Surabaya · East Java · 5 m above sea level
Mains water here leaves the tap at 29-31 degrees in the afternoon. Holding 400 litres at 5 degrees means shedding 529 watts without pause — the highest load in Java, and the reason we fit 2 PK here while Jakarta manages on 1.5.
Surabaya and Jakarta look similar on a weather app: both hot, both humid, both at sea level. The difference that matters is the tap. Jakarta delivers 28-30 degrees, Surabaya 29-31, and the afternoon air here reaches 35 rather than 34. That pushes the holding load from 516 to 529 watts and the real chiller output down, and the sizing rule — twice the holding load, plus a full pull-down inside eight hours — tips over the boundary. A 1.5 PK unit would hold the tub somewhere around 7 degrees on a bad afternoon. A 2 PK delivers 2.55 kW against 5-degree water and holds the number.
The honest consequence: a Surabaya tub costs about Rp 8 million more than the identical tub in Jakarta, and draws 1,850 watts instead of 1,400. It is not a margin decision. If the budget will not stretch, we would rather sell you 300 litres on a 1.5 PK that genuinely reaches 5 degrees than 400 litres that never does.
| Volume | Holding load | Chiller | Pull-down | Electricity / month | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 litres | 397 W | 1.5 PK | 4.8 h | Rp 161,000 | one bather, a narrow side yard |
| 400 litres | 529 W | 2 PK | 5.8 h | Rp 220,000 | the size most often ordered |
| 600 litres | 690 W | 3 PK | 5.6 h | Rp 293,000 | two bathers in turn, a villa |
Notice that 250 litres still takes a 1.5 PK here, where the same volume runs on 1 PK in Jakarta. That is the two extra degrees of incoming water again. Compare it directly with Jakarta and with Bandung, which is three hours from Jakarta and runs the same 400-litre tub on Rp 177,000 a month. Any other volume can be checked on the chiller calculator.
Surabaya orders skew commercial more than anywhere else in Java: physiotherapy practices near the hospitals in the east, football and athletics clubs, gyms in the western estates, and factory clinics out towards Sidoarjo and Gresik. That changes the specification rather than the tub. Commercial jobs get automatic sanitation instead of a cartridge you rinse, a calibrated probe with printable logs for audits, and often a standby chiller that can take over — the detail is under commercial ice baths.
For gyms the real design number is not litres but turnover. Ten bathers a day at three minutes each is a different water problem from two bathers for ten minutes, and it is the body heat and the refill water, not the air, that the chiller then chases. We size for the busiest hour of your busiest day, and we ask for that hour honestly at survey.
West Surabaya — Citraland, Pakuwon Indah, Graha Famili — is where tubs most often go in beside an existing swimming pool, sharing a plant room and a filter cupboard. That is genuinely efficient, but the two systems must not share water: pool-strength chlorine at 3 degrees stings, because the skin is constricted and contact time is long. In the south, older plots of six by fifteen metres suit a slim 250-litre body far better than a two-seat format.
Towards Sidoarjo and the eastern shoreline, shallow wells run brackish and high in iron. Chloride eats copper, so every wetted metal part is 316 and the heat exchanger is titanium as standard. We fit a 50-micron pre-filter and an ion-exchange medium on the inlet. Without them, sediment and scale wreck an evaporator inside a year, and that is not a warranty claim.
Shells for East Java leave Cikarang on the Trans-Java toll road and spend 12 to 14 hours travelling. Twenty working days is the figure from deposit to handover. The last day is the one that counts: we fill, run the tub from 30 down to 5 degrees in about 5.8 hours and hand over only when a probe thermometer in the water agrees with the promise. The final 20 per cent of the invoice falls due after that reading, not before — which is exactly why we are strict at the sizing stage. All payment stages are on the pricing page.
Because the incoming water is 29-31 degrees rather than 28-30, and the air peaks at 35 rather than 34. The holding load rises to 529 watts and the chiller's real output falls, so the sizing rule crosses into 2 PK. It is two degrees of water, not a different climate.
Rp 220,000 for a closed 400-litre tub used an hour a day on the domestic tariff — about Rp 6,000 a month more than Jakarta. Leave the lid off and it becomes Rp 291,000, because the load goes from 529 to 729 watts.
It can share a plant room, a power supply and a drain. It must not share water or chemistry. Pool chlorine levels are unpleasant at 3 degrees and pool pumps are the wrong size for a 400-litre loop. We run a separate circuit with its own cartridge and ozone.
Yes, from two units upward, with automatic sanitation, logging and a standby chiller. Commercial clients usually want the temperature record for audits more than they want a discount.
Twelve to fourteen hours on the road from Cikarang, inside a total of twenty working days from deposit to cold test. Inter-island crating and the technician's travel are described under delivery.
Langkah berikutnya
We reply with sizing, the right chiller and a full price.