What is a heat pump and does it really save me money?

There is no getting away from the fact that energy prices are on the up, and running your hot tub or swim spa may be causing you some concern as we head into the winter and beyond. Cue Heat pump..

Many people are choosing to empty their hot tubs or swim spas for the winter (we do offer a professional winterise service which includes the following: drain down spa, hoover out bottom and jets, clean filters, and all completed by trained & certified technicians.) in order to reduce their energy consumption, which of course is a valid option! But if you, like us here at Castle Hot Tubs love to relax in your tub on a cold winters night looking up at the stars, heat pumps could be the way!

We are excited to be able to offer a solution that could reduce your hot tub or swim spas energy running costs by up to 80% as well as heating it up far quicker. You may have heard of ground source heat pumps used as an efficient way to heat modern homes, well the device we are talking about here is called an air source heat pump, and it effectively works like an air conditioner in reverse. Where an air-conditioner provides cool air; a heat pump emits heat. But how does a heat pump actually work?

How A Heat Pump Works

1. A fan draws in the ambient air over the evaporator.
2. The warmth in the air is transferred to a circuit filled with eco-friendly gas.
3. A built-in compressor heats the gas to a very high temperature.
4. In the heat exchanger, the gas transfers its heat to the pool water.
5. The gas becomes liquid again and flows back to the evaporator where this process starts again.

The use of a heat pump is therefore extremely environmentally friendly. You save a lot of energy because the COP value (Coefficient of Performance) equals 5 or even higher. This means that per 1 kW of electricity consumed, you regain at least 5 kW of heat. Because of the high return, it is an energy-efficient solution to enjoy a pleasant water temperature in your pool or spa all year round.

So what kind of savings are we looking at?

On average a hot tub requires 3kW per hour when heating, so if you have an air source heat pump installed you could be using 1kW from your electricity source and the heat pump will be outputting 5kW to your hot tub heater which not only makes it much cheaper to run over that hour, but also is pushing an additional 2kW which will mean your tub heats up significantly quicker all for the price of 1kW.

There are a number of variations when it comes to specifications of heat pumps (we stock brands including Zealux, DuraTech, Superior Wellness and Gecko) and we would recommend getting in touch with one of our friendly experts to discuss what would work best for your set up, either by popping in to one of our showrooms (Johnston Pembrokeshire, Swansea or Bridgend), phoning or messaging us here.

Some of the heat pumps we have on offer from Zealux can achieve a COP of 16, meaning for every 1kW of electricity used, 16kW is produced to heat your tub which equals very fast and efficient heating.

We are working on a video showing the real-world cost savings that one of these amazing heat pumps brings to the table by testing a hot tub running off of one compared to the tub without the heat pump – stay tuned for that soon!

Browse some of our Heat Pumps

Check out some of the different Air Source Heat Pumps we offer here