# Interest group forums > Electrical Contracting Industry Forum > Electrical Load Shedding Forum >  The 7 best ways to stop load shedding

## duncan drennan

I believe that if Eskom and the government work together, admit that they made a mess, and start being leaders, we can move through this energy crisis with only some minor bruises to our economy.

So I've compiled a list of the 7 best ways to stop load shedding. I believe that with some small and painless changes we can at least provide ourselves with enough breathing room to get through this crisis.




> Turn off the air conditionersTurn off your geyserTurn off your pool pumpTurn off anything that consumes standby energy (TV's, DVD players, cell phone chargers, etc.)Switch to CFL and LED lights (and use fewer lights)Run appliances as late at night, or early in the morning as possibleUse your computers in energy saving modes
> 
> Read the full blog post for all the details of how and why


If you think this plan makes some sense, then please post about it on your blogs and websites! Let's try to spread a message that is understandable, and can get us out of our current predicament. Thanks  :Smile: 

Also, post your energy saving tips here on The Forum SA

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## Dave A

> Turn off the air conditioners


You live in Cape Town, don't you  :Stick Out Tongue:

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## duncan drennan

Well, as I've said before, would you prefer Eskom to turn them off for you?  :Wink: 

The full article details how to minimise aircon effect on peak demand, and stay  :Cool: 

It turns out that this is my most popular blog post so far (graded on traffic on the day of posting) - whoohoo! Also got a couple of interesting leads as a result of it. Must follow up now!  :Big Grin:

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## Dave A

> Well, as I've said before, would you prefer Eskom to turn them off for you?


They already do  :Frown: 

To some extent I'm revving you - it's really about using the aircon in moderation and only as necessary. Believe me, there are times when it is necessary.

I think we're going to have to talk about heaters come winter - when our *real* peak demand kicks in!

An idle thought about the 15% of Eskom power that goes to airconditioning - have you any idea how much of that is being used by the mines (who can't switch off their airconditioning and still operate)?

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## duncan drennan

> To some extent I'm revving you


Yeah, I know....and I'm just revving back a little bit  :Stick Out Tongue: 




> An idle thought about the 15% of Eskom power that goes to airconditioning - have you any idea how much of that is being used by the mines (who can't switch off their airconditioning and still operate)?


It is probably quite significant! I hadn't thought about mines, but I did consider cold chains (food, drugs, etc.) that could not be turned off. Eskom's "conservative" estimate for peak savings is 600MW (which I used, and is from the National Response to the electricity crisis.

PS. posted a reply on my blog to your comment

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## Dave A

> PS. posted a reply on my blog to your comment


You mean my comment got approved  :Zyfingerdance: 

Don't mind me - I'm just a bit whacky today  :Big Grin:

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## duncan drennan

Maybe you should turn your air conditioner back on..... :Stupid:

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## murdock

what about moving back into a cave or a mud hut next to a forrest and a river so you have plenty of fire wood and water.

i believe we should conserve energy but just because of some fools bad planning we must all now suffer :Whistling:

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## duncan drennan

I just got this comment on my blog, and the guy then called me and told me he has emailed over 300 people about this (DA, ANC, VF, Solidarity, and more). His attitude is really positive which is great to hear.




> I have put my 2 geysers on swimming pool timers and my electricity bill was reduced with R460 the last 8 months average compared to the previous 8 months average.
> 
> My geysers are only switched on 1,5 hours in the middle of the night and again 1,5 hours in the middle of the day. We are 5 people in the house and have warm water all the time.
> 
> My usage also went down 44,4 % over that period (from average 2250 units/month to average 1250 units/month).
> 
> I have ignoramuses that belittled that. They even said it is impossible, my accounting is wrong etc. Even the technical director said in the newspapers that it does not work.
> 
> However, my accounts proves my point.
> ...


To me it seems quite clear how we landed in this situation (mismanagement and cost-cutting seem to be the culprits of our immediate demise), but *how we respond to it will show our mettle as people of this country*.

We have a great country which is certainly worth fighting for. Let's take these challenges head on with the resilience of the tough people that we are.

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## Dave A

I'm definitely hearing two sides to this geyser switch off story. If we look at the comment above, essentially the geyser is on for a total of 3 hours a day.

I don't doubt his facts and maths for a moment - one of the questions though is how much time is a geyser actually heating normally anyway. Applying very rough maths - about 6 hours in this case?

Those who are arguing that leaving the geyser on is more efficient than switching it off and reheating the water from cold are basing this on the fact that the cold heating element acts less efficiently than when it is up to normal operating temperature. This, too, is a fact.

