Most modern geysers benefit from a good insulation. However, you can still improve your geyser’s energy efficiency by installing a geyser blanket and insulating your pipes.
Why insulating / not insulating your geyser and pipes?
Insulating your geyser and pipes will allow you to reduce the heat loss and make your water system more efficient.
Most modern heaters already have a good insulation as they comply with the SANS 10400-XA regulation and with other international norms when they are imported. Insulating your geyser and pipes on this type of geyser will allow you to save at least 300 kWh/year depending on the current efficiency of your system (a standard geyser loses about 400 to 500 kWh/year in heat loss and you can expect to drop this number to 90 kWh/year with a good insulation. Source : Saskatchewan Research Council). If the geyser is old, the saving can be more important. This represents a saving of about R200 per year if we only take into account the efficiency of your water system. A geyser blanket cost about R200, so you just need 1 year to pay back your installation.
However, you must also note that this heat loss might participate to heating your home, especially if your geyser is located in a living area such as the kitchen or bathroom. In some countries, the pipes and geyser locations are usually designed to serve this purpose, especially in winter time. In South Africa, this is hardly the case, and your geyser is more likely to drain your electricity consumption to warm up your garage rather than your bedroom. This potential benefit can also be an inconvenient in summer time when the main challenge is too cool down your home efficiently. For this reason, you might still want to insulate your geyser even if it is located inside your house. Just take this into account when making a decision to insulate or not your geyser and pipes.
How to choose the right blanket and pipe insulation?
For the geyser blanket, you must look at the R-value that is an indicator of thermal resistance (it represents the ability of a material to resist the transfer of heat). The minimum value required by the legislation is 1.00 but the higher the value, the better. The R-value depends mostly of the type of material used, so don’t buy the thickest blanket you can find without looking further at its thermal properties. Good geyser blankets usually have a R-value of 1.25 or more.
For the pipes, you can find 2 insulation methods. The first method consists in using the same material than the geyser blanket. If you go for this method, make sure that you buy a blanket that is much bigger than your geyser to secure some unused scraps. The second method consist in using pre-formed pipe sections that can be snapped over the pipes. You can buy these pipe sections separately or buy an insulation pack that includes the blanket and the pipe sections.
You have a large choice of distributors for this type of equipment. Here are some places you can look at:
How to install you geyser blanket and pipe insulation?
When you purchase a geyser blanket and pipe insulation, check with your supplier if they provide the installation. A lot of them do. Otherwise, you can do the installation yourself, it’s not that complicated. Here is a video from Eskom explaining how to install your blanket and pipe snaps:
(Picture: http://pinterest.com/pin/421719952583051316/ )