Consider this: Go to the ATM, draw R600 cash. Whip out a lighter, set fire to the R600 you have just drawn, watch it burn, and toss the ashes in the bin. Go home, and be really hacked with yourself about what you have just done, but do nothing about it. In a month’s time, repeat this exercise. And next month do the same, and keep doing this in perpetuity.
Each year, increase the amount you burn every single month without fail by at least 15%. This year you’ll burn R7200, next year R8 300, the year after R9 500, by year four it will stand at R11 000 and by year five, you will set fire to R12 600 in cold hard cash. YOUR cash. Paid dutifully every month by you, without fail, to a power utility that for at least the last ten years has given you the middle finger amidst the most outrageous cases of fraud, corruption, incompetence and malfeasance.
Cumulatively, over five years you will burn almost R50 000, for no valid reason other than the fact that you have always done it this way.
Insane, right?
Yet every month and for years, this is exactly what you have been doing if you have not converted your inefficient electric geyser to a solar geyser or heat pump solution.
The figures above are based on a monthly electricity bill of R2000 for an average family of four. At least 30% of that bill will be for water heating, although our experience has shown this figure is much closer to 40%. Consider that a 200litre electric geyser will use 4kWh per hour, for at least 4-6 hours per day. That’s at least 600kWh per month just for a hot bath or shower. A bigger geyser means even more of your money, blown. Now multiply those kWh by your electricity charge rate – get the picture?
Here’s the part that should send you right over the edge
For a once off investment of around R19 000 or a monthly repayment of R592* – less than what you are burning every month anyway by paying Eskom to do your water heating – you can ditch your expensive electric geyser and install a 200-litre solar geyser or heat pump (fully installed), and slash between 30-40% off your monthly electricity bill, every single month, year on year.
Your renewable investment will pay for itself in around 30 months or 2.5 years and thereafter, you will be saving a packet. In other words, the money you are paying anyway to Eskom, can buy you an amazing asset that puts money back in your pocket, for many, many years to come.
Not only will you be saving a huge amount of money – R50k is not to be sneezed at – you will also have made a huge step towards getting as energy efficient as possible, so that you can convert to solar PV electricity generation for your entire home should you so wish.
Let this all sink in for a minute.
Even if you don’t have the cash up front and choose to finance your green water heating solution, your monthly repayment is still less than what you are paying on your municipal electricity account every month to heat your water. And while your repayment stays the same for the loan period, your electricity costs will be going up every year by an average of 15%.
Yet every month, every year, you’ve been burning your hard-earned money for no good reason at all.
Have you lost your mind?
* (Finance subject to standard credit checks, based on a 60-month loan period and interest rate of 19%. Shorter loan repayment periods also available)
One Energy 