Solar, gas geysers, insulation, boreholes, rainwater tanks, smart home automation, inverter systems, efficient appliances, what gave you the biggest return?
Solar, no question. I put in a 5kW system with battery backup about three years ago and my Eskom bill went from R3,200 a month to basically nothing. The payback period was quicker than I expected, especially once load shedding really started biting. As an electrician I could do a lot of the wiring myself which helped with the cost, but even if you pay someone it makes sense. Second best was switching to a gas geyser, that thing alone knocked about R600 off the monthly bill. The solar and gas together changed everything for us here in the Western Cape. If you’re starting from scratch and budget is tight, do the geyser first, it’s cheaper and the return is almost immediate.
Everyone talks solar but the best rand-for-rand upgrade I ever did was a geyser timer. About eighty rand at the hardware store, twenty minutes to wire in, and my bill dropped overnight. Your geyser doesn’t need to stay hot all day, it just needs to be hot when you actually want it. Did that fifteen years ago and it’s still saving me money. Know your baseline costs before you go spending on the big stuff.
That geyser timer tip is one I share with everyone who’ll listen. I’m in a sectional title complex so solar isn’t my decision to make, but the timer was something I could actually act on, and it made a noticeable difference from the first month. The other change that surprised me was switching to a gas hob, especially with the price of electricity now. It was a meaningful outlay upfront but it’s absolutely paid itself back by this point.
The point about knowing your baseline before spending big is the one people skip. Most of us have a rough sense of what we spend but no real idea which appliances are the actual culprits. Once you start tracking, even just watching your prepaid meter week by week, the patterns become obvious quickly, and you realise some of the cheapest fixes give you the fastest returns.