Cheap electricity is over for good
2009-08-20
SINCE 1 July, everyone in South Africa is paying more per Kilowatt Hour for electricity. This is because Eskom increased tariffs by 31,3% and municipal service providers have had to do the same. Cheap electricity is a thing of the past. While the increase is obviously not welcomed by consumers, there is an easy way to go about making home or business more energy efficient in order to reduce electricity bills. When you start looking into energy efficiency measures, you need to start measuring each device and monitor electricity consumption. Though one could safely guess that switching from regular light bulbs to energy saving light bulbs could save quite a bit, this does not calculate how much electricity your kettle, iron, stove, geyser, television set and other devices in the house consume. What’s more, many appliances such as play stations, battery chargers, digital radios with LCD monitors, cellphone chargers and more, all have a standby mode. While these devices are in standby mode they continue to draw a small amount of power. These are called “ghost loads”. Individually these power loads don’t seem like much, but collectively they do amount to a reasonably large and constant draw of power. However, remembering to do simple things like switching lights and devices off can prove problematic - people need to be reminded from time to time and an electricity monitor will help. The Owl Electricity Monitor has a large, clear LCD screen that communicates using wireless technology with a transmitter installed in the electrical distribution board. Because the Owl is wireless, it can be placed where everyone can see it (see www. ElectricityMonitor.co.za.
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