Shockingly your geyser is probably the most energy-consuming appliance you own, with an average consumption of between 30 and 50 percent of the total amount of your electricity bill. Stoves, air conditioning and tumble driers dependent on usage are also high on the list of electrical guzzlers.
Don’t believe that switching off a geyser on a daily basis will decrease the energy consumption. That should only be done if you are leaving your home for a holiday or business trip for a few days.
Here we can use a kettle as an example as we all have tea and coffee. Your geyser is like a big kettle. It has an element inside that heats the water up to a set temperature. When you fill your kettle with cold water, it takes ages to boil. Remove a cupful of boiling water and add a cup of cold water, the kettle will boil much faster. The base temperature is higher and therefore it requires less energy to heat it.
If you leave your geyser permanently switched on, the temperature will be hot all the time, so the energy needed to warm the water is constant .If you switch off your geyser, no energy will be consumed to warm the water but when you switch it on again, it will need a huge amount of energy really fast to warm the water back up to the set temperature.
So what do we do to save a little electricity?
- Make sure that your geysers temperature is set between 55 and 65%, since a lower temperature means less consumption.
- Ensure your geyser and water pipes are properly insulated – ensuring that heat leak is lessened. Using a geyser blanket can save you huge money but make sure you have it installed by a professional.
- Only use the hot tap when necessary – washing hands, splashing your face can be done with cold water only. When you have to use hot water try use less, take shorter showers and shallow baths.
With the price of electricity said to be on an never ending rise, it could be a good idea to go solar……… The sun has 5 billion more years of energy, lets use it.
