Solar panels supply Rea Vaya depot with hot water

A crucial element of the Rea Vaya project is the reduction of Johannesburg's public transport carbon footprint, with sophisticated engineering to ensure carbon emissions are as low as possible. With Rea Vaya's strong position as a green citizen, Home Comfort was tasked with helping them achieve this objective.

Heat cannot escape

Home Comfort rose to the challenge and installed 20 vacuum solar panels that generate heat from the sun to use within the depot. Two additional 40kW geyser heat pumps were installed to work in conjunction with the solar panels to ensure that plentiful hot water remains available all year round. The heated water is stored in two tanks in two separate sections of the structure, with a capacity of 6 000 litres each in one section of the structure and two tanks with a capacity of 1 500 litres each in the other section.

Because the heat pipe is housed inside a vacuum, no heat can escape from the vacuum tube. The installed heat pumps are also a highly efficient, cost effective method of heating water. They use the sun's free energy by extracting heat from the sun-warmed air and transferring it efficiently to the water.

The benefits to the environment are clear - solar power is renewable, clean and has no direct emissions and they can be used almost anywhere in South Africa and are suitable for low energy use such as lights, computers and television.