Kwekwe Poly unveils geyser innovation

STUDENTS in the electrical engineering department at Kwekwe Polytechic College have come up with a new water geyser system innovation, which saves power by up to 50 percent.

It heats water using different combinations of energy, which are solar, electrical energy and the microwave system, which heats water at different stages.

The innovation attracted a lot of attention at the just-ended Midlands Agricultural Show where the college was exhibiting.

Mercy Mutambo, an electrical engineering student at the college said they were working on perfecting the innovation so that the geyser saves power by up to 75 percent.

“This is a micro controller based hybrid water heater and in this heater there are three energy levels that are being used namely solar, microwave and the normal geyser system that we know. The solar system raises temperature to 40 degrees Celsius and then it goes to the normal geyser system that we know and raises the temperature to 45 degrees Celsius and the microwave will raise the water to up to 65 degrees Celsius,” she said.

“This innovation was done to prove that energy can be conserved if you use the hybrid system rather than the single powering system and this is a prototype.

‘‘In this design it has been proven that it reduces power consumption by 50 percent but there are further possibilities of it actually going higher in terms of energy saving of up to 75 percent.”

The innovation by the college comes as the country is trying to come up with strategies to save power in light of the prevailing electricity shortages.

The Government has already moved to ban the use of electric geysers and switching to solar-powered water heaters in a move aimed at saving up to 400 megawatts of electricity.— @lavuzigara1.