By: Natasha Archary
Winter is here and we all want to snuggle up in front of the heater to keep warm, or go to sleep with electric blankets on all night.
With the coldest night in 2022 recorded overnight on Tuesday, 31 May, can you save electricity to cut costs during the colder months?
According to Eskom, you can save electricity and cut costs if you adopt these tips into every day life. Make them a habit throughout the year so that usage decreases.
- Your geyser is the most energy-consuming appliance you have in your house. On average, it takes up between 25% and 40% of the total amount of your electricity bill.
The temperature of your geyser should be between 55°C and 65°C. However if you want to save money, we would advise you to set it up at 55°C on average.
According to Eskom, switching the geyser’s thermostat temperature from 70°C to 60°C help you achieve a small saving of 18kWh (= 5%). An alternative would be to install a gas geyser.
- Avoiding using hot water from the geyser for rinsing dishes and washing vegetables. Boil a kettle and use the hot water from here instead.
- Fix all leaking taps; allowing water, especially hot water, not to drip as it wastes both water and electricity.
- Set your fridge to 3°C; any lower and it will consume more electricity.
- Make sure the seals of your fridge and freezer doors are in tact and closed at all times.
- Don’t overfill your fridge or freezer; only use 90% of its capacity.
- Don’t leave computers, tv sets, DVD players, tablets and cell phones on – if you do, these appliances use up to 15 % more of the power they normally use when switched off.
- Don’t open windows and doors which will drop the room temperature inside. This can help keep the home warm, so you can limit the use of heaters.
- Replace your conventional outdoor lights with motion-sensor lamps for security – they use less electricity because they only activate when the sensor is triggered.
- Set your swimming pool pump’s running time to 6 hours per day and filter the water twice every 24 hours when you use the pool frequently – if you find this insufficient, increase filtering in 30-minute increments until the water stays clear.
Also read: Your winter natural remedy survival guide
