You can calculate it. 1.16wh per degree centigrade per liter. So as a rough example, a 150 liter tank that has to go from 15c to 55c will need almost 8kwh. A 1kw element will need 8 hours to  do that. Plus there is a standing loss of around 2kwh a day, so every day it will spend 2 hours just treading water. It depends mostly on your actual daily hot water requirements.

Maintaining water temperatures of between 20-50 deg C is a breeding ground for  Legionnaires’ disease.

Keep cold water below 20C, and hot water should be delivered in the tap at above 50C.

Geyser temperatures should be set at a minimum of 60C, and maintain that for 30 min before use or every 3 days minimum if in tank.

So watch yourselves with the down-rated elements and the incomplete heating cycles.

Traces of Legionnaires disease will still survive at 60°C you need to go above 70 to make sure. Not that I've had it or know of anyone else who has and the majority of their geysers thermistats are turned down to about 55°C

28 minutes ago, seant said:

Traces of Legionnaires disease will still survive at 60°C

Googling gives a variance of numbers, it appears the WHO recommends a 60C thermostat setting.

The purpose is to let people know that around 25-45C a half-heated geyser poses a health risk, which is what people might be unwittingly doing with their excess PV generation.

On 2016/09/17 at 10:41 AM, Chris Hobson said:

My solution was a twin port plate also for Kwikot geyser  and 2x 1500W elements which are reasonably easy to source.

 

Addition: When the photo was taken I had a 1kW and a 1.5kW elements now we have two 1.5kW elements.

Do kwikot sell twin port plates as an off the shelf part or it this something custom made/sourced?

Old topic, but can someone help me where I can find a 1kW element for my geyser? Want to use it as a pre-heater for my solar geyser.

On 2016/11/06 at 12:37 PM, viper_za said:

Mine used to have a 3kw element. Replaced this with a 1kw and been heating with my PV 

Do I have to drain the water from the geyser before replacing the element? I want to change mine too and heat the water through out the day 🙂

@hoohlocwhere did you get a 1kW element from?

1 hour ago, Stinger said:

@hoohlocwhere did you get a 1kW element from?

I don't have one yet, still going to look around 🙂

I just did this on my system. My element is 3.5kW which isnt great but the it's timed to run only when I'm sleeping. I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about it as now I don't need to keep resetting my GeyserWise settings every time there's load shedding. 

 

 

On 2020/02/13 at 2:19 PM, mmacleod said:

Do kwikot sell twin port plates as an off the shelf part or it this something custom made/sourced?

Would also like to know this. Currently have a 3kw element and this is on the grid. Do have spare capacity so thinking of going this route as well and installing a 1,5kw or 1kw element with a breaker on the inverter circuit for utilizing the spare solar power. 

 

On 2020/09/15 at 3:26 PM, Tsa said:

 

 

Would also like to know this. Currently have a 3kw element and this is on the grid. Do have spare capacity so thinking of going this route as well and installing a 1,5kw or 1kw element with a breaker on the inverter circuit for utilizing the spare solar power. 

 

I was never able to track down an off the shelf part for this, so I'm pretty sure whats in the photo there is a custom made part.
The best option for two elements seems to be to just add an additional pre-feed geyser or similar

Hi i aam in Cape Town. Looking for exactly this. Need 220 volt 500 watt element made for the Kwikot geyser. 

Am not sure why the amps you said was 25. Is it not 500/220=3,amps. If you refer to 3000 watt then amps would be 3000/220=13 amps. 

 

Could you share who can build the 220 volt 500 watt element. 

Then can migrate geyser to solar all day on timer. 

Thanks