{"id":650053,"date":"2026-05-28T13:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=650053"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:03:52","slug":"power-efficient-geysers-can-save-south-african-households-thousands-of-rands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/650053-power-efficient-geysers-can-save-south-african-households-thousands-of-rands.html","title":{"rendered":"Power-efficient geysers can save South African households thousands of rands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African households can replace their electric geyser with one that has an integrated heat pump (IHP) and pay off the cost through electricity savings in less than 3 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once paid off, the investment would cut down their energy bills by more than R11,000 per year based on current tariffs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electric geysers contribute around 30% to 40% of South African households’ energy consumption. Optimising that consumption can deliver significant savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heat pumps are one way to make a geyser less energy-intensive. Over the last decade, global sales of these devices have doubled, in part due to government-backed energy efficiency programmes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as with electric vehicle adoption, the primary driver has been cost reductions for consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The underlying technology of heat pumps is over 176 years old, but has improved substantially over the last few decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heat pumps function like refrigerators in reverse. Refrigerators remove heat from inside through a circulating fluid and release it out the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heat pump pulls in ambient air or extracts warmth from the ground, which passes over coils filled with a liquid refrigerant with a very low boiling point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if the outside air or ground temperature is cold, the liquid will start to boil and vaporise into a gas, which is compressed into a small space by a compressor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high pressure increases its temperature, which is transferred to a condenser, from where it is blown across hot coils dispersed through the walls of a building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cooled liquid refrigerant is passed through an expansion valve to reduce its pressure and temperature before it returns to a liquid state to restart the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When integrated with a geyser, the transferred heat is moved through coils that heat up water instead of the air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Power4Less, one major producer of IHP geysers in South Africa, these systems use substantially less energy to heat water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower power draw and energy consumption<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Power4Less IHP geyser. Photographer: Recharged<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Power4Less’s 200\u2113 IHP geyser uses around 1.8kWh to heat water from ambient temperatures to 60\u00b0C, which is a typical temperature at which geysers are set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A conventional electric geyser with the same capacity consumes around 10.5kWh to achieve the same. Therefore, the IHP Geyser users get about 83% less electricity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instantaneous power usage is much lower, with an output of roughly 0.6kW, compared to the 2kW or 3kW that a conventional geyser element uses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be especially helpful with off-grid power systems. IHP geysers are also made with heat-insulating materials that can maintain heated water temperature for up to 48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main downside to IHP geysers is pricing. The Power4Less 200\u2113 unit was priced at R26,629 or R26,499 on special from Builder’s Warehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electric geysers with 200\u2113 capacities start from around R7,600, meaning you could buy around three of them for the price of one IHP unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also important to consider the cost of a professional installation with electrical and plumbing certificates, which typically ranges from about R5,000 to R7,500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the significant energy savings of the IHP geyser will quickly offset its price tag. On a typical day, the IHP geyser will consume 8.7kWh less energy than the standard electric model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Eskom’s most common residential tariff, Homepower 4, the current cost per kWh is R3.56. Using an electric geyser will cost R37.38 per day or R1,121 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the IHP geyser, the daily energy cost drops to R6.41, or R192 over a month. With an IHP geyser, our example household will save roughly R31 daily or R929 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over a year, the investment could cut down your electricity bill by R11,150. To pay off the cost of the IHP geyser with installation would take roughly two years and 11 months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That excludes a potential deduction you might get if you trade in your old 200\u2113 geyser, which could fetch between R3,000 and R4,000 if relatively new and in good condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were not replacing an existing electric geyser and had to choose between the two, the time to pay off the difference would drop to 1 year and 8 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>Electric geyser<\/th>IHP geyser<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Instantaneous power usage<\/td>2kW to 3kW<\/td>0.6kW<\/td><\/tr>
Energy consumption for a day’s warm water<\/td>10.5kWh<\/td>1.8kWh<\/td><\/tr>
Cost per kWh<\/td>R3.56<\/td>R3.56<\/td><\/tr>
Total cost per day<\/td>R37.38<\/td>R6.41<\/td><\/tr>
Total cost per month<\/td>R1,121<\/td> R192<\/td><\/tr>
Savings over a year<\/td>n\/a<\/td>R11,150<\/td><\/tr>
Price (excluding installation)<\/td>R7,600<\/td>R26,629<\/td><\/tr>
Price (including installation)<\/td>R13,600<\/td>R32,629<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>New install<\/strong><\/td>Replacement <\/strong>
(without trade-in)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Estimated time before reaching net savings with IHP geyser<\/td>20 months<\/td>35 months<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geysers with integrated heat pumps consume over 80% less electricity than conventional element-only models.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":650268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[105538,27985,85151,93883,105537,94983,79754],"class_list":["post-650053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-electricity-consumption","tag-geyser","tag-geysers","tag-heat-pumps","tag-ihp-geysers","tag-integrated-heat-pump-ihp","tag-power4less"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650053"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650486,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650053\/revisions\/650486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}