insulate a hot tub
We recently bought a hot tub and just got our electric bill- wow! This tub has some flimsy siver bubble type insulation around behind the cedar sections around the bottom. I was wondering if I could stuff some regular old pink fiberglass insulation in there. We have it outside, so I don't want to put anything in there that'll get moldy or mess up the tub. It is sitting up on a deck, so it should have enough air flow around and underneath it. What if I put the fiberglass in some plastic garbage bags first? Do you think it'll get too hot under there to melt the plastic or anything like that? We plan on getting that rigid foam insulation, but I wanted to do more to try to cut these bills. Any ideas? Need more information. What type of tub is it? How many gallons or liters depending on which side of the border your on. What type cover is on it? How is the tub insulated now other then that bubble wrap stuff you are talking about? Firstly if you stuff bat insulation you will loose the R value of it (bat does not like to be compressed) Bat will also grow mold because it holds water. If anything I would (and not knowing how your tub looks and can't believe that it is not already insulated) would empty and flip the tub on its side then spray expanding insulating foam into all the nooks and crannies thats how my tub is. As a note don't smoke or have an open flame while doing this asa the uncured foam is highly flamable. Also don't get carried away and spray like a mad man as when the foam expands you may have to much and this could put extra pressure on the paneling and deform the look of it. Finally Foam is impermiable to moisture and not man made so it will not be a host to mold. You can get the spray foam from Home Depot (comes in a box) and it is different than the window foam as it comes out differently ie. it has a spray trigger and is used for insulating large voids. Good luck, get some more info and decide for yourself. Actually, there is foam sprayed underneath, but I don't know how thick. It does have a cover. This is a 7 or 8 person tub. I just thought it needed more under there. Maybe just one of those floating covers underneath the outside cover would help. I don't know, we just got it and if you look underneath, there is a lot of open space between the tub and the cedar outside that I thought could have more insulation in there. We live near Pittsburgh, so we get blasted in the winter and I wanted to keep using it as efficiently as possible. Yes Pittsburg is as cold as Toronto. you can try and use more foam isulation as stated. I also cut my electric bill by turning down my heater to 90 degrees. You can go as low as 86 but no lower. then whe I think I am going to use it I turn it up to 100 again. This I found has cut the bill. Hope this helps. i agree with the spray foam, just dont cover any valves or anything else you may need to get too. Another thing that made a difference on my tub is, when you have it on its side to insulate it, staple a heavy duty piece of plastic on the bottom, that will help keep out alot of moisture,,,,,then you can spray foam it shut..
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