5 Ways to Reduce Electricity Use

2 min read

Electricity is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity in South Africa due to the crippling of Eskom’s infrastructure and the deterioration of municipal facilities. This has led to cycles of load shedding and/or load reduction countrywide. This is due to the demand for electricity being higher than the available supply, which leads to the national grid experiencing an overload, which then forces Eskom to implement load shedding. This means that reducing the amount of electricity we use can go a long way to reducing load shedding frequency and the totals on our electricity bills. Here are a few ways you can save on electricity by reducing your overall usage.

1. Turn the switch at the socket off when not in use

When the switch at the socket is turned on, there is an automatic flow of current providing an immediate supply of electricity to the socket, even if there is nothing plugged in. Be sure to turn the switch off when you do not need it because this will prevent energy being transmitted to an empty or idle socket.

2.  Unplug appliances when not in use

When appliances are plugged into a socket, they consume power from those sockets whether the appliance is on or not. Appliances such as kettles, heaters, microwave ovens, blenders, cellphones, laptops and printers can be unplugged when not in use to prevent them from consuming idle power.

3.   Switch lights off in rooms that have no one in them

This could seem obvious but in practice is sometimes not followed. In the midst of activities that are done in a rush before leaving the house and when returning home, we often forget to turn the light off in a room that nobody is in. Make sure you remember to turn the light off after you have left a room.

4. Turn your geyser on only before you need to use hot water

Most modern geysers are equipped with a switch that allows the user to toggle the amount of power used to heat the water in them. 

5. Use energy efficient lightbulbs

Replace traditional incandescent lightbulbs with halogen incandescent, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), or light emitting diode lightbulbs (LEDs). These use 25%-80% less electricity and can last 3-25 times longer which helps reduce your carbon footprint. The best option out of these is the LED light as they last longer, provide brighter light and save the most electricity. 

BONUS TIP

6. Use a geyser timer/controller

I’ve decided to gift a bonus tip for those who have read this far. You can pull the geyser lever on your DB board down when not in use. You can also install a timer/controller for your geyser that will allow you to set the times of the day at which your geyser will automatically switch on and off or do the switching yourself. This same concept can be applied to your pool pump. Using the timing/controlling devices are highly recommended as the manual methods could cause damage to your DB board. These timing devices can be found at your local hardware outlet or online. The typical geyser heats water 15-30 times a day and a 150L geyser typically takes up to an hour to heat water in cold conditions, so reducing electricity usage on your geyser goes a long way to saving electricity overall.

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Get your load shedding schedules here: Municipal Loadshedding schedules - Distribution (eskom.co.za)

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