I tested it one morning when it was at 18deg … I had to turn on the cold water. My wife showered after me, she turned the coldwater lower, she likes to “cook” herself whilst showering.
A few days later I forgot to switch the geyser back on, dryer was used … also showed 18 deg … and the water was cold. I’m ok with that, cause when it says 65deg, I KNOW the whole thing is probably heated top to bottom.
On that “dangerous” morning, to make the water acceptable for a shower that morning, took about 20min … I’m seriously impressed with this vertical Kwikot B+ rated 150l geyser.
Old EV tubes geyser mount.
Pipes to the 5kl tank
Cartridge pool filter
1.1kw pool pump
Covered first flow being a 2.2kl portable pool - ja ja, I got gatvol at the time
Best geyser ever, conveniently mounted for plumbers convenience
Half harted attempt to get rainwater into the house back from 5kl tank … needs a pump.
3kW element? So normally, if the entire tank was at 18°C (or the average was), and you had to take it to say 45°C so that it at least feels nice and warm (delta=27), you’dneed around 4700Wh to get it done, which should take about an hour and a half. Now of course hot water rises, so you’ll get about half this water in 45 minutes, and maybe 50 liters or so after 20 minutes… so it’s one of those “how long is a piece of string” things… depends on a lot of factors
See, the “string” I rely on, betting my “life” on, she just needs enough water heated to get a shower in, then she switches geyser off again, to be heated later as per schedule. So maybe wot, 20l or even less. We are still #DayZero mode kinda.
The horizontal one took more like 45min to have same result. Vertical one the temp climbs fast on the Geyserwise display, hits like ±25 and she showers with a smile.
And if the geyser is like totally cold, I guess it takes anything between 3-5 hours to get it back to 65. All on solar, so I’m not fussed.
Here you can see the geyser’s brick enclosure. Note the roof above meaning it is already fairly shielded from the elements.
And inside is the sloppy stuffing I added. It was big and I didn’t want to cut it, so I folded it back onto itself a few times. Beneath that is also the geyser blanket.
I know it is almost winter solice when my PV starts looking like this around mid day.
It’s when the back neighbour’s house throw a shadow on my house from mid day.
It’s a bit harder to fix than cutter down a tree, but I knew it will be an issue when I started with PV.
But we aim to heat it from solar as far as possible and at the same time stay happily married to the wives.
Now this might seem like an unsolvable problem, but by applying brain power, likely close to the amount needed to cure cancer, we are nearing a solution that is both good for the solar investment as well as not poking the bear.
I have a bit of an update on this.
I was a bit concerned my phase change paraffin wax would be out of range cost-wise.
I know it exists, and I know that by altering the number of hydrocarbons in paraffin that you can pretty much pick a custom phase change temperature.
Well, the good news is 56 degrees C matches good old straightforward candle wax.
There are resellers but it pretty much all originates from SASOL or oil refineries.
So I have emailed them to find out the cost of a 210L drum. I’ll report back if they reply.
In the meantime, if anyone is connected to those industries that could provide an insight into bulk purchasing, please post a comment.
