Study on performance of heat pump water heaters in South Africa

The objective of this study is to analyse the performance of heat pump water heaters in economics, thermal characteristics and development in South Africa. In 2008, most parts of the country experienced black outs in both industrial and domestic sectors because of lack of electricity. The government tried to solve this problem by building new power stations and reducing energy consumption. It is required to reduce 10% electrical consumption in the residential sector. Water heating (geyser) takes up the greatest section (39%) in residential energy sector. There is a huge opportunity of substituting conventional electrical resistance heaters with energy efficient water heaters. Heat pump water heaters are recommended as sustainable and energy saving products, they save about 67% of electricity consumption. Heat pump water heaters were introduced to the market since 1980s. They only came to South Africa about 2008. In this paper a heat pump water heater is compared to a solar water heater and a conventional electrical resistance heater based on energy consumption and economic analysis. The conclusions suggest some specific design and control must be different from other countries according to South African mild climate conditions. Lastly, it is concluded that large-scale implementation of heat pump water heaters can be used as an efficient technology to reduce energy consumption.