Best geyser setup for already finished solar PV system

[Parrot]

Good evening

I have 10 x 455w panels with a 5kw Sunsynk inverter, currently using about 70% of my generating capacity with battery, aircon, poolpump etc and manually switching my 3kw geyser on for 3 hours from 11-2pm. 

I need to streamline the geyser part since I might be going back to the office, what could you recommend for me, and someone else would need to install it for me, so if you know of someone that could do this in Cape Town it would also be appreciated.

Complete novice comment, but thought something like a 2kw XTend PTC Ceramic element (northfaceenergy) with a geyserwise kit could work? 

[SYC]

My opinion/What i've done: Would be to install a 3kw heat pump it uses on 750w to get job done and it has a timer,so can set when it goes on and off

[Tariq]

Use the AUX set up on the inverter, the geyser is switched on automatically when there is more than 3 kW of solar available, better yet change to a 2 kW, it will take a bit longer, but then you can run mote loads at the same time

   Use a Cbi Astute remote timer and you can use your phone to switch on/off the geyser

[smurfdbn]

9 hours ago, Quwatush Shams (Suly) said:

3kw heat pump it uses on 750w

Morning, looking into heat pumps - which one did you install and if you don't mind, what did you pay for it... thanks

Edited February 15, 2021 by smurfdbn

[Durran]

10 hours ago, Tariq said:

Use the AUX set up on the inverter, the geyser is switched on automatically when there is more than 3 kW of solar available, better yet change to a 2 kW, it will take a bit longer, but then you can run mote loads at the same time

   Use a Cbi Astute remote timer and you can use your phone to switch on/off the geyser

Good solution, much cheaper than a heatpump!!

[Tariq]

i raised the temperature on the thermostat to 70 degrees, so that helps with keeping the water hot longer and you use more cold water than hot

[Bobster.]

I've got a heatpump in use too. It's a lot more efficient than a regular geyser element and the load and the time it takes to heat are such that I can run it on my backed up circuits.

You can see it kicking in here (this morning's graph). Starts up about 6:15 runs until 7:05 and never hits 2Kw.

So if you didn't have solar this would still be a good option. It's a more efficient way of heating water and will pay off in the long run. I actually had this in place before I had my solar system installed. Because I have the heatpump rather than a regular element I can back it up and will always get a hot shower in the morning.

I've also got a blanket on my geyser, but experts can't agree on whether or not this saves you power/money. It may not make a difference with new geysers which, I assume, are built with better insulation.

The heatpump has a timer (just 3 programs, so I can't program it for different days of the week). I have it come on at 6:15 and turn off at 9:00. Then from 12:00 to 15:00. "On" doesn't mean that the compressor is running for that whole time. It means the control unit is on, is monitoring the temperature and may start the compressor if it needs to.

Run times would lengthen a bit in the winter obvs.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Bobster
spellling

[Speedster]

48 minutes ago, Bobster said:

I've got a heatpump in use too. It's a lot more efficient than a regular geyser element and the load and the time it takes to heat are such that I can run it on my backed up circuits.

You can see it kicking in here (this morning's graph). Starts up about 6:15 runs until 7:05 and never hits 2Kw.

So if you didn't have solar this would still be a good option. It's a more efficient way of heating water and will pay off in the long run. I actually had this in place before I had my solar system installed. Because I have the heatpump rather than a regular element I can back it up and will always get a hot shower in the morning.

I've also got a blanket on my geyser, but experts can't agree on whether or not this saves you power/money. It may not make a difference with new geysers which, I assume, are built with better insulation.

The heatpump has a timer (just 3 programs, so I can't program it for different days of the week). I have it come on at 6:15 and turn off at 9:00. Then from 12:00 to 15:00. "On" doesn't mean that the compressor is running for that whole time. It means the control unit is on, is monitoring the temperature and may start the compressor if it needs to.

Run times would lengthen a bit in the winter obvs.

Are there any running / service costs for a heat pump? I'm leaning towards evacuated tubes simply because there aren't any moving parts (bar the circulation pump). 

[Bobster.]

1 hour ago, Speedster said:

Are there any running / service costs for a heat pump? I'm leaning towards evacuated tubes simply because there aren't any moving parts (bar the circulation pump). 

When I got mine there was a service contract, R40 or 50 a month. But it turned out all they did was take off the covers and brush away the accumulate leaves etc. I can do that myself. 

[Bobster.]

1 minute ago, Bobster said:

When I got mine there was a service contract, R40 or 50 a month. But it turned out all they did was take off the covers and brush away the accumulate leaves etc. I can do that myself. 

Oh there is a filter/trap to catch scale and grit that you need to clean out every couple of years - or when you see it taking a lot longer to run.

[Paul Greeff]

17 hours ago, Tariq said:

Use the AUX set up on the inverter, the geyser is switched on automatically when there is more than 3 kW of solar available, better yet change to a 2 kW, it will take a bit longer, but then you can run mote loads at the same time

   Use a Cbi Astute remote timer and you can use your phone to switch on/off the geyser

I second the CBI Astute.

My solar system is only 11 days old. We've also been manually switching the geyser on and off. This weekend I installed the CBI Astute and it works really well. I did not have a power meter on they geyser to see exactly what its reduction was but I am certain at the very least I halved the geyser power consumption so far, but from the overall power consumption graph I could see it draining batteries and eating solar constantly. Todays power draw as shown on the app ended at 5.12 kWh and I can see the geyser had already started cycling so it was at temperature by the time the timer switched it off. That's a decent saving.

I also dropped the temperature to 60C to limit losses and added a thermal blanket to help with the losses. I'm told the water is still plenty warm in the morning.