City of Cape Town says households can reduce monthly household bills by taking the power of energy costs into their own hands and making a few tweaks to their utility usage with smart energy use habits.
Eskom’s 18.5% increase has driven up the cost to supply electricity and is impacting households. But according to the City, adopting energy-saving practices will not only save money, it will also help all to live in a more sustainable manner and to contribute to greater energy security.
Also read: Cape Town’s draft energy strategy aims to end loadshedding for good
The City says it has developed smart energy use habits with no-cost, low-cost and higher investment cost options to suit every pocket that make it possible for everyone to play their part in more efficient usage.
It is possible for residents to save up to 30% with no- and low-cost solutions and as much as 50% if residents also include invest-to-save options like solar water heating or heat pump.
Hot water
No-cost:
- Turn your geyser down to 60ºC
- Turning your geyser down from 70ºC to 60ºC will see a 5% reduction in your hot water electricity bill.
- Use less hot water
- Tackle excessive use with more efficient habits
- Use cold water to wash your hands instead of hot water
- Use a basin plug when washing
- Shower instead of bathing (you will save up to 80% in water and use five times less electricity than heating bath water if you take a short shower)
- Switch off your geyser when you go away for a few days or more
- Switch your geyser off during peak hours (6am to 8am and 5pm to 9pm)
Low-cost:
- Insulate your water pipes and wrap your geyser in a geyser blanket
- This prevents heat loss, reducing the cost of electricity needed to keep water hot by R500 or more a year.
- Blankets cost approximately between R200 and R400
- Pipe insulation usually costs less than R100 per metre
- Fix leaking hot water taps
- A dripping tap can waste up to 18 litres of water a day. This could cost you hundreds of rands worth of electricity annually if it’s the hot water tap that’s leaking
- Install a geyser timer
- Set the timer to avoid peak hours on the national grid to help reduce the risk of loadshedding
- Timer prices start at around R900 plus electrician costs
- Switch to a low-flow, energy and water efficient aerated showerhead (designed to use up to 40% less hot water)
Invest-to-save:
- Fit your geysers close to hot water points to optimise electricity efficiency.
- Install a solar water heater
- You can save 25% and even as much as 50% on your monthly electricity costs
- Costs can vary depending on the size, quality and technology used, but R15 000 to R35 000 is the typical range
- If you don’t have savings or access bond finance, there are also rental and financing options available
- Install a heat pump
- Heat pumps can be very effective at reducing electricity consumption and at heating water (in coastal Cape Town with cloudy winters, especially), so if a solar water heater is not suitable for your household, a heat pump is highly recommended
Lighting
No-cost:
- Turn off the lights if you leave a room for more than five minutes
- Maximise sunlight
- Open the curtains in the morning rather than turning on lights
Low-cost:
- Replace traditional incandescent light bulbs with LEDs
- Now costing as little as R50, LEDs save 80% to 90% on your electricity used for lighting
- Choose light colours for interior paints
- Covering walls with dark colours could double the wattage and therefore energy you need to light a room and dim the effect of natural lighting coming in through windows
- There are also paints which boost reflectivity significantly
- Use solar-powered lights in your garden
- They rely entirely on energy from the sun and contain a small chargeable battery so they can be used at night
- Put light only where you need it or try ‘de-lamping’ by removing a bulb or two
- Desk lamps, reading lamps and eye-level, under-cabinet fixtures for the kitchen will help you to see what you are doing better, allowing you to turn off unnecessary room lights
- Ceiling fixtures often over-light rooms
- Too many downlighters are placed in areas where they’re not really needed.
- Dimmers can help, but they save less energy than you might expect
Invest-to-save:
- Use motion-sensor lights outside
- Outdoor lights burning overnight will lead to higher utility bills
- Infrared motion detector light fittings are more likely to surprise unwanted visitors, while using less electricity
- Let the sky light dark rooms
- If you need lights on during the day, dark and windowless rooms can benefit from light tubes or skylights
- Renovate to be LED-friendly
- LED manufacturers try to accommodate existing bulb styles and fixtures, but a renovation is a great time to let LEDs be LEDs
- Recessed downlights and track lights should be wired for mains voltage, without low-voltage transformers
- Dimmable LEDs need dimmers designed for them
- For long term best results, use high quality products from reputable brands and qualified installers
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Heating and Cooling
No-cost:
- Check how you are dressed before switching on the heater
- Choose a water bottle over an electric blanket
- A hot water bottle filled by a 2 000W kettle running for five minutes uses 0.16kWh and gives you two hours of warmth
- A 200W electric blanket running for two hours uses more than double the electricity (0.4kWh)
- Make your electric blanket more energy efficient
- Turn it to the highest setting for a few minutes before getting into bed and turn it off for the night
- Use your windows wisely
- Any north-facing house is already built for passive solar heating
- In winter, open all curtains to let the warm sunshine in but leave windows and doors tightly shut until temperatures peak in the afternoon.
