Qualitative approach in improving the market penetration and justifying the potential viability of solar water heaters for sanitary water heating in Dimbaza in South Africa

Abstract

The study focused on the economic life cost analysis of implementing a solar water heater (SWH) in a building with an electric geyser for water heating and the employing of a methodology that account for the market uptake of SWHs. The study involves the performance monitoring of the electrical energy consumed in a residence with first a 200 L, 4 kW geyser and later a 200 L, 2kW SWH. Secondly, the administering of survey questionnaires to 50 residences in Dimbaza on their perception of switching from a geyser to a SWH (based on the monetary saving inserted on the labelled of the product, the sensitization of the target population on the awareness of the SWHs).
The findings show that by replacing the geyser with a SWH, the electrical energy saving on hot water heating can be reduced by 40% and the net present value payback period was 4.44 years. The interest of the selected household representatives to switch to SWHs increased from 27 to 42, in the case when only the monetary saving strategy was used and when both the money saving and awareness campaign strategy was adopted. The study can assist both the service providers of solar water heaters and the policy makers in promoting the market penetration of the SWHs. It also
justified the economic viability of SWHs.
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Keywords: Electric geyser, solar water heater, net present value payback period, awareness campaign, electrical energy saving, sanitary hot water heating