Both are relevant to finding the optimal solution to using the least electrical energy to provide our hot water needs.

Frankly, two suggestions have made the most sense to me as bare minimums:
Insulate - get a geyser blanket no matter whether you're going with the timer story or not.Go solar - even if it is a tiny panel on the north facing eave of the house that just tops up the heat during the day.
Both are relatively low cost, high yield and short-term-to-break-even solutions that will work well together.

Probably the thing that makes me the most nervous about the timer solution promotion is I just know that lots of folks are going to "do it yourself." If the sparks start to fly...  :No:  It's not going to be pretty.

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## IanF

> Those who are arguing that leaving the geyser on is more efficient than switching it off and reheating the water from cold are basing this on the fact that the cold heating element acts less efficiently than when it is up to normal operating temperature. This, too, is a fact.


Dave
How long does for a geyser take to warm up from cold, if you are on a timer should you put it on for 2 hours or more? :Confused:

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## Dave A

No doubt it'll vary according to the type of geyser, but I suspect 1.5 hours is more than enough in most instances - at least judging by the time it takes for our geyser to recover from a full flush (about 45 minutes, but it's quite small - and old).

No doubt Duncan could give us a clue - assuming a 2kW heating element how many litres of water can be warmed 10 degrees in 10 minutes?

(Gee - in days gone by I knew the numbers to work that out off by heart. Getting old  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  )

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## duncan drennan

> Insulate - get a geyser blanket no matter whether you're going with the timer story or not.Go solar - even if it is a tiny panel on the north facing eave of the house that just tops up the heat during the day.


Insulating certainly needs to be a priority for all households. The R150 investment will definitely save you money and pay for itself relatively quickly. Not too sure about solar - everything that I've seen is very expensive.

I'm a little unsure why this guy (in the comment above) is saving so much energy (and therefore rands). There are a couple of things that can play a factor like,
InsulationThermostat settingUsage
I've been trying to find some equations to do a quick calculation as to real savings and turning geysers on/off. Temperature setting will definitely play a role.

I can't see how the temperature of the element affects efficiency - it is a resistive heater and is nearly 100% efficient, regardless of temperature. It would be on for longer to heat from say 50ÃÂº to 65ÃÂº than from 63ÃÂº to 65ÃÂº, but I can't see how this effects efficiency.

The lower the temperature of your geyser the slower it will cool down.

Regardless of the energy issues, it is still important to try to turn your geyser off during peak times (07h00 - 10h00 and 18h00 - 20h00) to alleviate the load it adds to the electricity network. If you can turn it off all day and only turn it back on after 20h00 that will make a significant difference to load shedding.

____

PS. For those of you confused by this there is a difference between *energy* and *power*.

*Energy* is what you pay for and is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). It is a measure of how long you have been using a certain number of kilowatts. So if your kettle is a 2kW kettle and you run it for 1 hour (yikes!) you will use (2kW * 1hr = 2kWh).

In this case the kettle's *power* rating is 2kW.

Eskom has a near infinite supply of energy but can only deliver a certain amount of power. Let's just say Eskom's power capacity was 20kW, that would mean that only 10 people could run their kettles at the same time, but there would always be enough energy to boil water, as long as only 10 people did it at the same time.

If 11 people tried to boil their kettle at the same time Eskom would not be able to provide the power for them to do so, even though they could provide enough energy.

This is exactly the problem that we have at the moment. Eskom has plenty of energy, but a limited capacity to supply power (their capacity is about 40000MW).

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## duncan drennan

> No doubt Duncan could give us a clue - assuming a 2kW heating element how many litres of water can be warmed 10 degrees in 10 minutes?


I'm going to cheat here a bit.... :Whistling: 




> It takes a 3kW, 150l hot water cylinder (HWC), or geyser, element to heat the water from 20 ÃÂºC to 65 ÃÂºC in the order of 2 hours 40 minutes and consumes about 7.838kWh
> 
> From Eskom's residential DSM page


Working backwards....45ÃÂºC change consumes 7.838kWH, which means 5.7ÃÂºC/kWh, or rather 0.17kWH/ÃÂºC.

So to work out how long it would take to heat from temperature _a_ to _b_

*time to heat = 0.17 divide by (element kW) times (b - a)ÃÂºC* (approximately)

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## Dave A

> I can't see how the temperature of the element affects efficiency - it is a resistive heater and is nearly 100% efficient, regardless of temperature. It would be on for longer to heat from say 50ÃÂº to 65ÃÂº than from 63ÃÂº to 65ÃÂº, but I can't see how this effects efficiency.


The resistance is not constant. The resistance is lower at lower temperatures, higher at higher temperatures. I've been messing around with some maths...

