A borehole is a big upfront cost, so the real question is whether it saves enough on your water bill, and how long that takes. Here's how to work it out for your own property.
What you pay up front
- Drilling, charged mostly per metre. Depth varies a lot across the East Rand. See borehole drilling cost in Benoni.
- Pump and installation, including cabling, control box and pipework.
- Tank, booster pump and filters, if you use a storage tank. See borehole tank and booster pump setup.
- Water test, if you'll use it in the house. See borehole water testing.
Get an itemised quote; our checklist shows what it should include: what a borehole quote should include.
What it costs to run
- Electricity for the borehole pump and booster pump. A solar borehole pump can cut this to almost nothing.
- Maintenance: filter cleaning, an annual check, and eventually pump repairs. See the borehole maintenance checklist.
What you save
Garden irrigation is usually the biggest use of water in a Benoni home with a large lawn, especially in summer. Municipal water is charged on a sliding scale: the more you use each month, the higher the rate for the extra kilolitres. Moving garden watering to a borehole takes away your most expensive water.
A simple way to estimate payback
- Look at your municipal water bills for the last summer. Note the monthly kilolitres and amounts.
- Estimate how much of that is garden watering (compare summer and winter months).
- Work out what those kilolitres cost at your top tariff block.
- Subtract the borehole's estimated monthly electricity and maintenance.
- Divide the total upfront cost by the monthly saving to get the number of months to pay back.
Things that change the answer
- Yield: a low-yielding borehole may not supply a big irrigation system. See borehole yield tests.
- Water restrictions and outages: a borehole keeps your garden (and, with treatment, your house) supplied during municipal outages and restrictions, which many owners value more than the saving itself.
- Property value: buyers often see a working borehole as a plus.
- Smallholdings have different water needs entirely. See boreholes on smallholdings.
Ready for quotes? Compare borehole pump installation and repair in Benoni.