We all want to do our bit and go a little green around the house, but at the end of the day there’s that other question that no one wants to ask out loud.

You know, “what’s in it for me?”

Asking that question doesn’t make you a bad person, because money can be toit and it helps to save where you can.

So let’s see if we can’t help you go green AND save money in the process – the old win win, you know.

Most of us know that a great deal of of our electricity expenditure goes to heating our geysers, but maybe you’re not aware of just how much.

The percentage of your total expenditure that goes to those warm showers depends on your home’s overall electrical usage, but there is a general guideline to go on.

On average a geyser consumes 30% to 40% of the overall usage, so let’s crunch those numbers.

A solar water heater can be expected to provide 75% efficiency annually, or in other words reduce that 30% to 40% consumption for water heating by 75%.

Your home scenario:

• 25kWh usage per day with 40% for water heating = 10kWh per day
• Average rate from Eskom for kWh units – R1.80
• R 1.80 x 10kWh’s = R18 per day
• Put another way, that’s R540 per month.

No one’s turning down an extra R500 or so a month, but you’re also weary of what installing a solar water heater is going to cost you.

We’ll head to Sustainable.co.za and check out the option they recommend HERE, which will set you back R25 000.

More number crunching, but this time it’s pretty simple. If you are saving R540 per month, you’ll make that R25 000 back in savings in 47 months.

That’s right, paid for itself in under four years, and that’s not even taking into consideration the obvious electrical price increases that will occur over that period.

There’s still that one person out there, we hear you, talking about how a solar panel on the roof can be a bit of an eyesore. Come now, that solar water heater we recommended earlier can be installed inside the roof as it is a pumped system.

Doing your good deed, saving money and keeping your house looking its best at the same time – a win, win, win when you look at it sensibly.

Why not chat to the team at Sustainable.co.za and let them work out the best solution for your home. After all, when we’re blessed with sunshine we may as well make it work in our favour.