building my deck and pergola at the moment (nearly finished!). It's all made from reclaimed wood. I picked up 20 8"x3"x4m beams, plus a load of 3"x2"x3m. For the actual deck I'm reusing a load of old scaffold boards. Nice and thick (38mm) and still plenty of life left in them.

I love to reuse/reclaim for my diy projects when ever possible. Still loads of wood left over and also have about 50 good condition pallets ready to be broken up and reused.

Next years projects are hopefully going to be my new workshop and - fingers crossed - a DIY Hot Tub!!! Shock, horror!

Thing is, both my work shop and hot tub are going to be green. Solar and wind powered.


This is where you guys and your knowledge/experiences come in.

I obviously want to keep power consumptions to a minimum and the 2 biggest draws will be pump power and the water heater. For my day time water heating I'm looking at using parabolic troughs. Night time will be a combination of daytime water kept warm in a hot water tank and some direct water heaters.

BUT - what to do about the pump? It's a lot of water to move around. So, can anyone recommend a low wattage, but powerful enough circulation pump that can be run via several 120ah batteries and an inverter? Or am I just wishing too much?

Any and all advice welcome for this or any other aspect of a hot tub diy build.

Cheers for now,
Ross (noclue01)

 

[noclue01]

here's something I found. Could I use one of these bilge pumps as the hot tub circulation pump?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141738227493?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[Naduska]

Firstly, I can't offer any advice about the pump, however, I really do think you are going about this power consumption with your eyes closed, I have very recently installed a Hydrotherapy pool for my dog, which is essentially a hot tub without the moulded seats, it also has additional swim jets not found in a hot tub.

This is outside in my garden, exposed to the elements, that said, I will be constructing a pool house to keep the worst of the winter weather out, the pool is used everyday, several times a day, and never ever switched off, apart from changing the water and servicing, it's false economy to switch them off once at their set desired temperature, I run the pool at 31°C 24/7 the pool holds 4,000 litres of water, and my daily 24hr electricity consumption is £1.27

Maybe you might be surprised at just how efficient hot tubs are these days, especially if you do extra insulation below the deck surface !!