Saving energy and money is not that easy, so Powertime tries to give you tips frequently to help you reduce your electricity bill. Discover an alternative to your standard electric geyser: the heat pumps. This is particularly important since water heating represents on average 40% of your total electricity bill.
Heat pump water heaters use a small amount of electricity to move heat from the surrounding air to the water. This is the reverse of the vapor-compression refrigeration method commonly used in refrigerators which moves heat from inside the fridge to the surroundings in order to keep your food cool. A heat pump absorbs heat from ambient air and transfers it into your hot water cylinder to heat up the water.
Heat pump water heaters are more efficient and cheaper to run than other water heating systems, since heat is essentially move and not generated by the electrical element.
To produce same volume of hot water, the running cost of heat pump will result in savings of 75% of the cost of an electric geyser, 67% of the cost of gas geyser, and 50% of the cost solar water heaters.
To put things in perspective, a standard 150L 3kW Geyser uses roughly 8 to 10 kWh a day, that’s 300 kWh a month and at R1.425/kWh, that is R427.5 every month to heat your water.
Your standard household 3kW geyser can be replaced by a 1kW heat pump, which would use around 100 kWh a month, or R142.5. This heat pump system costs between R15 000 and R20 000, which means that your payback is around 5.6 years.
However don’t forget a heat pump water heater is supposed to work 15 years or more, so you are going to save a lot of energy and money especially since electricity tariffs are increasing every year.
What are the advantages of heat pumps ?
- Saving energy and money: Thanks to a heat pump water heater, you can save up to 75% of your energy usually consumed for water heating.
- Heat pumps working 365 days a year, even when it is cloudy outside (as opposed to solar water heaters)
- Heat pumps can be customized: running periods can be controlled with timers to minimize costs and big volumes of water can be heated easily (again since moving heat is faster, cheaper and more efficient than generating it).
- They are safe and eco-friendly: no combustion and no gas emission.
- Heat pump water heaters can be installed everywhere: roof, basement, outside, inside… which is very convenient.
- A heat pump can be remotely controlled.
- Finally the lifespan of heat pump water heaters is very long: they can work 15 years or more with low maintenance costs.
What are the main negatives of heat pumps ?
- The initial purchase might seem expensive: prices are higher than other water heaters. However, the savings generated on your electricity bill are usually worth it, especially with the tariff increases experienced in South Africa.
- The average heat pump will struggle in areas or at times with low ambient temperatures (less than 4 °C). However, heat pumps specifically designed for cold climates can extract heat from an ambient air temperature at -30 °
- Heat pump water heaters are the new generation of water heaters, so the industry is still at its beginning. Because of it, the quality of heat pump water heaters greatly.
Read more about heat pump water heaters:
– Understanding how a heat pump works in more details