Spa Covers Go Green by Saving Energy

A recent study paid for by Pacific Gas & Electric led to the State of California enacting legislation that would cause spa manufacturers to scramble to redesign theirs spas or not sell any in California. In short, this has caused major changes in the spa industry.
Why all the uproar? Well the study found that across the board the largest energy consuming appliance in the home was the pool or spa at 2,600 and 2,500 kilowatt hours annually.
What that means is if Californians turned off their pools and spas pumps, we could shut down one Nuclear power plant and one conventional power plant for an entire year. That’s right boys and girls. The entire annual output of two power plants goes to power just pools and spa pumps in California.
It’s no wonder the state felt it necessary to do something. Am I advocating shutting down spas and pools across the country? Far from it. I firmly believe they play a crucial part in a healthy, fit well balanced life. What makes more sense to me is to develop products that help them use less energy.

[Spa] Covers reduce most if not all of the evaporative losses from the pool when in use. With this component of heat loss being 70% a cover with a small R value can achieve as much as a 75% reduction in heating costs when used.

If spas use less energy then consumers can still use them and get the health benefits. In the big picture saving energy is the best possible way to go green. That’s the whole focus of the Energy Star Program.
The added benefit is that you don’t have run out and buy a new spa to be part of the going green movement. You just need a better spa cover for your existing spa.
A spa cover that severely limits evaporation by resting right on the surface of the water (like the SpaCap). A new spa cover that has a good insulation value (better than any rigid foam cover) like the SpaCap can reduce the heating costs by 75% or more. If all spas in the country were covered with this type of cover and we could reduce the energy consumption of those spas by even half it could add up to 5,000,000,000 kilowatt hours annually.
That’s energy saved. That’s going green, and I didn’t even mention the savings in reducing landfills with discarded saturated foam spa covers.

Please follow this link to the Can Spa Covers Be Green?