Talk to me about geysers

[Harmonic]

For background, I currently have 5 gas geysers servicing my property. Each gas geyser has it's own gas bottle and I'm getting tired of carrying gas bottles and replacing as each one randomly runs out.

The option I've been considering is to get all the gas piped to a central location with 2x 48KG bottles instead of 5x 19KG bottles. While not related to geysers specifically, this would in include piping 3x gas hobs each with their own 9KG bottles into that 2x 48KG system.

I replaced one of the gas geysers about 2 months ago (cost me around 6k afaik) and the other 4 have an estimated 2 years life left on them. My house is at the coast so rust is doing it's damage to the geysers.

Instead of piping the gas to a central location, another option could be adding a string of solar panels to my 8kW Sunsynk and replacing the 5x geysers with 3x "geysers". I put geysers in quotation marks since I'm not sure of what I'm really looking for. Three would be required due to physical location.

At the moment the gas spend averages R1.2k per month.

Any tips or suggestions? Would it be worth exploring geysers/solar geysers/heat pumps or just pipe everything centrally?

 

[Priapus]

Honestly if it were me; I’d just pipe everything central and be done with it.

Great thing about gas as you know; come rain, cloud or sun - you have hot water and if only runs out when the gas is out. To me that outweighs everything else.

I’m the sort of person that just wants hot water when the tap is turned on and I don’t want to mess about with hoping there is enough sun or that someone didn’t drain all the hot water from a long shower earlier on etc etc.

I’ve really enjoyed having my gas geyser. I wouldn’t switch back to a traditional one. And I used do heat the traditional one with my solar.

 

[B-1]

How many people live in the house? A shower can take between 3 to 8 kWh and a bath double that. So if you are a good number of people you will probably need more than just an extra string of solar panels.

 

[DapperDanMan]

For background, I currently have 5 gas geysers servicing my property. Each gas geyser has it's own gas bottle and I'm getting tired of carrying gas bottles and replacing as each one randomly runs out.

Simply show all the people in your life the benefits of cold showers.

Start now, before autumn hits.

With all the compound savings over the next few years, you could retire early.

But keep lifting and carrying those gas bottles anyway, even if you never connect them to anything again, because that will sculpt your body.

Chicks dig a sculpted, rich man.

 

[W@P]

Everything gas in my place is piped to one central location outside. 1 x Gas braai, 2 x Gas fireplaces (BS things IMO), 1 x Gas hob.

I have 2 x 48 kg bottles connected outside. I have extremely light gas usage patterns so they last years.

 

[W@P]

To heat that amount of water/geysers you gonna need a lot of solar. If possible I would look at piping all gas to a central place.

 

[Harmonic]

How many people live in the house? A shower can take between 3 to 8 kWh and a bath double that. So if you are a good number of people you will probably need more than just an extra string of solar panels.

If the house is full, we need hot water for 8 people across 3 separate bathrooms

 

[B-1]

If the house is full, we need hot water for 8 people across 3 separate bathrooms

That will be too much for your current solar setup I would say. That doesn't mean you cant do some sort of mix.

If you have constant temperature gas geysers you can also put an electric geyser in front of the gas geysers and preheat the water when you have extra solar energy. That way less gas will be used. That would require some smart switches and something like Home assistant to make it efficient though. So maybe have 2 x 200l geysers centrally and split them between the gas geysers. Then dump any excess PV power into them using a smart home setup. It will depend on your plumbing as well though.

I have an 8kw sunsynk with 2 geysers on it and then have home assistant switch them on and off in an alternating manor during 10:00-16:00h only if the battery SOC is at a certain level and there is more than 30% of my PV available.