Dynamic Automatic Insulation Technology
copyright 2003 through 2015 Havenmade Inc.
NOW! You can purchase the DAIT system for your spa!
The DAIT insulation system is the best of in the Thermally Closed style of insulation. It is the most technologically advanced and logical design for spas. It is also the most energy efficient design (We have proposed the Spa Challenge for years with no takers). The original concept of the Thermally Closed design was developed over 20 years ago by a large corporation* with real engineers, making it the only engineered type of spa insulation in use.
As the spa equipment developed, the size of the motors started to cause problems with the original design. There was too much heat trapped inside these early cabinets as modern pumps were installed, and it developed into a problem (Because the engineering of the insulation as not keeping track with the new equipment).
We took over where they left off because it is the best idea for spa insulation today. Haven Spas advancement of this thermally closed design (along with other innovations) has made us about 20 years ahead of any other company in quiet powerful, long lasting energy efficient spas. We make the best engineered therapy spas on earth today. That is not a marketing statement. That is a statement from over 20 years of in the field results and having our spas outlast all other brands.
When we started to do our research and development on this concept of automatic adjustable insulation, more in winter and less in summer we had a few spas that we tested. The problem at that time was if we set up a spa for the coldest part of winter, it would not work in summer, but it had phenomenal energy efficiency in the dead of winter, when spas are mostly used (at least in Colorado). In our test spas the insulation had to be removed in order to stop the water in the spa vessel from getting too hot in spring through fall. So, as we went along we discovered that at certain temperatures outside, you start changing the insulation by removing it from the cabinet walls.
This was not practical for a spas that is sold to the general public. I can't imagine an older lady with a screw gun opening up the spa to adjust her insulation four of five times a year. So, we took and designed full winter insulation then automatically reduced the effectiveness of it in warm days to keep the spa water "normal" temperatures and even allow for cool temperatures.
The standard thermally closed (non DAIT) spas are more energy efficient than the standard full foam, have full access to all the equipment, and run extremely quiet and don't overheat in summer unless the filter cycles are set too long or at the wrong time of day. This had been our standard for 14 years, but we are now finally able to offer the DAIT insulation system in all its glory.
With the DAIT system, Dynamic Automatic Insulation Technology TM, we automatically adjust the effective insulation by moving air in and through the cabinet and creating an effective reduction in heat retention in summer.
The range of effective insulation varies from R-87 in the Paramount and SC models in full winter to R-11 or less in summer, but it also adjusts in summer for night temperatures and increases insulation then. It involves using thermal sensors and a control system (proprietary) to make all the adjustments. It comes in two versions the "Level 2" is much simpler and only uses internal sensors and standard logic, used in warm climates. The "Level 4" has multiple internal sensors and external sensing of the thermal conditions inside and outside of the cabinet. The "Level 4" has even more controls on the cabinet and allows us to run a cool spa in summer if you want. Level 4 has four layers of specifically engineered insulation. Since the DAIT system is primary to the total function of the spa, it is composed of industrial rated electrical and electronic parts. These parts are rated for a minimum of 100,000 actuation's at full power rating or more. Since we run these devices at 13% of full power, we expect them to outlast the spa.
The advantages for this are numerous in the effective use of the pump heat, without causing "hot spots" inside the cabinet. If you look at a standard full foam spa, the pumps are placed in a little box in the front of the spa. When the pumps run that box becomes a hot box particularly in summer, giving the full foam spas more overheat problems than in our standard thermally closed designs.
Pump overheat in these little boxes in fully foamed in spas in these, 30 years behind, out of date designs is what causes premature failures on the motors. Heat is killer on spa motors. In every spa I have examined by the competition, they do not seem to care about their motors. I have this thing, called engineering background, and I also read all the specifications and parameters needed to keep motors lasting much longer, as long as they ever can last. Some of our older spas are still running after 16 years on the same motors.
In our standard thermally closed DAIT design the heat is spread out in a much larger enclosure and that heat is rapidly dissipated into the spa water, not one BTU is wasted. Plus we use the highest quality spa pump motors. This is a symbiotic relationship between the spa vessel and the pumps. The only time the jet pumps produce extra heat is when the cover is off and the spa is losing heat "like crazy" out the top of the spa. That is the time when the thermally closed is very energy efficient and the heater use is greatly limited by the pump heat going directly into the water. If you extract the normally wasted motor heat and make that enter the water while the cover is off, the electric 6,000 watt heater will not operate for a much longer "OFF" time, even with very cold weather. Keeping the water warm with the least amount of heater use is the ideal concept that we have achieved and no other brand of spa has this.
With the DAIT we have far superior insulation and we have controls over the possible build up of heat in the area around the pumps, so our pumps never run in ambient average air above the temperatures specified by the motor companies, thus fully extending the life of the motors. (Other brands of spas attempts of capturing the heat and closing the cabinet does result in pump overheat and shortening the life of the motors. It appears that they have never read any books on thermodynamics.)
In a typical full foam spa the ambient air is almost always too hot in a short time after the motors start, because the equipment box is too small to begin with. In summer it leads to thermal overheat and the thermal safety switches in motors shut off the motors until they cool back down. By then the motor has already been harmed. Running any motor too hot for even short periods of time is like a disease being inflicted on these expensive parts and who ultimately pays for that poor engineering? (Hint: Spa owners do) Some spa companies are wasting even more heat, by putting a vent on the back of the motor and blowing the heat directly out side. (I can't tell you how ignorant that sounds to me.)
With the DAIT the air entering the cabinet is made to pass into the motor frame first, then after the air is heated by the motor frame, it is sent out into the cabinet for heat absorption into the spa water, through the vessel wall and plumbing pipes. If it is summer, the heat is not allowed to build up and it is expelled outside the cabinet, so the water temperature will not rise but a degree or two above the set point. This is also a lot safer than other designs.
The improvements in this DAIT
system are many in function, but the synopsis is as
follows:
- DAIT equipped spas have the highest
effective insulation of any spa ever made to date in
winter. There are 7 layers of effective air barrier foil
and foam insulation in these spas. The 2016 SC and
SE spas have 10 air/insulation layers.
- DAIT allows an automatic reduction in the effective insulation as the thermal conditions warrant. (DAIT 4 has multiple levels based upon interior and exterior thermal conditions and what equipment is running.)
- DAIT allows for control over the ambient air around the motors affecting an increase in the motor longevity by keeping the frame of the motor cooler than any portable spa in current production. It moves the heat away from the motors.
- DAIT allows a decrease in the winter electric consumption that rivals summer use energy consumption, while the spa is not in use.
- DAIT gives the spas an increase in the heat transfer into the spa water in winter and less or very little in summer.
- DAIT soundproofs the cabinet even more because of the additional layers and air chambers added to the walls of the cabinet.
- DAIT allows even better use of the warm air into the blower than was ever achieved before and the use of higher horsepower air injection for more air features than have ever been available with low energy consumption.
- DAIT allows the warm air in front to be brought
to the rear of the spa cabinet. Thus, equalizing the
heat barrier around the seating vessel.