Chart

Nine times in eighteen years.

The number under every payback figure on this site, drawn rather than asserted — with the years we are least sure of marked as such.

  • Our own assumption is the conservative one
  • Three years still need confirming
The tariff record on this page is provisional. These are the annual increases to Eskom’s average standard tariff as approved by NERSA, and the figures for 2024, 2025, 2026 in particular need checking against the decisions themselves before anybody plans around them. A Helderberg household on municipal supply also pays a different rate and a different increase. The shape of the line is not in doubt; the last three points are.
R 2 400
R400R12 000
22%
0%45%

The geyser calculator works out your own figure; this slider is here so you can test somebody else’s claim, including ours.

The projection escalates at the same rate the geyser calculator uses, so the two pages cannot drift apart. The historical line is back-derived from today’s blended household rate using the approved annual increases — change the rate and the whole history moves with it.

Saved over ten years R 104 926
Electricity since 2008 9.1×
That is, a year 13.1%
We assume 9.0%
A unit then R 0.34/kWh
A unit now R 3.10/kWh
Your bill in 10 years R 5 682

With 22% taken off it, that bill is R 4 432 a month instead of R 5 682. Over the ten years you would pay R 477 000 without it.

R per kWh Not yet confirmed
A kilowatt-hour, back-derived from today’s rate using the approved increases. The dashed tail is the part that still needs checking.
As it is With automation The gap is what you keep
Your bill over the next ten years, with and without a saving against it.

Reading it honestly

Three things worth saying next to a chart like this.

01

It is an average, not your tariff

Municipal supply, Eskom direct, prepaid and the fixed charges on top all differ. What the line is good for is the rate of change, which is what a payback figure depends on.

  • Rate of change, not rand per unit
02

Back-derived, on purpose

The rand figures come from today’s blended household rate walked backwards through the increases, so this chart and the geyser calculator can never print two different prices for the same kilowatt-hour.

  • One number, one place
03

Past increases are not a forecast

Thirteen per cent a year happened. Nobody can promise it continues, which is why the projection runs at nine and says so on the chart.

  • Conservative by choice

What this leads to

The next question this one raises.

Your own saving The percentage above, worked out from your household instead of typed in. Where the bill goes Which parts of it are even reachable. What to do about it In order, with the saving against each step. Have it measured A month of per-circuit data beats every estimate on this page.

Start here

The estimate is free. So is being told it is not worth it.

If your bill is mostly fixed charges and a heat pump, we will say so.

Book a free assessment Or just talk to us