In most households, up to 60% of electricity bills can be accounted to the electrical geyser. This, despite ongoing heated discussions (pun intended) about “best geyser practise”… (Is that a thing??)
Best Geyser Practise
Switch your electrical geyser off when you’re not using hot water.
No wait, scratch that. It takes more power to reheat cooled water, than it does to maintain already-hot water.
Insulate your pipes to keep them from freezing.
Put timers on your geyser and spend its entire 5-year warranty period trying to find the sweet spot of geyser optimization.
Cover your geyser with a special geyser blankie.
Get it a teddy bear, while you’re at it
Ok, it’s not as complex as all that, but the fact is this: despite the energy crisis that the country might be in, you want a hot shower every day. Maybe twice a day. And so you dole out the bucks on your electricity bill, grudgingly – but grateful at least for hot water in your tub every day.
Correction: Most days.
Some days, when load-shedding is at its worst or the nearest substation catches fire, or Aunty Rose empties your geyser into a steaming bubble bath, you may still find yourself enduring a dreaded cold shower or worse: a wet-wipe wash in Winter.
We get it: hot water is a touchy subject. If you find yourself suffering through more cold showers than you’d like, despite your monthly contributions to Eskom, we might have a solution: The Heat Pump.
Heat Pumps make use of mankind’s most essential resource to heat your water: Air!
In Layman’s Terms, How Does It Work?
Once connected to your water supply and your home (which you’ll leave to us), your heat pump will need to be connected to your electricity supply. Luckily, it doesn’t use a heating element that breaks the bank, instead, it uses ambient air (sort of like a reverse aircon) to warm your water.
After a long hot day, you switch the hot tap on in the shower, and a cascade of water will rain down on you. Here’s the best part – you wouldn’t even know the difference between your previous clunky heating element and your heating pump, except for the fact that your back pocket feels fuller at the end of every month.
You might hear the characteristic “hum” of an aircon from just outside your bathroom. There’s no need to run out the bathroom butt-naked in fear – the heat pump is simply ensuring the next time you run the tap, your hot water is ready to go.
Ta-dah!
What You Really Need to Know About Heat Pumps
Heat pumps are effective – water heated by a heat pump is as hot as a regular electrical geyser. The temperature remains consistent through all seasons of the year.
Heat pumps are safe – when installed by a professional, that is. Heat pumps are installed on the exterior of a building and are designed with safety as a foremost priority.
Heat pumps are economical and eco-friendly – air source heat pumps are environmentally friendly – they don’t create any greenhouse gases that electrical geysers do, via coal plants, and because they only use air when hot water is actually being used, heat pumps are both cost and energy efficient.
Heat pumps are low maintenance. They don’t require regular servicing at all, and are simple to run on a day-to-day basis. In fact, there are no thermostats and elements inside a heat pump, making them a great low-maintenance option for home or businesses, no matter the size.
It’s Not Primitive Anymore
Heat pumps are being used in most homes and businesses of Johannesburg, as an alternative to traditional electrical geysers. With the energy climate as it currently is in South Africa, the heat pump may just be the modern caveman’s solution for lower electricity bills and consistently hot water.
Want to find out more? Let us inspect your home to determine how suitable it is for a heat pump.
Get in touch with us now to arrange an installation!