The effectiveness of Solar Water Heating Geysers in South Africa: A Review

The heating of water for domestic purposes is an important component of human daily activities, especially during cold weather conditions. In South Africa, it is estimated that households spend an average of 40% of their electricity on domestic water heating alone. This alone threatens energy affordability and access due to the high cost of electricity. The South African government seeing that the majority of low-income households do not afford electricity, introduced solar water heating (SWH) geysers as a possible affordable energy alternative technology. The massive roll-out of the solar water geysers began in 2008 managed to install 443 486 SWH geysers. The aim of the desktop study was to evaluate the implementation of the strategy and ends by investigating the effectiveness of the SWH geysers on reducing household grid energy demand between 2009 and 2017. The results indicated that the failures of the SWH geysers programme were attributed to the quality of the installation, lack of training and maintenance, lack of standards for the testing of SWH geysers and inadequate public awareness. The successes of the programme included the introduction of the SANS 10400-XA, reduction in the use of paraffin and wood and a stabilized grid. The implementation of the SWH was a good step towards renewable energy and diversifying the energy mix in the country. However, the study recommends that the failures of the programme be addressed to ensure further success and sustainability of the programme.