Geyser Conversions
Collectors, a pump and a controller added to the electric geyser you already have, where the cylinder is sound and young enough to be worth keeping.
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Solar geyser installation in Alberton starts with a question that comes before brand or price: what happens to the collector on the coldest night of a Highveld winter. We fit indirect and frost-rated systems, convert existing geysers, and quote the system and the labour as separate lines. For electric or gas, see geyser installation.
Tell us whether you want to convert the geyser you have or start with a new system, and roughly how many people live in the house. The system and the installation come back as two separate figures.
Every system is specified for an inland roof, commissioned with its controller set to your household, and certified.
Collectors, a pump and a controller added to the electric geyser you already have, where the cylinder is sound and young enough to be worth keeping.
A glycol loop through the collector and a heat exchanger at the tank, so the roof circuit carries a fluid that does not freeze on a Highveld night.
Tube collectors where roof space is tight or winter output matters most, with the manufacturer's frost rating checked before anything goes up.
Glazed panels with a long record in strong sun, paired with a frost-protected loop because this is an inland roof.
The element set to top up only when the sun has not done the job, on a timer matched to when your household actually showers.
Solar water installations are plumbing work the PIRB requires a certificate for, issued when the system is commissioned. See plumbing certificates.
In mid-June 2010, during the football World Cup, a cold snap over the Johannesburg area destroyed several hundred solar water heating systems. Solar Thermal World, which reported it, described what happened: water inside the collectors froze, the copper pipes burst, and the collectors were badly damaged. The systems that failed were open loop designs, also called direct systems.
The difference is what flows through the panel on your roof. In a direct system it is your household water itself, heated in the collector and returned to the tank. In an indirect system a separate fluid, usually a glycol solution with a far lower freezing point than water, circulates through the collector and hands its heat to the tank through an exchanger. Kwikot's own guidance draws the line where you would expect: direct systems suit frost-free coastal areas, and indirect systems are the appropriate choice for frost-prone inland ones.
The direct systems lost in 2010 were fitted with anti-freeze valves meant to keep the collector pipes from freezing. Suppliers quoted at the time believed the freeze arrived so quickly that the valves simply did not open, and a Kwikot production head recalled losing a lot of systems on a single freezing night back in 1985. A protection device that has to work perfectly on the one night it matters is a poor bet on a Highveld roof.
That is why the first line of a solar geyser quote for an Alberton house should not be the brand or the litres. It should say how the collector is protected from frost, in writing, along with what the manufacturer's warranty says if it freezes anyway. Some evacuated tube designs are rated to handle frost without a glycol loop, and that can be a sound choice, but the rating belongs to the specific collector and it should be on paper, not offered as reassurance on the roof.
Ask every solar geyser quote one question: what stops this collector freezing, and what does the warranty say if it does. On an inland roof, a quote that cannot answer both in writing is not finished.
Four lines that belong on any solar geyser quote for a Highveld house.
Chosen for the roof and the winter, then set up for the way your house uses hot water.
The quote names the system type and how its collector survives a hard frost.
Orientation, shading and the structure under the tank looked at before anything is ordered.
The element timer set to when the household uses hot water, not left to heat all day.
Controller, pump and isolators walked through at handover, with the certificate in your hand.
Cost, conversions, collector choice, winter output and the paperwork.
It comes back as two lines: the system, and the work to install it. The biggest decision in the first line is whether you convert the geyser you already have or start from a complete new system. A conversion costs less at the outset because the cylinder is already paid for; a complete system is the better spend when the old geyser is near the end of its life. Indirect systems ask more than direct ones because of the second circuit, the exchanger and the pump, and on an inland roof that is the part worth paying for. Coming to look and price it costs nothing.
Often, yes. Collectors, a circulation pump and a controller are added to the cylinder you have, and the element stays in place as the backup. The condition of that cylinder decides it. A sound geyser with years left in it is worth building around; one that is weeping, badly corroded or near the end of its warranty life is not, because the conversion would be bolted to the next thing that fails. We look at the tank before we quote either way.
Both work here, for different reasons. Flat plate collectors are a long-proven design that does well in strong sun, and paired with a glycol loop they cope with frost. Evacuated tubes hold their output better when the air is cold, which counts in winter, and individual tubes can be replaced if one breaks. The choice usually comes down to roof space, how much winter output you need, and what the manufacturer rates that particular collector to withstand, frost included.
Yes, with help. Less solar energy reaches the collector in the winter months, so the electric backup does more of the work then, and that is the system behaving as designed rather than failing. What you control is how much the backup does: a collector sized properly for the household, and an element on a timer set for when you actually use hot water rather than left to heat whenever it likes. Done that way, the winter bill rises but the saving does not disappear.
New buildings have to meet SANS 10400-XA, the energy part of the building regulations, which requires at least half of the annual hot water heating to come from something other than an electric element. A solar geyser is one way to meet it and a heat pump is another. If your plans are going through Ekurhuleni, the drawings will show how the requirement is met, and the plumbing has to match them. Our new installations page covers the rest of the build.
Yes. SANS 10106 is the standard for installing, maintaining and repairing domestic solar water heating, and the Plumbing Industry Registration Board lists solar water installations among the work its licensed plumbers must certify. We issue it when the system is commissioned. It is also the document an insurer will ask about if the system ever causes damage, which our plumbing certificates page explains in more detail.
Three things decide it. The collector wants to face north, or as close to it as the roof allows, without trees or a neighbouring storey shading it for much of the day. The structure has to carry the weight, which is considerable where the tank sits on the roof with the panel. And there has to be a sensible route for the pipework between collector and tank. Where a close-coupled system would overload old trusses, a split system with the tank inside the roof space is usually the answer.
A properly installed and maintained system can run for 15 to 20 years or more. Upkeep is modest: the anode in the tank checked and replaced when it is spent, because it is what protects the lining from corrosion, and on an indirect system the glycol checked for level and condition. When something does go wrong, our solar geyser repairs page explains how the fault is found.
Get In Touch
Planning a solar geyser for an Alberton house? Tell us whether you are converting or starting fresh, and you will get two figures back, one for the system and one for the work, at no charge for asking.