Instant hot water alternatives

Snyper564

Snyper564

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Hi guys,

I have two geysers in my house. One to main bathroom other to guest bathroom and kitchen.

I can totally switch the second geyser of if I can make a plan to either divert hot water to the kitchen via the other geyser or possibly get an instant hot water dispenser for the kitchen.

The two geysers are literally 2-3m apart from each other. Would you recommend diverting the water or "instant water"? Also any products you would recommend?

And if by any chance what a plumbing job diverting the water from one geyser to another could cost.

There are only two of us, this is serious overkill at the moment.
 
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I suppose the question to answer first is what do you need the water in the kitchen for? i.e. how much. We have a dishwasher, so only need to do hand washing once or at most twice a week, and for that I use a kettle rather than drawing from the somewhat distant geyser. If however you wash up 3x a day that might not work for you. We used to have an electric "instant" hot water system in our guest bathroom, but it was not a good solution for us and after a couple of years we took it out and diverted hot water from the geyser. That was more than ten years ago so I will need to think about what the specific issues were. It was a Triton.
 
Great, thanks! Essentially it just needs to fill a sink 2x at most a day. The dishwasher only uses cold water. That's why I suggested diversion as the geysers are so close to each other.
 
How big are the two geysers? Same size? Do you ever run either one empty?

It would probably be the cheapest and most simple option to just disconnect the smaller one (if smaller) and feed it's outlet from the other geyser with minimal plumbing.

I mean depending how it's setup you could potentially even do it yourself all depending what fittings are in place now etc.
 
I believe both are 150/200l need to check this evening. There are literally 4X showers a day. 2 in the morning two in the evening +- 5 min at most. Never ever run empty. and then kitchen sink 2x a day. That's it. At the moment I think diversion would most likely be the cheaper option as well. No "gadget" needed. Will also look into how its setup.

The showers also use those "eco" heads.
 
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On a side note the reason I ask is because I think those geysers are pulling some serious power. They are currently running 247.

The only items in our house running 247 are the 2 geysers and fridge, our electricity is +- R1500. I think something is wrong.....
 
Wow, no wonder you are concerned. Would it work to switch off the guest bathroom/kitchen geyser for a week and monitor how your usage changes? Just use a kettle for hand washing-up and try to limit that to once a day? For interest, we put in a solar geyser at the end of 2009. In June 2008 we used 500 units and in June 2009 473 units. This past June was 305 units. Similar home occupancy in all those years. Our winter benefit from solar is variable, being in Cape Town. For Feb for those same years usage was 370, 333 and 244 units. Before we got solar in Dec 2009, we used to only switch our geyser on a couple of hours before bathing. Prior to that our usage was much higher.
 
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Marsie27 said:
Wow, no wonder you are concerned. Would it work to switch off the guest bathroom/kitchen geyser for a week and monitor how your usage changes? Just use a kettle for hand washing-up and try to limit that to once a day? For interest, we put in a solar geyser at the end of 2009. In June 2008 we used 500 units and in June 2009 473 units. This past June was 305 units. Similar home occupancy in all those years. Our winter benefit from solar is variable, being in Cape Town. For Feb for those same years usage was 370, 333 and 244 units. Before we got solar in Dec 2009, we used to only switch our geyser on a couple of hours before bathing. Prior to that our usage was much higher.
Click to expand...

I am seriously considering that and think I will give it a shot. This power consumption is seriously insane. My in laws power consumption is less with one geyser 2 fridge 2 freezers and a pool :P
 
Install a intelegent geyser elliment timer on that kitchen geyser of yours, something like a Geyserwise Max, they are around R1200 IIRC.
You will then set it to go on only once per day, say from 3:00 to 6:00, you'll then have enough warm water for use in the kitchen the morning and that same evening. Tomorrow morning it switches on again only for that 3 hours or until up to temperature.
If you and your SO bath or shower both either in the morning or evening, a Geyserwise timer on your other Geyser might also help to save some on electricity.

It is quite easy to connect both geysers together especially if they are so close, but I doubt this will save electricity, I think its rather more for having more hot water on tap.
 
Check the temps those geysers are sitting at as well as R1500 is high.
 
Is anyone currently/considering using instant hot water taps? Basically taps with a heating element connected to electricity that heats only the water that you need hot, instead of running a geyser?
 
We had a Triton shower with an instant water heater in our guest bathroom for several years, made in the UK and was the right item for what we wanted. The agents used our bathroom to film a TV ad. We found it was maintenance intensive and parts needed to be replaced by the agent, which was a nuisance, so eventually we gave up and had that bathroom plumbed to the main system.
 
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