Geyser - Smartswitch vs Geyserwise

If I had to do it over again now I would do the Geyserwise with the Home Assistant integration.

It simply offers more for not more money, whereas at the moment I have a CBI Astute and then a Sonoff TH with a temp sensor that I can't fit along with my thermostat so it's more of a binary "is it warm or is it cold" sensor for a lack of accuracy.

The Geyserwise taking over both jobs fully and then pushing the data to Home Assistant is the best of both worlds.

Which means you can do stuff like run your Geyser only up to say 45-degrees when on battery, but go flat out to 65-degrees when there is PV or just when the sun shines in general.

At present my geyser kicks on at 12:00 by default and off at 19:00, if I manually override it outside those times it runs for 1 1/2 hours or until it reaches "45" so it doesn't eat all my batteries or use the grid too much and it works well enough but the Geyserwise being a bit more intelligent with temperate variance baked in would make it work better.

Not worth it for me to do the job now, but if I had someone coming out to replace the element or something I would probably get one of their fancy ceramic elements and have them install the whole thing then.
 
Dimpie (COMPUTEK) said:
there's links to other kits with panels lower down ... you saying it's overpriced ??

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i actually don't know what size geyser I have tho :unsure:
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Standard geyser is normally 150l which is what you probably have
as for why over priced
Equipment alone will set you back 20K still have to get some one to install
An EV tube solar conversion for a 150l geyser with labour will set you back about 18K (price based on those that come with a geyserwise controller)

if you planning on going solar for your actual house save the 18/20k for a battery and or Panels plus check you may need the real-estate on your roof for panels and you then using that extra power for not just heating water.
 
wilbur said:
I installed a CBI Astute isolator in the roof next to my geyser ages ago, and used the timer function to turn it on and off to take advantage of my solar system as best I could. I have a GoSolr 5 kw installed which won't run the geyser during a power outage, but the battery and panels combined will provide all the power you need to get the water hot.

Just recently added dongle from Heinz to my inverter which gives me all the inverter data in HA. Now I use the State of Charge from my solar system to turn the geyser on and off (85% turn on, 35% turn off).

I did have to add a timer to turn the geyser on at 4pm, after a cloudy day in Joburg where the battery never got to 85% (and the wife had a cold shower the next day!!). Works a treat and has reduced my electricity usage from City Power massively.
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Consider a boolean flag in HA. I have one configured for my pool automation which uses solar whenever the batteries hit 53.7v ( my float level ) and turn off if drops below 96% SOC and after 3pm . Basically if my "excess solar" triggers, a counter increments. That night at 9pm I have another automation that checks the counter greater than 0, if not, run the pool pump anyway. That would indicate a low "solar" day.

My geyser smart breaker is being installed Monday but I will ise a similar automation based on soc, if >60% and dayperiod , allow full on. Include a counter. If counter never triggered force geyser on at a certain period. Basically not reallyvlooking to turn my geyser off so much as to ensure it runs at when able OR in a batch mode to prevent heat/reheat. Or delay heating from a early morning bathing to midmorning etc etc.
 
isie said:
the temperatures makes a big difference especially of you going Solar PV - I can warm up on battery in the AM so it saves me a lot - and when full sun i can set it to go higher temps.
you do get temperature sensors for other smart devices so there is that but I cant say much as I don't have those - but I'm happyish with the geyser wise - haven't gone full automation but I have set some nice routines for the geysers on the default app -

Edit:
I see you have geyeserwise already the upgrade to smart is pretty cheap - only replace the front panel circuit board so no new wiring etc - there is the Geyserwala unofficial upgrade that's not bad as well
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I put a Geyserwala board in my Getserwise Delta T and the Wi-Fi controls work a treat for my Airbnb geyser which I wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
 
Kosmik said:
Consider a boolean flag in HA. I have one configured for my pool automation which uses solar whenever the batteries hit 53.7v ( my float level ) and turn off if drops below 96% SOC and after 3pm . Basically if my "excess solar" triggers, a counter increments. That night at 9pm I have another automation that checks the counter greater than 0, if not, run the pool pump anyway. That would indicate a low "solar" day.

My geyser smart breaker is being installed Monday but I will ise a similar automation based on soc, if >60% and dayperiod , allow full on. Include a counter. If counter never triggered force geyser on at a certain period. Basically not reallyvlooking to turn my geyser off so much as to ensure it runs at when able OR in a batch mode to prevent heat/reheat. Or delay heating from a early morning bathing to midmorning etc etc.
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Good idea, will have to figure out how to set up counters. It was my initial thought but just did the timer thing. Will try and make it a smarter automation.
 
