South African households can replace their electric geyser with one that has an integrated heat pump (IHP) and pay off the cost through electricity savings in less than 3 years.

Once paid off, the investment would cut down their energy bills by more than R11,000 per year based on current tariffs.

Electric geysers contribute around 30% to 40% of South African households’ energy consumption. Optimising that consumption can deliver significant savings.

Heat pumps are one way to make a geyser less energy-intensive. Over the last decade, global sales of these devices have doubled, in part due to government-backed energy efficiency programmes.

However, as with electric vehicle adoption, the primary driver has been cost reductions for consumers.

The underlying technology of heat pumps is over 176 years old, but has improved substantially over the last few decades.

Heat pumps function like refrigerators in reverse. Refrigerators remove heat from inside through a circulating fluid and release it out the back.

The heat pump pulls in ambient air or extracts warmth from the ground, which passes over coils filled with a liquid refrigerant with a very low boiling point.

Even if the outside air or ground temperature is cold, the liquid will start to boil and vaporise into a gas, which is compressed into a small space by a compressor.

The high pressure increases its temperature, which is transferred to a condenser, from where it is blown across hot coils dispersed through the walls of a building.

The cooled liquid refrigerant is passed through an expansion valve to reduce its pressure and temperature before it returns to a liquid state to restart the process.

When integrated with a geyser, the transferred heat is moved through coils that heat up water instead of the air.

According to Power4Less, one major producer of IHP geysers in South Africa, these systems use substantially less energy to heat water.

Lower power draw and energy consumption

Power4Less IHP geyser. Photographer: Recharged
Power4Less’s 200ℓ IHP geyser uses around 1.8kWh to heat water from ambient temperatures to 60°C, which is a typical temperature at which geysers are set.

A conventional electric geyser with the same capacity consumes around 10.5kWh to achieve the same. Therefore, the IHP Geyser users get about 83% less electricity.

Instantaneous power usage is much lower, with an output of roughly 0.6kW, compared to the 2kW or 3kW that a conventional geyser element uses.

This can be especially helpful with off-grid power systems. IHP geysers are also made with heat-insulating materials that can maintain heated water temperature for up to 48 hours.

The main downside to IHP geysers is pricing. The Power4Less 200ℓ unit was priced at R26,629 or R26,499 on special from Builder’s Warehouse.

Electric geysers with 200ℓ capacities start from around R7,600, meaning you could buy around three of them for the price of one IHP unit.

It is also important to consider the cost of a professional installation with electrical and plumbing certificates, which typically ranges from about R5,000 to R7,500.

However, the significant energy savings of the IHP geyser will quickly offset its price tag. On a typical day, the IHP geyser will consume 8.7kWh less energy than the standard electric model.

On Eskom’s most common residential tariff, Homepower 4, the current cost per kWh is R3.56. Using an electric geyser will cost R37.38 per day or R1,121 per month.

With the IHP geyser, the daily energy cost drops to R6.41, or R192 over a month. With an IHP geyser, our example household will save roughly R31 daily or R929 per month.

Over a year, the investment could cut down your electricity bill by R11,150. To pay off the cost of the IHP geyser with installation would take roughly two years and 11 months.

That excludes a potential deduction you might get if you trade in your old 200ℓ geyser, which could fetch between R3,000 and R4,000 if relatively new and in good condition.

If you were not replacing an existing electric geyser and had to choose between the two, the time to pay off the difference would drop to 1 year and 8 months.

Source: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/650053-power-efficient-geysers-can-save-south-african-households-thousands-of-rands.html