Consider the voltage as constant in the following.
Applying V = I * R, half the resistance produces double the current.
Doubling the current doubles the power demand applying P = V * I

Lower resistance at the appliance would also increase the effect of line resistance, energy dissipated at a non-target point, but that "should" be nominal.

EDIT: With an element resistance of the order of 10 - 20 ohms, line resistance could well be a factor.

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## duncan drennan

> The resistance is not constant. The resistance is lower at lower temperatures, higher at higher temperatures. I've been messing around with some maths...


While the element is on the resistance will be just about constant, as it is significantly hotter (internally where the resistive part is) than the water. When it is off, the resistance should be quite a bit lower (resistance increase with temp).

I'm guessing that the kilowatt rating is rated when submersed in water, and the resistance will only change slightly with variations in water temperature.

e.g. with P = V^2/R, a 3kW element is about 17.6 ohms with V=230V. If that resistance were to change to 17ohms, the power rating would be 3.1kW. I reckon that in reality the resistance might only change by 0.1ohms depending on the water temperature.

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## Dave A

If I get a chance, I'm going to tong a geyser off a cold start to see how the current changes over time. About the easiest practical test.

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## IanF

So at work if just turn on the geyser for 1.5 hours in the morning there is enough hot water for the whole day, we just wash coffee cups etc., and this will help with load shedding and costs.

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## murdock

the geyser in my house takes 1hr 15 min to heat up... i shower every morning and evening.. my electricity account was  R450 per month but since the increase will go up...i have installed lots of timers for customers and 90% of them are on override or i have disconnected and removed it...because of the  Inconvenience they cause.

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## murdock

the other way of looking at this geyser is like someone mentioned the other day they turn down the thermostat to 50... but now they run 100 litres into the bath and dont add cold...think about it if it was 65-70 you would only take 60 litres from the geyser and add cold... instead of 100 litres meaning the geyser will heat up to temp quicker and switch off again using less elctricity...there are just too many variables...bottom line put in a solar panel and you will pay out your nose for it but in 50 years you will save money.

or you could do like the old quick shower way... water on... get wet... water off...soap...water on rinse water off...so if you really want to be conservative this way you save water and electricty...or better still get big drum mount it in your back yard put a fire under it and bingo you go hot water no electricity used...

and say this again all because some fools didnt do their job right we must now suffer...if the planning was done correctly 10 years ago we wouldnt be waiting 7 years to get the problems sorted out...and if you gona get all conservation sensitive on me...let talk about cellphones are we gona stop using them because they are harmful to your heath and polluting the enviroment all the batteries from them which are gona need to be disposed of etc etc...motor cars trucks etc etc are a far bigger problem and i dont see anyone driving 4 people to work in the morning or cycling to work...one man/woman one car/4x4...4x4 tyres noise pollution how many women do you see going to the malls...dropping kids off etc in big 4x4 when those tyres are worn where will they be dumped????  i could just go on and on so if you want save the enviriment look at everything we humans do every day to kill the enviroment...we chase the animals out of their enviroment then want to shoot the monkeys because they are pests and steal food out your kitchen... because you cut down the paw paw tree or mango tree and built a house where they got their food from....let me stop here.

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## duncan drennan

> ...and if you gona get all conservation sensitive on me...let talk about cellphones are we gona stop using them because they are harmful to your heath and polluting the enviroment all the batteries from them which are gona need to be disposed of etc etc...motor cars trucks etc etc are a far bigger problem and i dont see anyone driving 4 people to work in the morning or cycling to work...one man/woman one car/4x4...4x4 tyres noise pollution how many women do you see going to the malls...dropping kids off etc in big 4x4 when those tyres are worn where will they be dumped????  i could just go on and on so if you want save the enviriment look at everything we humans do every day to kill the enviroment...we chase the animals out of their enviroment then want to shoot the monkeys because they are pests and steal food out your kitchen... because you cut down the paw paw tree or mango tree and built a house where they got their food from....let me stop here.


Well, the reality is that all of these things need to be proactively addressed, else (like electricity) will turn into a crisis of sorts at some point in the future.

When enough batteries (of all sorts) are dumped and the water is polluted with heavy metals there will be a crisis. When there are too many cars on our roads there will be a crisis. When the municipal dumps start overflowing there will be a crisis (like in Italy). When there is not enough water to supply everyone with clean drinking water there will be a crisis (and the cracks are already starting to show).

The big question to me is why we allow these things to become crises? Many (all?) of these examples are things which the government can regulate, but cannot directly control. If the government brought in regulations about emissions for vehicles, people will complain. If they say you have to separate your garbage or be fined, people complain.

