Cut back on your electricity bill

Go green and save electricity

With rising electricity costs and the worldwide call to live greener, more environmentally-friendly lives, homeowners today have many options available to them that will not only put more cash in their pocket but will also reduce their environmental impact.

With the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) stipulating an annual electricity tariff increase of 8% from 2013 to 2018, 40% more than the current inflation rate, many homeowners are taking steps to introduce greener, more cost-effective alternatives into their homes

The biggest culprit of high electricity consumption is the home geyser. On average the geyser contributes to between 40% and 60% of a monthly electricity bill. Here are a variety of options to reduce your hot water costs:

• Load Control Units: These are cheap, quick to install and easy to use. They control the times that your geyser is switched on and can give you a 25% saving on your electricity bill and cut back your geyser’s energy consumption by up to 60%. Eskom does offer incentives to home-owners who reside in high energy consumption areas.
• Geyser Blankets: These provide extra insulation for your geyser and improves its heat retention ability by eliminating the frequency of times that the thermostat has to activate reheating after the geyser has not been in use. You can reduce your energy costs by 20% with the blanket and achieve a further 10% saving if the inlet and outlet pipes are also wrapped in the blanket.
• Induction Geyser: An induction geyser, although more expensive to install than a normal geyser, is a cheaper alternative to heat pumps and solar geysers. It converts electrical energy into magnetic energy and uses electro-magnetic oscillation technology to heat the water. These geysers can be installed at the point of hot water use and the flow of hot water is instant. They are compact and easy to install and use a third less power than normal geysers.
• Solar Water Heating: These systems can give you savings on your electricity bill of up to 75% and Eskom offers rebates, provided you use SABS approved systems and use a supplier that is registered with them. These systems have a 20 year lifespan versus the 5 year lifespan of a normal geyser.
• Heat Pumps: Heat pumps essentially replace the electrical element in your current geyser and improve its economical performance. They will give you a 60% reduction in energy consumption and they have a 10 year lifespan.

While lighting only consumes around 11% of the energy used in most homes, simply changing your globes can make a huge difference and lower your consumption even more.

• Traditional bulb versus Compact Flourescent globes (CFLs): By changing your traditional incandescent light bulbs to CFLs you can save up to 80% on your energy costs. The CFL globes, while more expensive, last ten times longer and use just 20% of the amount of electricity, while giving off the same amount of light.
• LED Lighting: LED lights have a very long life – they last four times longer than comparable CFL lighting ie. 8000 hours versus 50 000 hours. They also use less electricity and emit less heat. However, they are more expensive than CFLs.

Other small steps around the home can be taken and include showering instead of bathing, using cold water when doing laundry, turning your geyser off when going on holiday, installing an efficient shower head, turning appliances off at the wall and switching off your lights when not in use will also go a long way to cutting back on your electricity consumption.

For more information on this topic visit www.greenyourhome.co.za.