Friday, December 11, 2009

Welcome to My Blog

Welcome to my blog, and thanks for stopping by.

If you're a homeowner or tenant living in South Africa, you've most likely already seen your monthly bills increase substantially over the last months. You would also have heard about the planned tariff increases that Eskom wants to introduce over the next three years. As I write, Eskom wants to increase it's tariff by 35 % a year over the next three years. If a 35 % increase is approved it would mean that a household that currently uses R1000 of electricty a month would be paying around R2460 a month in three years' time to use exactly the same amount of power. A household that spends R2000 a month on electricity now would be paying nearly R5000 a month in three years' time!

Big industrial corporations are by far the biggest users of Eskom's electricityin South Africa, but pay substantially lower rates for the electricity they consume than residential consumers. Ordinary households are therefore being asked to subsidise the electricity used by big aluminium smelters and platinum mines.

The good news is that people can start making interventions right now that can substantially reduce their electricity usage, and help prepare them for the increases that are on the way. The first step is to get a energy audit done. Energy auditing involves connecting a energy meter to a house's meter board, which then gives a real time readout of how much power is being used at the time.

By switching appliances and lights on and off, the meter gives the auditor an instant look at how much power individual appliances are using, as well as how much that costs on an hourly basis. Energy auditing will help you to understand how you use electricity better, and is the first step in finding strategies to reduce electricity usage.

Contact me at dillondavie@gmail.com to schedule an energy audit for your home.