I fitted 2 x 600 watt PV panels, the Geyserwise ECO kit
The ECO kit was R 10 000,00
The panels and mounting hardware was R2500
I paid a roofing guy R800 to fit the panels to my roof
I wired up the system and fitted the dual-voltage element myself, not at all difficult as no plumbing alterations needed

It works very well. In winter, with a few hours sun, the water reaches 60 deg
In summer it gets to 75 deg which is the maximum programmed

Water heating costs were R 2200 a month, now R200 and in summer R0, so ROI was under 18 months
 
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chrisc said:
I fitted 2 x 600 watt PV panels, the Geyserwise ECO kit
The ECO kit was R 10 000,00
The panels and mounting hardware was R2500
I paid a roofing guy R800 to fit the panels to my roof
I wired up the system and fitted the dual-voltage element myself, not at all difficult as no plumbing alterations needed

It works very well. In winter, with a few hours sun, the water reaches 60 deg
In summer it gets to 75 deg which is the maximum programmed

Water heating costs were R 2200 a month, now R200 and in summer R0, so ROI was under 18 months
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Water heating savings gives you best bang for your buck. It really is the low hanging fruit of electricity savings.
 
Nerfherder said:
To me these are the most cost effective - if you want to save money (and don't have enough for a full system)

For R20k you convert your existing geyser to solar and pay it off within a year.

Then with the savings you can save for a full system.
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I don't disagree sorting out water heating will save you the most.
I just don't get how this is 20K excluding panels and installation while a pumped Evacuated tube system with all parts and installation is 18K. maybe I'm looking at the wrong places for the PV system :(
anyway moot point for me personally now.
 
isie said:
I don't disagree sorting out water heating will save you the most.
I just don't get how this is 20K excluding panels and installation while a pumped Evacuated tube system with all parts and installation is 18K. maybe I'm looking at the wrong places for the PV system :(
anyway moot point for me personally now.
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Oh its an interesting argument.

20k excluding panels seems wrong though - I have seen it for that much with panels. Perhaps a typo.
Even so, I still think its a better option at R25k than evacuated tubes.

The biggest reason for me is all the moving parts on the tube setup - and you need to power it.
In summer you run the risk of overheating the tubes and winter they are often ineffective.
Then the issue of roof real estate...

If you start out with two panels and a geyser conversion then you can add an inverter and extra panels later. You don't waste anything by getting the smaller setup first.

Also with LS being less of an issue now and load limiting being the current thing... removing the geyser makes more sense, having its own power makes even more sense.
 
Stonemason said:
No, the separation was by design. I prefer multiple options, If one fails then the other one takes over. The rest of my solar system provides far more electricity than I can use and there was no need to add the geyser's panels to the general system.
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Redundancy is always good.
 
Nerfherder said:
The biggest reason for me is all the moving parts on the tube setup - and you need to power it.
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Pump so far for me was the only issue - but that happened not long after I moved in (think previous guy put crappy stuff in )and no issues with the one they put in since then - also mines 220/240V pump but most come with a 12V pump, battery and a little solar panel
Nerfherder said:
In summer you run the risk of overheating the tubes and winter they are often ineffective.
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EV tubes in winter are not bad but correct not the same as in summer over heating the actual water i haven't had an issue but yes I have seen guys water go over 80C
Nerfherder said:
Then the issue of roof real estate...

If you start out with two panels and a geyser conversion then you can add an inverter and extra panels later. You don't waste anything by getting the smaller setup first.
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true but if you are planning to go solar to think about your real-estate first
Nerfherder said:
Also with LS being less of an issue now and load limiting being the current thing... removing the geyser makes more sense, having its own power makes even more sense.
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I think we all agree on the Geyser being the first step no matter what you plan
 
Nice changes.

Water plenty hot last night with being off from 3pm and even with bathing in evening and probably a half fill with cold water, was luke warm this morning, colder than I would like to bath with but perfectly fine for cleaning or hands and we bathe in the evenings mainly.

2kwh as per 9am this morning from eskom
 
Geyserwise for me. Have been using the original version for many years, then upgraded to the "smart" WiFi version last year, just before we put in Solar. I'm a total Home Assistant n00b, but managed to integrate it into Home Assistant and added to a simple dashboard on a cheap 2013 iPad Air, mounted to a wall, so wifey can monitor and adjust geyser in real time, along with solar and a few other bits and bobs. YouTube tutorials ftw.
 

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sybawoods said:
Geyserwise for me. Have been using the original version for many years, then upgraded to the "smart" WiFi version last year, just before we put in Solar. I'm a total Home Assistant n00b, but managed to integrate it into Home Assistant and added to a simple dashboard on a cheap 2013 iPad Air, mounted to a wall, so wifey can monitor and adjust geyser in real time, along with solar and a few other bits and bobs. YouTube tutorials ftw.
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Bringing up an oooolld thread.

Two things:
1) What did you do to give you a rough prepaid estimate?
2) Was it easy to intergrate your geyserwise? about to have 2x installed plus we have upgraded our solar a little to 3 phase now
 
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