Loadshedding question.

[Derlyn]

Most domestic users of electricity check how much electricity they use on a daily or monthly basis in rands and cents.

I don't.

I check in kW/h's.

We use 5,5 kWh per day on average. This has been the case for at least the last 4 years.

One would think that with the amount of loadshedding we been having in the last time, one's consumption should be less. Ours is not. My conclusion is that loadshedding me does not help the grid. We still use the same.

Has anyone found that there is a reduction in their consumption since loadshedding was introduced ?

I think we all adjust our usage around loadshedding schedules ie. We use a bit more outside of loadshedding times to make up for when the power is off.

What sayeth you ?

[Dave A]

You have raised an issue I have pondered on before.

For some categories of load, I suggest it just changes your time of use rather than reduce overall consumption. On the heavy load stuff, geysers and stoves come to mind. So no or minimal win there.

The heavy loads that you can't just shift around your time of use is air conditioning (of particular relevance in hot climates and days) and heating (a winter problem in SA). That's where the majority of the saving is probably coming from.

In the age of LED's, TV and lights don't draw that much nowadays. But they do add up.
And in the age of battery inverter systems - the load is actually increased by the margin of inefficiency...

[Derlyn]

We do not possess a heater or aircon.
That's why we live in East London.😄😄👍

[GCE]

They should rather call it load shifting .

With inverters on the go all you do is shift the recharge to another time - What it has done is forced people to invest in solar which is where there must be savings and in PE with installing solar comes time of use tariffs which forces people to change routine with dishwashers etc to off peak times.

Tesla Powerwall is brilliant with time of use and automatically adjusts battery storage to maximize sell back against usage.
I have finally been moved to time of use and drop my office bill from R2K to R300 with the Powerwall

[Justloadit]

What I have noticed at my office which has prepaid meters, is that there is a notable reduction in consumption on daily average during load shedding, and what I think is that the prepaid meters do not update the usage counter on a regular basis, but may do it hourly, so when load shedding occurs, the accumulated counter is reset.

[Isetech]

My bill has increased, because now I have a bunch of devices backing everything up, A large portion of my base current is all the devices in the house, workshop, offices. My house has a base current of around 2 amps (fridges etc which are on 24/7) 2,3 amps of the rest of the stuff, all the chargers in the storeroom, the inverters in the house and the UPS's in the offices and the 12 VDC power suppliers, they all start to add up.

I fitted volt/ammeter on my main DB, so every time I walk down the passage I can see the current. IT has made me realise that installing a solar system, even if it is just to keep all the batteries charged would be a good investment.

The load shedding is so unpredictable that you cant plan anything.

[Justloadit]

Especially when you have 3 lots of load shedding in a 24 hour period. There is no time to recharge lead acid batterries.

At home I have Lithium batteries, and only charge of solar. So far I have managed to last out all the load shedding with solar charging only. Then again I have 10kW of battery back up, with an average consumption of 500w an hour, save for heating food or boiling water for food preparation in the microwave.

My two geysers are solar heated using my PV based Solar Geyser, and too date in winter have had to use mains as the backup when insufficient sun occurred.

[Derlyn]

Hi guys

Just popped home about an hour ago and noticed the following.

The lower left panel has a whitish colour to it ( see photo )

Is this something to be worried about ?

[Dylboy]

That is weird, not seen that before. Is the glass maybe cracked and gives that colour from the angle ?

How's the power coming from it been today ?

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