Solar water heaters
Heating your water using a solar water heater in South Africa makes a lot of sense. We are a country that receives large amounts of sunlight throughout the year and only when there are 2 or 3 days of no sunlight at all, will you need to use electricity or a generator to supplement your hot water supply.
Installing a Solar water heating system can be a fairly costly exercise, but when you consider the electricity savings alone, your solar heating system should pay for itself within 5 years. each person in a household requires around 80 liters of water daily, this includes water used in cleaning, drinking and showers or baths. To calculate the size of geyser you require, use half the total as an indication of hot water storage you need. The average 4 person home will be adequately serviced by a 180 liter geyser, but 200 would be more than enough to ensure that you never run out.
When choosing a solar water heating supplier always ensure that the product has been SABS approved in order to take advantage of any incentives offered by ESKOM. Ensure that the storage cylinder has a ceramic lining to reduce the amount of heat loss during periods of low sunlight and overnight. An acceptable loss of temperature is 5%, if the specifications indicate that the heat loss is greater than this or the specification does not show the heat loss, it would be wise to seek alternative advice.
Your water heating system uses as much as 40% of your electricity and your savings are immediate once your solar water heating system is installed. In most cases, banks will lend against your bond for the installation of a solar water heating system.
Solar systems are becoming more efficient and technological advancement has seen innovative new products for the building industry like these screen printed solar cells.