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Solar tubes or heat pump

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I also paid R26k to an installer for my 5kw heat pump some 2 years ago at the previous house. It will always be cheaper if you have some DIY capabilities. We can't be expected to DIY solar panels and plumbing.

Some stuff you will have to get an expect. I used probably close to 6kw to heat the geyser today which is fine on sunny days but if there was an outage I would have opted for no hot water today. If I had a heat pump I would have tried to heat it even through an outage. It looks like i would have managed the 1kw needed for that ITS heat pump from the graph.Screenshot_20240217_181328_LuxPower.thumb.jpg.769cae507806c034dad05788abe6e031.jpg

Edited by Buyeye

2 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

Just to share a real life stat. This afternoon I checked the temp of my geyser when I switched on the pump. 37 deg. 52min later it switched off at 56. Power used 1.3kWh. Using an element it would have used 3.325 kWh. 

Ouch... clearly an element has quite a HUGE draw which would not be advantageous, more so if you're using your battery bank to heat up the water.

2 minutes ago, Moffat said:

Ouch... clearly an element has quite a HUGE draw which would not be advantageous, more so if you're using your battery bank to heat up the water.

Luckily I had exposure to heat pumps in an industrial application in the late 1970's. I thus did not hesitate to get one 13yrs ago. My savings to date could be approaching R60th. 

I rely totally  on  rain water harvesting  so have too look after volumes. I have 150l XTREME geyser with a solar collector . It  is a long run from geyser to bathroom .I installed the gas geyser right outside bathroom with a solar to gas valve (R1 000.00 Dewhot) which has temperature setting screw.I fiddled around with temps and found our optimum shower temperature .If geyser temperature is around 25 degrees ,hot water tap is set full on and then adjusted according to incoming temperature .  If incoming water is below that temperature gas stays on. I shower early morning and evening ,wife  during the day .Showers are quick for water saving reasons . Once I have my solar install done it will assist on inclement solar pv days 

I AM STILL ON THE ORIGINAL 9KG GAS BOTTLE  FROM LATE AUGUST INSTALLATION.

I save about 5 litres of water per shower as all the water in the pipes that has cooled down  is now instantly useable .

 

 

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