The time required for heating a spa and the associated costs turn out to be a problem for many spa owners. Using the integral electric heaters usually provided can take up to 24 hours to achieve operating temperature and it takes at best between 6 and 12 hours if pre-heated water is used to fill the hot tub.

Regarding commercial spas, now seen as the “must have” guest facility in Holiday Parks, guest change over periods can be especially challenging as the tubs have to be drained, cleaned, re-filled and heated, all within a 4 to 5 hour window!
Working in conjunction with one of the UK’s leading spas and hot tubs companies, Bowman now has a solution that enables hot tubs to be heated from an external energy source, such as gas or biomass fired boilers, in just a fraction of the time taken by electric heaters.

At the heart of this solution is the EC80 heat exchanger. Installed into the hot tubs water circuit downstream of the spa control unit (SCU), spa water is pumped through the heat exchangers central tube core in a continuous cycle. Hot water is pumped from the boiler throughout the inner shell of the heat exchanger, enabling heat energy to be transferred from the boiler water circuit to the spa water circuit. Using ambient temperature water, the Bowman based system increases water temperature by up to 12°C per hour, getting the hot tub to full operating temperature in around 3 to 4 hours and even in 1 hour if pre-heated water is used to fill the tub!

Another advantage of this system: switching from electric heating to a more efficient, lower cost heat source provides substantial energy savings (around €600.00 per tub/per year).

The technical sales team was available during Piscine Global Europe to discuss this new hot tub solution and provide information to visitors on the company’s extensive range of swimming pool heat exchangers, which covers virtually every pool requirement, from small domestic pools to Olympic sized ones.