Bowman, a leading UK manufacturer of swimming pool heat exchangers, has turned its attention to the hot tub market with the recent introduction of its EC80 heat exchanger. This super compact unit – just 368mm overall length – offers up to 25kW heat transfer, getting hot tubs up to the required temperature in a fraction of the time taken by most electric heaters. In fact one of Bowman’s commercial customers, operating 24 hot tubs, reported that their tubs can be heated in just two to three hours from cold and in addition, is saving around £500 per hot tub annually in energy costs.
“Year on year growth of the UK’s hot tub market has been a major success story, both in the residential and commercial industry sectors. However, the slow heat-up times and relatively high energy costs associated with many hot tubs can detract from the enjoyment of using the product and increasingly, owners are seeking a faster, more energy efficient solution,” comments Tony Carter, Sales Manager at Bowman. Traditionally, most hot tubs are supplied with an electric heater of around 3kW output. With this type of heat source, it can take up to 24 hours to heat a tub from cold – depending on pool capacity, outside air temperature and heater type.
ELECTRICITY COSTS : Additionally, domestic hot tub users can expect their annual electricity costs to increase, often by around £500 or even more, which with rising energy costs, could potentially affect future development for the industry. For commercial multi-tub operators, this sharp increase to energy costs can have a serious impact on the businesses financial performance. However, there is an alternative solution. By switching from electric heating to high efficiency gas or biomass boiler heating, in conjunction with a Bowman heat exchanger, both heat up times and energy costs can be significantly reduced. Installation of Bowman’s EC80 heat exchanger is straight forward; the operation being the same as heating a conventional swimming pool, where the heat exchanger acts as an interface between the heated water from the boiler and the hot tubs own water circuit.
SIMPLE SOLUTION : The solution is suitable for both single tub and multi-tub installations. For domestic users, the hot tub can often be heated from their properties central heating boiler. For commercial operators, such as leisure parks, where individual accommodation units have their own hot tub, these can be heated from a centralised boiler, by linking in parallel the required number of heat exchangers for the number of hot tubs to be heated. Tony adds: “Whilst this principle is still relatively new to the industry, an increasing number of installers are realising the benefits of switching to a boiler based heating system in conjunction with a Bowman heat exchanger and once installed, the benefits of faster heat up and lower energy costs ensure that users can enjoy their hot tubs to the full.”
