Water rationing: water heating now only 2-4 kW/h per day

[Elbow]

Hi all,

i’m In Cape Town and facing the challenging 87l/day target.  We are 3 at home.

i was looking at my Openenergymonitor data and I see that there is a side-effect - my geyser is only using 2 to 4 KWh per day - average of 2.2.  My total consumption is about 25 so 10% of my total.

(if you remember I moved - my new house has aircon in lounge and bedroom - hard to resist using them but that is costing - average of 3.6kW/h day)

So this really changes the cost benefit for solar water heating - my spend on water heating with grid electricity is only say R150 per month or so.

Looking at it another way, generating 3kW/h from solar PV isn’t too hard a task - with a say 1kW element this could be done easily most days.

My big users are now plugs - 9.3/day, and pool pump - 6.8/day

My computers aren’t on my plugs - I have a separate red-plug circuit for that which is measured separately.

Elbow

[___]

3 hours ago, Elbow said:

I see that there is a side-effect

I noticed that too. When you use a total of 350 liters a day, of which almost a third is for the washing machine (so cold by definition), and you do dishes by loading the dishwasher to the brim (because that uses the least water), and the dishwasher also cold-fills... well, then you're talking maybe a few buckets full of hot water to be heated. The majority of the 2kwh that is used might well be standing loss.

Cape Town is really hit hard in financial terms. Residential rates don't have a connection fee (for electricity or water), and now that we use so little water, and also less electricity because we had no d*mn winter and we don't heat water anymore... well... no wonder they want to introduce a drought levy.

[Guest]

Another side effect, I read, is that the solar geysers are at risk over overheating due to less water used, the geysers are hotter.

We need to make sure the systems cool themselves down at night. Mine apparently does it automatically, pumping hot water back at night to panel if temp was too high. Or some such.