- If you must use air conditioners when it’s hot, use them economically
- Set them to maintain the temperature at the ‘golden zone’ between 18ºC and 22ºC
Low-cost:
- Place heating right where it is needed
- An electric blanket, hot water bottle or fan heater all direct the heat to warm you up quickly. Infrared or quartz bar heaters are also efficient as long as you are in front of them
- If you must warm a room, invest in a gas heater or a heater with a short warm-up time and built-in thermostat
- Only heat rooms that you and household members will be spending time in
- Avoid underfloor heating
- Eliminate drafts blowing under doors and around windows
- Trace their edges with a burning stick of incense or the palm of your hand to find air leaks and block them with self-adhesive ‘weatherstripping’
- Attach a ‘sweep to the bottom of a door to close the gap to the floor or use a beanbag ‘snake’
- Check the ceiling for gaps where heat escapes, such as the attic hatch
Invest-to-save:
- Insulate your ceiling
- Approximately 40% of heat loss takes place through the roof
- Insulation slows heat transfer and makes your home up to 10ºC cooler in summer and 5ºC warmer in winter, saving up to 16% of the electricity you need to annually heat or cool your home
- Roof paints specially formulate to ward off the sun’s heat are also available
- Install roof awnings and overhangs
- These can help shade windows from the hot sun in summer, while still allowing the warm winter sun in
- Update old fireplaces
- Open fireplaces send most of their heat up the chimney. Modern, closed-combustion fireplaces and wood stoves retain their charm while vastly improving efficiency by controlling the flow of air
- Wood pellets from scrap or firewood from suburban tree fellers are also sustainable fuels
- Before purchasing an air conditioner, try a ceiling fan first
- They are much less expensive and use as little as 1 tenth of the electricity to run
- In winter, use them in brief spurts or in reverse at low speed in heated rooms to push warm air down from the ceiling.
- Renovate to allow the heat that gets trapped at the ceiling to escape
- Installing high exterior windows and ‘transom’ windows above the doors between rooms can help heat flow through and out of your home
- Whole-house extractor fans suck the heat out and draw in cool breezes at night
- If mosquitoes cause you to close windows on summer nights, invest in screens
Appliances
No-cost:
- Switch off unused appliances
- Only use your washing machine once a full load of dirty laundry has accumulated
- Automatic washing machines use the same amount of electricity for a full load as they do for a single item
- Use cold water or lower heat settings as often as possible
- Wash bed linen at 60ºC (instead of 90ºC) to cut back on the amount of electricity you use.
- Skip the pre-wash cycle for clothes that aren’t particularly dirty
- This can cut down hot water usage by up to 20%
- Never overload your automatic washing machine
- Take advantage of special features on your washer that can save money
- E.g. soak cycles remove stubborn stains in one wash cycle
- Hang your clothes outside or on an indoor drying rack to dry
- Remove excess water before putting clothes in the dryer to minimise drying time required
- Dry multiple loads of clothes consecutively
- Your dryer will be warm already so you’ll save energy
- Only iron what really needs to be ironed
- Iron large batches of clothes at a time to save the iron from needing to be reheated
- Use specialised appliances for the appropriate tasks
- Only use pots and pans that completely cover stove plates
- Use a pressure cooker or insulation cooker when preparing foods that take a long time to cook
- This will speed up the cooking process and save electricity
- Turn off the stove before you’ve finished cooking
- Hot plates retain heat and will continue to cook your food while saving electricity
- Alternatively, bring food to the boil on the ‘high’ setting and then turn down the plate to simmer until cooked. Keep the lid on the pot to retain heat
- When using a kettle, boil only as much water as you need
- Don’t open the fridge door unnecessarily or leave it open for too long
- Empty your fridge and switch it off when you go on holiday
- Defrost the freezer regularly to ensure it runs more efficiently
- Run the dishwasher only when it’s full
- Link the dishwasher to the cold water supply
- If the dishwasher is linked to a hot water tap, it will draw power for the full duration
- Turn the dishwasher off before the drying cycle
Low-cost:
- Invest in a front-loading washing machine instead of a top loader
- It uses less water and costs less to operate
- If you’re buying a new tumble dryer, choose one with Electronic Humidity Control (EHC)
- It shuts the machine off automatically when clothes are dry instead of relying on a timer
- Invest in a thermostatically controlled iron to prevent it from becoming hotter than you need
- Invest in a Hot Box or Wonderbag insulation cooker
- Price ranges between R300 and R450
- It will save up to 60% on cooking costs.
- Have the seals in your fridge replaces to keep the cold air in
- When buying a dishwasher, choose a model that uses less water
- A water efficient dishwasher uses up to 50% less water than a conventional one, which means 50% less water to heat up
- Choose a dishwasher model with a no-heat air-drying feature to save even more electricity
Invest-to-save:
- Invest in new energy efficient appliances
- Look for the South African Energy Efficiency label and always buy an ‘energy smart’ model
- Newer plasma screen TVs tend to use more electricity than older models and LED TVs
- Choose induction cookers for stove-top cooking with electricity
- Not only does it heat up quickly, it also saves electricity and reduces the risk of burns
- For high-temperature cooking an induction stove uses about 30% less energy than an ordinary hob
- Since magnetic fields heat the pots, the stove plate stays cool, but you’ll need iron or steel cookware. Take a magnet along when pan shopping. You can buy a single-plate induction cooker for just over R800
- Stove-top cooking with gas has many advantages over electricity
- Gas supplies instant heat and are loadshedding-proof
- Switching from electricity to gas cuts the carbon footprint for those appliances by about half
‘If residents are able to spend money on making smart changes around their home, they are encouraged to consider installing a solar water heater or heat pump among others,’ said City’s MMC for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.
‘These will cost more upfront but residents could save much more on their monthly costs,’ added van Reenen.
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