Yes, the government needs to be proactive and to address these issues with regulation and good governance (still to be demonstrated), but we also need to take responsibility for our actions.

*When did we stop taking responsibility for the things we do and the consequences they have?*

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## murdock

i agree we all need to be proactive...problem is like wearing a seat belt the majority of people would not wear a seat belt if there was not a big fine...yet everyday you drive on the roads you see people dont wear seat belt...they still take a chance...let the kid stand on the front seat etc..etc.

off the subject... i rev my staff everyday about letting the pipes and ladders hang off the back of the bakkie and today i was in a hurry and let a steel 20 mm pipe hang off the back 500 mm...and bang i walk into it cut my eye open doc said i will have a black eye tomorrow...says i was lucky the damage is minimal just needed a tetnis injection and a couple antibiotics... i sure my staff must be chuckling to each other...idiot he always makes a noise...puts the pipe on the bakkie and walks into it himself :Embarrassment:

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## duncan drennan

> and bang i walk into it cut my eye open doc said i will have a black eye tomorrow...


Glad the damage wasn't too bad! Hope it heals up quickly.




> i agree we all need to be proactive...problem is like wearing a seat belt the majority of people would not wear a seat belt if there was not a big fine...yet everyday you drive on the roads you see people dont wear seat belt...they still take a chance...let the kid stand on the front seat etc..etc.


This is an important issue, one that I continuously struggle with. I think I'm going to start a new thread...

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## IanF

There are some good looking products here. Energy Efficiency we should look for some of these in SA. Switch off your computer and it switches off everything. 


> f you're at home, stop what you're doing and listen. You can probably hear a low hum. That's the sound of the average UK home wasting ÃÂ£37 a year on standby, causing unnecessary carbon emissions into the bargain. While we wait for standby to be phased out - a move backed by environmentalists and the Currys boss, John Clare - there are standby killers such as the Intellipanel, a glorified multi-plug. Just plug your desktop PC or Mac into the master socket and your monitor, speakers, printer, external hard drive and more into the remaining seven: every time you power off the desktop, everything else is switched off entirely. The Bye Bye Standby does a similar job for your entire home, but it requires your active involvement with a remote.
> Cost: ÃÂ£30

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## Chatmaster

I like the Asus EcoBook. Apart from being greener it is different, I wonder if it will be more expensive?

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## Butch Hannan

Dave,

Why not go the whole hog and just use candles. Just for the record one of the units at Duhva Power Station has come off the rails and caused a lot of damage. Pieces flew off it and badly damaged some off the workshops. The press have been kept out of this???

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## wynn

I have a better Idea, stuff the contracts and switch off the aluminium smelters, they are using our electricity to smelt aluminium cheaply for other countries WTF?

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## Bigeasy

Once a geyser is hot, it takes very little electricity to keep it hot, the best way to save electricity (geyser) is to limit the amount of hot water leaving the geyser, do this by having a shower, and fit an energy efficient showerhead that is approved by Eskom.  If you halve your shower water, you will halve the cost of heating your geyser compared to a high flow shower.  You will effectively save 20% of you total electricity bill. go look at www.ecoshower.co.za these people seem to have the best product on the market.

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## murdock

being the energy efficent enviromentalist...i have to say...due to the heat i have had to reduce my time on my timer by a half an hour or more otherwise it is too hot when the water runs out at 7.30 pm...when i shower at 9 pm (gravity geyser...this was also a great idea not upgrading to a pressure geyser...the water is too hot...so the theory about using a geyser blanket pretty much is waste...unless you fit it in winter and remove it in summer...and not forgetting that a geyser comes with a blanket built in...if you dont believe me climb into your roof space next week when the temp reaches 30 again...i keep forgetting to measure the temp in the roof.

the way to save is cut back...period

tip use a solar panel to charge batteries for light during the day then light the house at night...it works.
the other thing that works is charing a 105 amp/hr battery during the day then switch to an invertor at night...it lasts around 4 hours...if you have a tv and dvd player connected.
been using gas for cooking...this was the best change...cooking is so much faster and cost a lot less....and i have a outside gas braai under the gazebo...in summer what a good excuse to get outside.

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## Houses4Rent

Maybe this is the answer...

http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/30/tes...s#.epz7yc:AOXG

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## Justloadit

Here is another article on it

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/techn...mer/ar-BBjakXC

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## Sparks

A quick fix to end load shedding would be to round up all these guys stealing copper cables and show them the cables supplying Mozambique  :Wink:

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## CLIVE-TRIANGLE

I think you'll find we use way more from Cahora Bassa than what we export to them

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