Load shedding

[ians]

The load shedding has begun in Durban, started yesterday.

[Dave A]

Oh joy. So that's why my power is down right now.

And my generator I use for backup power is out on a site, so the office is at a stand still until it comes back

Oh cool. It's just come back

[IanF]

Just been through 2 hours this morning.
Our chinese laser cutter just starts up were it left off.

[desA]

Guess there will be no need for the last one leaving, to turn off the light switch... Darkest Afreeka, indeed.

[irneb]

Yep, here in Bryanston we also had same issue, though some of the printers had paper jams after the jenny kicked in. Oops ... no UPS on them ....

I alternately laughed & cried when I heard the "reason" given on 94.7 this morning for Eskom's blackouts: "Due to the excessive rain"

Nothing regarding something which made news only a few weeks ago: http://www.iol.co.za/business/compan...ower-1.1651324

[Simonsez]

Malmesbury western cape has started there load shedding now.

GET RID OF ALL THE SQUATTER CAMPS AND WE WON'T HAVE THIS PROBLEM.

[ians]

I am sure I heard the Eskom fella making promises that it would be unlikely that the re would be load shedding during winter...mmmmm... we haven't even got to winter.

Generator is full but I seem to have a load with, it runs fine until I switch on anything, then it just dies, hasn't been used since I had it serviced, best I take it back and find out what is wrong.

[ians]

Maybe I should share a few tips..

you don't need a huge generator ( I use a 2.2 kva to run my house) if the follow a few simple tips.

1/ Install a changeover above your meter box or if it is outside on the road, as close a s possible.
2/ Install your generator as far from your lounge as possible, don't worry about the neighbours they will get use to the sound.
3/ Run a cable from the generator to the changeover switch, the one size bigger than the max load of he generator.
4/ Install a gas stove and use a 9 kg bottle it will last around 3 - 6 months if you use it a lot, but will save you the rip off cost they change to install and certify if the bottle is installed outside, if you worried about the bottle running out do what I did and get 2 bottles. You can also use the gas to boil water if you want to have a hot bucket bath.
5/ A small solar panel (cost around R1000) with a set of LED lights, positioned in key points, kitchen, passage, bathroom and maybe the lounge. This will provide enough light to move arouns without having to use torches.
6/ I have reduced the size of my geyser element so that if they cut my power (next house I buy one requirement will be a CDU box rather than over head lines...much easier to tap into a CDU ) or the load shedding goes on a little longer than expected I can still have a hot shower.


Simple rules to follow, when you fire up your generator, make sure:

All the circuit breakers in the house are down
Plugs are switched off or pulled out


Decide what you want on, in my case I normal switch on all my lights, the fridge and freezer.
If I find the shower is cold then I switch off the fridge and freezer and switch on geyser.
The TV and home entertainment centre is normally on and cell phone chargers etc.
and so I switch on and off things as I require, what is important is that nothing in my house draws more power than my generator can handle.

[IanF]

Elections are around the corner. Eskom say low possibility of load shedding
Why today is different from yesterday except that the ANC don't want to lose votes.

[Marq]

Eskom says "didnt affect anybody just yet'.

We were down twice yesterday - once in the morning from 10h00 - 12h00 and in the evening 16h00 to 18h30. Four hours out of ones day, may not affect Eskom where they do FA, but here in the suburbs stuff actually happens you morons.

[Marq]

Simple rules to follow, when you fire up your generator, make sure:

All the circuit breakers in the house are down
Plugs are switched off or pulled out


Decide what you want on, in my case I normal switch on all my lights, the fridge and freezer.

You forgot the first thing on your to do list, which is......rewire house so that relevant stuff is on same breaker or on on its own breaker that you can control.

[irneb]

Eskom says "didnt affect anybody just yet'.

It's called the ostrich syndrome! If you bury your head so you can't see / hear the affects your actions cause - then "they didn't happen". Simple politics: repeat the lie enough times so it becomes a truth.

[Marq]

I think the Green Arrow has the right solution.
They have failed the Country, never mind the city.

[Dave A]

We were down twice yesterday - once in the morning from 10h00 - 12h00 and in the evening 16h00 to 18h30. Four hours out of ones day, may not affect Eskom where they do FA, but here in the suburbs stuff actually happens you morons.

Ditto.

And +1.

I also got some interesting feedback from my sparkies in the field yesterday. We were getting voltage readings as high as 248V on single phase and 415V on 3 phase installations during the rolling blackouts.

[Marq]

Has it or hasnt it stopped?
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-afri...7#.Uxlvu_na700

So some suburbs in Pretoria and Jhb were down for 2 hours. We were down for 4 hours in our area.

I had this theory before (in 2008 and 2010) which was that the Ethekwini Municipality are pandering to the anc showing them great support and doing this at the expense of the DA lead areas in Durban.

If you look at the Durban load shedding schedules - the DA areas pick up the load mainly in the evenings from 16h00 right through to 22h00 in two hour spots over the week. A fairer way would be to schedule black outs across the municipality to different times so that everybody can have a chance of coming home to a cold supper and no evening tv.
In 2010 at the time of switching on, testing and playing the initial warm up games, at the new stadium, Durban North was load shedded to accommodate the extra pull on the system. Sitting in the dark with a stadium lit up like a volcano on your doorstep is rather obvious.
A couple of accusatory emails later it all stopped with big denial. Yeah right.