How Much Electricity Does A Hot Tub Use Per Month?

How much electricity does a hot tub use per month? If you have a hot tub at your house, it’s obvious that you love it. They are an excellent place where you can just chill out with your family or friends, and it’s the best way to recharge your batteries after a tiring day at work.

But, have you ever wondered about the amount of electricity it uses? Modern hot tubs come with electrical coils that heat up the water. Needless to say, they consume electricity when they are powered on.

But, how much exactly? If you have a relatively new hot tub that was built in the past 10 years, the electrical consumption is relatively low.

In most cases, the hot tub is going to consume a maximum of $30 in a month. However, if you continue to change the temperature regularly, or keep turning the hot tub on and off again, it’s obviously going to increase the costs.

More importantly, you should make sure that the hot tub cover is on when the tub is not in use. Check the cover for signs of tears or cracks, as those are going to have an impact as well.

You will want to make sure that you reduce the amount of heat that escapes from the tub. But, that’s not all. There are actually quite a few things that you should know about your hot tub and the associated utility bill.

If you are looking for advice on how to best utilize the hot tub so that it uses the least amount of electricity, you are absolutely reading the right article. In this article, we will give advice on how to best utilize your hot tub and manage the electrical supply accordingly.

Without further ado, let’s get into it and talk about the maximum amount of electricity that is consumed by your hot tub and how you can bring this figure down.

How Much Electricity Does A Hot Tub Use Per Month?

It’s important to note that the heater inside your hot tub is the main consumer of energy and can use approximately 1500 to 6000 watts depending on the voltage of the heater. The heater can either be a 120 V or 240 V heater.

When the hot tub is in use, both the heater and the pump will be running more frequently. However, even when the hot tub is not in use, the heater will still run occasionally in order to maintain the hot tub’s water temperature.

If your hot tub has a 120 V heater, then it can consume approximately 3000 watts when being used. This includes the total energy of both the heater and the pump.

If the heater is of a higher voltage, then it can consume approximately 7500 watts with 1500 watts for the pump and 6000 watts for the heater.

Now, 3000 watts = 3kWh and 7500 watts = 7.5kWh. To calculate the approximate cost of your hot tub’s power consumption, you take these kilowatt-hours and multiply them by the kilowatt-hour rate on your electricity bill.

So if the rate is $0.15 per kilowatt-hour, then a 120V hot tub that consumes 3kWh of energy will cost you around $0.45 per hour. Similarly, a 240V hot tub that uses around 7.5kWh will cost you around $1.125 per hour.

The Costs of Running a Hot Tub

So you can see from the above calculation that your hot tub does not consume a lot of electricity. If you came to this article looking for a figure going into the thousands, you might be disappointed.

Hot tubs don’t really require a lot of energy, and modern hot tubs even come with electricity saving modes such as the economy mode.

In the past, hot tubs may have tacked on an additional $100 at most to your electricity bills, but that figure has gone down considerably.

With the advancement in technology and the availability of more efficient components, hot tubs now cost much less to run.

A new hot tub that was manufactured in the past half decade or so is likely to cost a nominal $1 in a day to run. That’s sincerely not bad when you consider just how many things are going on underneath the shell.

But, with an average figure of $30 in a month, you really can’t go wrong. Most people leave their hot tub on around the clock, and in most cases, the water is usually set to 98 degrees F.

It’s obviously quite difficult to isolate the cost of using just the hot tub from your total utility bill. But, if your average utility bill is around $300, you can make an estimate that roughly 10% of it is due to the hot tub.

As mentioned, the average cost of running a hot tub is around $1 in a day. Some people are under the impression that by reducing the temperature or turning off the hot tub is a good way to save money. However, that’s not true.

If you just leave your hot tub on its standard mode and at a temperature of 98 degrees, you are good to go. There are several factors that affect the cost on a monthly basis, however.

For starters, the insulation within the outer shell of the hot tub is going to play a major role in your utility bills. If your hot tub is more than 10 years old, that insulation will have depleted or lost its effectiveness, and as a result, it’s going to be much less efficient.

Similarly, the condition of the hot tub cover also plays an important role. If the hot tub cover is in dire condition and is torn and there are cracks all over, it’s going to allow heat to escape, and as a result, your bills are only going to increase.

More importantly, you may want to consider the age of your heater. How old is it? The older it gets, the more electricity it’s going to consume.

It’s what happens with machinery, so if your hot tub is consuming more electricity than you would like, it might be a wise idea to replace the heater.

Finally, the frequency with which you remove the lid and keep it off will also play a role. It’s imperative that you think about replacing the hot tub cover if it’s heavily damaged too, because that could be a major contributing factor.

What If You Want to Use Your Hot Tub Regularly?

If you are going to run your hot tub every single day, it’s not really going to cost you as much as you might think. We have already talked about the figure, but you should know that turning off the hot tub regularly is a bad idea.

You may want to reconsider doing this, since it’s going to cost you more to run like this. The reason is simple: the coils require much more energy to warm up the water from a colder temperature than it does to simply keep the water hot at a constant temperature.

If you constantly turn your hot tub on or off every now and then, your electrical costs are likely to rise, and it could end up costing you as much as $70 a month!

Can You Save More Money by Turning it Down?

In a way, yes, but you might be surprised to know that the difference just isn’t much. If you are shocked at your exorbitant electrical bill and have been thinking about the steps that you can take to manage the electricity that your hot tub consumes, there are a few things that you should know.

However, the answer to this question is only in the affirmative if you have a very old hot tub. For instance, if your hot tub is around 10 to 15 years old, then yes, turning it down may save you some more money.

As already stated above, modern hot tubs don’t cost more than $1 a day to run. The temperature most people like to keep their hot tubs at is 104 degrees F, though if you have kids, it’s generally a wise idea to keep it at 98 degrees F.

The good thing here is that there isn’t much of a difference between 98 degrees F and 104 degrees F in terms of costs. At most, you are looking to pay around $5 extra in a month if you keep the temperature set at 104 degrees F.

So It’s Less Expensive to Keep it on?

Absolutely, yes. The way electrical appliances work is that they consume more energy to bring the water to a higher temperature than they would to maintain it at a specific level.

When you leave the hot tub on for longer periods of time, the water continues to remain at the set temperature. The heater doesn’t have to work as hard to maintain the temperature at a set level.

Modern heaters that are installed in hot tubs come with an array of features that are designed to maintain the temperature and keep the tub running smoothly.

The average hot tub consumes much more power to increase the temperature of the water. It’s the same concept as the air conditioner.

When you turn on the air conditioner, it consumes more electricity to cool the air. It doesn’t consume as much energy to maintain the temperature, provided you have decent insulation in your house.

Are the Electricity Costs Higher During Winter?

For a newer hot tub, the difference is negligible. But obviously, there is still a difference because newer hot tubs require more energy to keep the temperature warm.

The cold ambient weather plays a major role in bringing down the temperature, so the heater has to work double to maintain the temperature.

Thankfully, most modern hot tubs come with advanced heat insulation, so they are more than capable of keeping the temperature at nominal levels all around the clock. You don’t have to worry about much at all with these ones.

So, as you can expect, the hot tub may consume a bit more energy in the winter, but not as much as you might think. These are just a few things that you should know about the electrical consumption of modern hot tubs.