Geyser Heat Pump Water Heater - worth it?

MagicDude4Eva

MagicDude4Eva

Banned
Joined
Apr 2, 2008
Messages
6,477
Reaction score
40
Location
Jo'burg
I heard this about this briefly on 702 this morning and was wondering if anyone has any experience. There are claims that this will reduce electricity consumption by 30-50% (with regards to heating water obviously).

I did not do any extensive research yet as I was hoping that perhaps someone on the forum has experience with it (and perhaps comparison to solar water heaters). There seems to be two products in SA - Airco which seems to be locally manufactured (http://www.airco.co.za/pdfs/Airco_Water Heating.pdf) and Northroad (which looks more promising from a form factor - http://www.northrdt.com/Geyser/Geyser_Product_Information.html).

Overseas those air-/heat pumps are quite popular but are typically installed in basements or special boiler rooms (I do remember the older ones making quite a bit of noise from the compressor). Makes me wonder how the noise-levels will be if one has to install this next to the geyser in the roof?
 
They are not widely used in SA.

I suspect that you can do much better than 30-50% with a solar heater in SA.

I know some people here looked into it & abandoned the idea.

EDIT: Would be interesting though to see if this can be combined with a refrigerator. i.e. use the opposite end of the pump too. I doubt there are any products like this out there though.
 
Last edited:
I have seen them used in small wine coolers and such, don't think they use compressors as such for the cooling/heating, it works with a current passed from one metal to another or some such, sorry not an expert.
 
DDV TECH said:
I have seen them used in small wine coolers and such, don't think they use compressors as such for the cooling/heating, it works with a current passed from one metal to another or some such, sorry not an expert.
Click to expand...
No its got a compressor.

Its basically a refridgerator in reverse. The coils at the back end of a refrigerator get warm and the coils inside the fridge get cold.

If I'm understanding you correctly then you are talking about a piezoelectric effect. Which, while very cool is entirely unsuitable for large scale heating/cooling.

Two other devices out there are also called heat pumps:

A hollow metal tube with a small amount of phase changing liquid inside that moves from one end to the other, then evaporates & moves back. Its what they put on high-end motherboards.

The things they use for geothermal heating are sometimes also called a heat pump. They don't utilize compression per se, but do have pumps to move the water.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
I heard this about this briefly on 702 this morning and was wondering if anyone has any experience. There are claims that this will reduce electricity consumption by 30-50% (with regards to heating water obviously).

I did not do any extensive research yet as I was hoping that perhaps someone on the forum has experience with it (and perhaps comparison to solar water heaters). There seems to be two products in SA - Airco which seems to be locally manufactured (http://www.airco.co.za/pdfs/Airco_Water Heating.pdf) and Northroad (which looks more promising from a form factor - http://www.northrdt.com/Geyser/Geyser_Product_Information.html).

Overseas those air-/heat pumps are quite popular but are typically installed in basements or special boiler rooms (I do remember the older ones making quite a bit of noise from the compressor). Makes me wonder how the noise-levels will be if one has to install this next to the geyser in the roof?
Click to expand...

what is the cost of these units
 
HavocXphere said:
No its got a compressor.

Its basically a refridgerator in reverse. The coils at the back end of a refrigerator get warm and the coils inside the fridge get cold.

If I'm understanding you correctly then you are talking about a piezoelectric effect. Which, while very cool is entirely unsuitable for large scale heating/cooling.

Two other devices out there are also called heat pumps:

A hollow metal tube with a small amount of phase changing liquid inside that moves from one end to the other, then evaporates & moves back. Its what they put on high-end motherboards.

The things they use for geothermal heating are sometimes also called a heat pump. They don't utilize compression per se, but do have pumps to move the water.
Click to expand...

Was actually talking about the peltier heat pump, but yes you are right, sorry for the confusion.
 
Yea they cool, but not very efficient, used mostly in wine coolers and usb gizmo's. I love the physics behind it, no gas or liquids, very cool.
 
i hope heat pump really can help me reduce electricity consumption.but i feel the price is too expensive,hope some one could give some advice for how to choose a good brand of heat pump.
i need a domestic heat pump water heater .6 people in family.hope someone help me.thanks.my email [email protected]
 
There's this thread on heat pumps.

Heat pump hot water heaters are not peltiers!

Though barely known in the domestic martket in SA, heat pumps are widely used for large-scale hot water production, such as in resorts, hotels, hostels, prisons, mine compounds, etc. Heat pumps are widely used in Europe and North America, especially the geothermal variety. I have a few friends in the Pacific Northwest who heat their homes and produce hot water with geothermal heat pumps.

I have an Enermax heat pump (from Flying Hippo) installed at home, producing hot water for a 200-litre Tecron copper geyser. I can't compare it to a normal geyser as the installation was part of a total renovation before we moved in. However, I believe I'm using around a third of what we'd be using were we to have a normal kettle geyser. Price is around R12K.

One reason I chose a heat pump over solar is that the heat pump works day or night, in cold or hot weather, so I don't have to fall back to a kettle element when it's overcast. The system is installed above the ceiling and is very quiet, though I can hear it from the landing at the top of the stairs.

With all the recent cold overcast weather here in the Little Karoo, I've been chuckling as my neighbour's new solar system wanes and his power consumption shoots up. I also have piping hot water in the morning, since the timer-control starts the heat pump at 06h30.

I'm a highly satisfied customer.
 
Last edited:
In my opinion, the only way it can be more efficient than normal geysers, is if its used as part of an air conditioning system.
 
if it' noisy - no thanks!

can you imagine the noise levels if everybody had one of these things? the generators in our office complex are deafening.
 
Jab said:
In my opinion, the only way it can be more efficient than normal geysers, is if its used as part of an air conditioning system.
Click to expand...

Na, that's not the case.

Go read up on the science behind it. If you look at air conditioners ratings, you'll see that they may having a cooling power of 3.5kw but only use 1.2kw of electricity. The same applies if you have an aircon with a reverse heating function. This works in the same way.

The unit can have more heating power than the amount of electricity it uses. Where as a conventional geyser will be less efficient. Ie. 1kw of power = 0.8kw of heat (80% efficiency).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X