Load Shedding to be revived in full force

[irneb]

See the links for the schedules in this article.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/government/113233-expect-the-worst-load-shedding-since-2008.html

[AndyD]

Yep, a large coal silo at a power station collapsed...yikes!! It was only a dozen or so years old and apparently passed a structural inspection sometime last year. Hmmmm.

I had a load shedding outage at home last night at 8.15pm, the power came back on at 8.27pm. I'd like to know what exactly was achieved with an twelve minute load shed???

I also read today that the situation is already 'considerably more stable' and there may not future be load shedding.

[IanF]

I have load shedding by incompetence last night from 6 to 10 and now from 6 am

[irneb]

Yep, found the same last night at around 11:00 (was reading in bed) and at 11:12 it was back on.

Also heard this morning (Highveld Radio) that a transformer blew and large tracks were out for around 3 hours last night, then again for around 3 hours this morning - strange thing was that both City Power as well as Eishcom said it had nothing to do with shedding any loads even though it was so close to the stated load shedding schedule posted by them.

Sounds like a slight-of-hand. Silo crashes down --> Eskom goes into panic mode --> load sheds imminent --> transformer breaks down --> power outages --> public sees it as load sheds --> Esk refutes claim --> sounds like a lie --> Esk states load sheds aren't necessary any-more --> what's next? ... Sounds like a child breaking the cookie jar, then accidentally knocking over the one next to it as well, then claiming it never broke the first (seeing as the second was only an accident).

[irneb]

And then here's a "me too" moment from Telkom: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/teleco...k-warning.html

They really don't need excuses to have poor service do they? And definitely not such pseudo-sympathy-copycat-action.

[IanF]

Ok We are back and running.
Not going to rant it doesn't help.

[Justloadit]

The wheels are slowly beginning to wear and fall off.
There will be more in the very near future, as fatigue starts setting in due to lack of maintenance.
The problem with fatigue is that it can not be repaired, but has to be replaced. Easier said than done.
Get your gennys out and your solar panels cleaned and your batteries checked, we gonna need them.

[Chrisjan B]

Water is next - electricity seems to be the least of our trouble compared to this .

[AndyD]

I have more of a plan for water than I do for electricity. My borehole delivers potable water so I hooked it up with a changeover valve to supply the entire house if necessary. Unlike electricity, water is also something I can harvest myself for considerably cheaper than the council supplies it.

[KCS]

I want to figure out a way I can harvest rain water to use for flushing toilets. It does not sit well with me that we use perfectly good drinking water for flushing toilets.

Collecting the water is easy. My problem is how do I get it to the upstairs toilets?

Cheers

KC

[irneb]

Some "guy" thinks he knows why Eishcom's so bad at delivering a product: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/govern...city-mess.html

I think his "reason" is just one of the symptoms of the much deeper reasons behind it all ... incompetence, corruption, laziness, don't care attitude, etc.

As for the water ... definitely agreed: It's a disaster waiting to happen in the same category as a ticking hydrogen bomb. I.e. WHEN it goes off (NOT IF) it's going to be orders of magnitude worse than just having no lights for a few hours.

As to the flushing toilets idea ... that's one of many things going on in the so-called "Green Building" ideals. The trouble is every tom-dick-and-harry wants to have their building "Green Star Rated", but when they see what it entails to actually make it so they start retreating. I know, (I'm in Architecture) I've had every single project in the last 10 years have some form of "Let's get it green star rated" - but then when the budget is calculated it's: "What can we omit and still keep our rating?"

The main water ideals in the GBCSA rating means you class water into 3 categories: Black (like the stuff coming out of toilets), Grey (the stuff coming from basins, showers, baths, etc.) and Pottable (the drinkable water from the tap). E.g. you can collect Grey water to fill your toilet's cistern, you can use Black water for landscape watering (i.e. wet the plants), and you can use rainwater to augment Portable (drinkable) water. But that is going to cost a lot indeed, you need a water treatment plant to get rid of stuff like chemicals (e.g. from a washing machine) or split such water off from being re-used, and few buildings these days go with such an expensive system (even though most of them "want to be GREEN" - but only if it costs nothing).

[IanF]

Third power outage in 3 days what to do? Generators cost a fortune

[AndyD]

Unfortunately all effective power back-up solutions cost a fortune and most have severe logistical drawbacks. If you can get away with running a generator with the smoke, the noise and obviously have a place to put it along with the fuel required and with sufficient security that it will still be there tomorrow then you're in the lucky minority.

[KCS]

I am thinking of buying a small generator just to keep essential items going during power cuts. Things like charge laptop and cell phone, and keep the fridge working.

Cheers

KC

[AndyD]

If you live on a small holding in the middle of nowhere then a small generator is a great option, if you stay in one of those Tuscanny town house complexes then I doubt the neighbours will tolerate it. I'd choose one large enough to run my computer and router so I could still get online during outages and moan about how useless Eskom are