Electric To Gas Switches
The old electric geyser is taken out, or bypassed and switched off so no water runs through it, and the gas unit goes on the outside wall nearest the bathrooms that use the most hot water.
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Gas geyser installation in Paarl by registered gas installers: a unit sized to the way your household actually uses hot water, mounted where the flue and the cylinders are allowed to go, then connected, leak-tested and handed over with a Certificate of Conformity. Electric-to-gas switches, solar with gas backup and whole-house outdoor units, priced up front.
Tell us what heats your water now and how many showers run at once, and we will come back with an honest, upfront price that includes the gas line and the certificate.
Every job ends the same way: gas line pressure-tested, installation leak-tested, unit commissioned and certified before we leave.
The old electric geyser is taken out, or bypassed and switched off so no water runs through it, and the gas unit goes on the outside wall nearest the bathrooms that use the most hot water.
Compact units mounted inside against an external wall, with the flue taken straight out through it. Many light from batteries, so they carry on through a power cut.
Larger units built for an outside wall, with the flow for two showers at once. Most need a plug point, which matters when you plan around load-shedding.
A gas unit fed from your solar tank tops up the temperature on grey days, with a tempering valve so a hot summer tank never trips it.
Cylinders outside and upright, clear of doors, windows, drains and the boundary, usually a pair on an automatic changeover so the hot water does not stop when one runs empty.
A gas CoC issued on completion, for your insurer, a future sale or the estate. Existing gas geysers that were never certified are inspected and put right.
A gas geyser is rated in litres per minute, not litres of storage, and getting that number right is most of the job. An electric geyser hides an undersized choice behind its tank, and you only notice when the tank runs out. A gas unit shows it straight away, because it heats water only as it flows through: open a second hot tap on a unit that is too small and the shower goes lukewarm. Winter narrows the margin further. The flow on the box assumes a set temperature rise, and on a cold July morning the mains water arrives colder, so the same unit gives less hot water at the same temperature. We size for July, not January.
Water pressure decides which unit can go in at all. A gas geyser only lights once enough water is flowing through it, and the minimum pressure varies a great deal between models, from around 0.1 bar on some low-pressure indoor units to 1 or 2 bar on some outdoor whole-house ones. Paarl covers both ends of that range. Higher up the slopes of Paarl Mountain, in the streets rising off Charleston Hill, weak pressure is a common complaint, and a unit that wants 2 bar will sit on the wall refusing to light. Down on the flat near the Berg River, in Amstelhof and the flatter parts of Klein Nederburg, pressure can run high enough to need a pressure-reducing valve in front of the unit. We measure the pressure before we recommend a unit, not after it is on the wall. Our water pressure page explains why it changes so much from one street to the next.
Then there is where it goes. A gas geyser and its flue terminal need an outside wall with clearance from windows, doors and the eaves, and the cylinders need their own spot outside, away from openings, drains and the boundary. In the older homes below the mountain the electric geyser is often in the roof space in the middle of the house, nowhere near an outside wall, so the gas unit seldom goes where the old one was. We put it on the wall closest to the bathroom that uses the most hot water, because every metre of pipe between the unit and the tap is cold water you run off before the hot arrives. On the estates the same decision has to satisfy the estate as well, which we cover for gas geyser installation at Pearl Valley and on our Val de Vie plumber page.
We are based in Paarl, so gas geyser installation runs right across the valley: Paarl and Mbekweni, Wellington, Windmeul and Klapmuts, the estates from Boschenmeer and Pearl Valley through to Val de Vie, and out to Simondium, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch.
Not every gas geyser keeps going in a power cut. Many compact indoor units light from a pair of batteries and need no mains power at all. Most larger outdoor units are different: the ignition and controls run off a plug point, so when the power goes, so does the hot water, unless the unit is on a backup supply. Many of them need a pure sine-wave inverter or UPS for that, and will not run on a cheaper modified-wave one. If hot water through load-shedding is the reason you are switching, that decides the unit before anything else does.
Solar and gas work well together. If you already have a solar geyser, a gas unit can sit after the tank as a booster. On a clear day the water reaches it hot and the gas barely runs; on a grey week in winter it makes up the difference without an element. Instantaneous gas units have a maximum inlet temperature, so a tempering valve goes between the solar tank and the gas unit to stop a hot summer tank from tripping it.
The old electric geyser. When a house switches to gas, the old geyser is either taken out or bypassed and switched off at the board, so no water passes through a tank that is no longer doing anything. Leaving it connected means an unheated, unmaintained tank still sits above your ceiling under mains pressure. If it is near the end of its life anyway, taking it out removes the next burst before it happens. If yours has already gone, our geyser repair page covers the emergency side.
We look at the house, measure the water pressure and price the whole job in one go: the unit, the gas line, the cylinder bay, the water connections and the certificate.
A gas geyser is two installations in one, plumbing and gas, and both have to be right.
Registered gas installers, the leak test done and the CoC handed over on completion.
Unit, gas line, cylinder bay and certificate on one quote, agreed before we start.
We know which streets fight low pressure and which need it brought down.
Neat copper, sealed wall penetrations, and the old unit taken away.
What Paarl homeowners ask us most before switching to gas hot water.
It depends on four things: the size of the unit, whether it is an indoor or an outdoor model, how far the gas line has to run from the cylinder bay, and how much hot-water pipework has to move to reach the new position. A compact unit on an outside wall right beside the bathroom is the cheapest case. A whole-house outdoor unit fed from a cylinder bay on the far side of the property, with the old geyser coming out of the ceiling, is the dearest. We quote the whole job, including the changeover regulator and the CoC, before we start, so the number you agree is the number you pay. Our plumbing prices page explains how we price generally.
Count the hot taps you want running at the same time, not the bathrooms. One shower at a time can be served by a compact unit of around 6 to 11 litres a minute. A shower and the kitchen tap together, or two showers, needs roughly 16 litres a minute or more, and a big house with several bathrooms in use on a weekday morning moves into the 20 to 26 litre range. Size for a winter morning, when the water coming in is at its coldest, not for summer.
Many compact indoor units will, because they light from batteries and need no mains power at all. Most larger outdoor units need a plug point for their ignition and controls, so they stop when the power does unless they are on a backup supply, and many of them need a pure sine-wave inverter or UPS rather than a cheaper modified-wave one. We tell you which kind you are getting before you choose.
Yes. Under the Pressure Equipment Regulations, a gas Certificate of Conformity has to be issued by an authorised person after a gas installation is completed, after any modification or alteration, and on a change of user or ownership. In practice your insurer can ask for it after a fire, and the conveyancer will ask for it when you sell. We leak-test the installation before it is commissioned and issue the CoC on completion. If you already have a gas geyser that was never certified, our gas installations page explains how we inspect and certify existing installations.
Yes, and it is one of the better combinations. The gas unit goes after the solar tank as a booster, so on a clear day the water arrives hot and the gas barely runs, and on a grey week in winter it makes up the difference. Instantaneous gas units have a maximum inlet temperature, so we fit a tempering valve between the tank and the unit to stop a hot summer tank from tripping it.
Yes. Estate installations follow the same standard with two additions. On most estates the position of the unit, the flue terminal and the cylinder bay has to go to the estate for approval, and contractor access has to be booked at the gate. We mark the positions for your submission and book the access ourselves. See geyser installation at Pearl Valley and our Val de Vie plumber page.
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