Eco Showers is the easiest and cheapest way.

[Bigeasy]

The accepted norm today is that 39% (Eskoms own figure) to 50% of your electricity cost is spent to heat water to bath or shower, most people nowadays shower with, only my brother in-law's girlfriend insisting on 2 baths a day (she's Russian?). Now if you do not take water out of a geyser, it stays hot for a very long time and needs very little electricity to keep the temp up. The solution is to shower and when you shower use an eco shower head to limit the water usage, I went from a 21 litre per minute shower head to a 8 litre per minute shower head. the old shower head was just blasting out water spraying and misting up the whole place, even with a lot of blocked holes. Now that it is off the wall it looks thorougly unhygienic as well.

I bought a shower from www.ecoshower.co.za (online) and it works like a charm. It uses 13 liters less per minute (13 liters saving x 5 minute shower x 8 showers per day (family of 4 showering twice a day) x 350 day per year (we do take vacation)= 182 000 liters of water saved of which 60% is hot water out the geyser THUS 109 200 LITERS OF WATER THAT DID NOT LEAVE THE GEYSER AND THUS NOT NEEDED TO BE HEATED. Consider that the average geyser is 150 liters big, I'm saving by not heating 728 extra geysers per year!

Now you think that having a shower for 5 minute using 65 liters of water less will be a crappy experience, believe me it's not, the shower has tricks and technology to make it feel like a proper 5 star shower. There are 5 Star European hotel using these showers.

The shower cost R 450.00 which is quite reasonable and will pay for itself in 2-3 month, whereas heat pumps costs 10 of thousands of rands and takes years for you to recover your input cost. Eskom wants us to save 10% the shower is saving me much more and my lifestyle is unaffected!

[Norri]

I'd be interested in knowing the actual amount saved in your bill each month. Even if it's R10-R50 - that would be interesting info.

[Dave A]

If they're claiming a payback within three months, that implies a minimum of a R150.00 per month saving.

[AndyD]

We had one of those low consumption shower heads on one of our showers. It was a miserable experiance and everyone took half as long again in the shower because the flow rate was really low. It made what was an enjoyable experience into a mediocre one at best and I have to be honest, I didn't notice much power consumption difference when I threw it out and put a standard shower head back on.

I'm sure it would help with costs as part of a mulitpronged plan but I don't see it as a big saver on it's own.

[Bigeasy]

Hi. Even with the Russian staying here over Christmas (2 baths a day) we noticed a saving of R 142.36 from our November account, we need to have it in for a few months before we can get a good estimate, but if I look at my maths, it has to be good, I took the time to measure my old shower before I removed it and must say that I was surprised by how little water the new one used. It certainly didn't feel like it.

[Bigeasy]

Like I said it certainly does not feel inferior to my old shower, the old one was stinging and felt as it it was blasting the paint off my back, the new one feels like a nice heavy cloudburst, there is a video on the site go and check it out.

[wynn]

When I shower I want 'stinging' not 'cloudburst'

[Norri]

Ja I like stinging as well! So the electricity savings would have to be significant in order for me to buy in.

[Bigeasy]

Ja I like stinging as well! So the electricity savings would have to be significant in order for me to buy in.

Hi Nori and Wayne, like everything in life we have to trade off sometime, I like to ride my bike @ 240Km/h but at that speed it uses more fuel than a 3 Liter Cortina pulling an overloaded caravan up Van Reenens Pass. So I trade-off and ride at 160 km/h and still enjoy it. I just read up on Legionella Pneumonia (Legionaires disease), this is abundant in water storage facilities and is caught by inhaling it in aerosol form, the chief method of transmitting the disease is when a shower blasts all over and you inhale the fine mist created. In France in 2003-4 89 people caught it and 19 died. I chatted to a guy at the Wild Coast today and the people in the hotel industry is extremely scared of it. Go for the stinging aerated shower but like Bill Clinton, don't inhale!

Cheers

[Justloadit]

Hi Nori and Wayne, like everything in life we have to trade off sometime, I like to ride my bike @ 240Km/h but at that speed it uses more fuel than a 3 Liter Cortina pulling an overloaded caravan up Van Reenens Pass. So I trade-off and ride at 160 km/h and still enjoy it. I just read up on Legionella Pneumonia (Legionaires disease), this is abundant in water storage facilities and is caught by inhaling it in aerosol form, the chief method of transmitting the disease is when a shower blasts all over and you inhale the fine mist created. In France in 2003-4 89 people caught it and 19 died. I chatted to a guy at the Wild Coast today and the people in the hotel industry is extremely scared of it. Go for the stinging aerated shower but like Bill Clinton, don't inhale!

Cheers

Yea all you need to kill Legionella is to heat your water to 60 degrees. The problem is people think that by dropping the temperature in the geyser by adjusting the controller they are saving money on electricity. The truth be told you need that temperature, to keep the bacteria in check.