Stuck with high electricity bills and don't know what to do about it?
The biggest consumers of electricity in a typical apartment are your geyser and electric/underfloor heating.
Solutions:
Electric heaters/underfloor heating
- Replace with a portable gas heater instead. Expect to pay approximately R 1000 for a mobile gas heater and R300 for a 9kg gas refill.
Geyser:
- Turn down the thermostat on the geyser to approx. 60 degrees. If geyser is set too hot, it uses a tremendous amount of electricity trying to keep the geyser at that temperature.
- Install a geyser timer switch on the DB board. Then set the timer to switch the geyser on for 2 hours per day before you typically bath/shower. An electrician should charge approx. R1200 to supply and fit the timer. By personal experience, a timer cut my electricity bill in half!
These two tips should shave up to 50% off your electricity bill.
Energy efficient appliances
Make a point of replacing all your incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs which save about 90% of your lighting costs.
Cooking on gas is where possible will also help considerably, and have the added benefit of being able to cook while being load shed!
Solar
If you are able to install solar panels, then the next step in energy saving would be to invest in a solar system. Solar systems are designed to scale up as your requirements change, by adding extra solar panels and battery storage capacity.
An energy audit would be required to ascertain your starting point and give you an idea of the financial cost of the system; There is no "one size fits all" solution.
Power in a Box have a series of small solutions from a portable inverter, to installed inverter/battery systems, and installed solar/inverter/battery systems. [Click here]
