Calculator: Cost comparison of Incandescent vs CFL vs LED globes

Thanks to Chris from MapaWatt.com and Mitra Ardron for extending the analysis by taking inflation into account – I have modified the calculator for South African (Cape Town) conditions: price of electricity, the price of the globes, and the inflation rate of power costs.


LED (Light Emitting Diode) globe, CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamps), and the bad old fashioned incandescent globe

To quote Mitra:
”
The spreadsheet tracks the cost curves for Incandescent, CFL and LED globes so you can see at what point you would break even. 
“

HTT has changed the figures for South Africans: electricity cost per kWh, and prices for the different types of bulbs
Based on a set of assumptions (that I got from Mapawatt), it shows (at 4 hours/day usage):
* CFL's are better than all of them from year 1, it takes 17 years for LED's to beat CFL's but then need replacing after year 35. 
* LED's beat Incandescent globes after 3-and-a-bit years.


To quote Mitra again:
”
Obviously this depends on assumptions about inflation in electricity prices, so I've added a second tab, where I assume electricity inflates at 7% more than general inflation.
”
HTT has changed the inflation figures for South Africans: electricity is due to go up 25% for the next 3 years (and probably beyond that too).

Don’t give up on the LED globes - in the near future, I’m sure that their prices will drop drastically and will replace CFLs.

Here are the screen shots of the charts showing the results: no inflation, and with inflation (note: horizontal axis have different scales)
 
       

Is it just me, or do you also think that the power guzzling little incandescent globes should be banned!

To see the actual formulae and data download the calculator here:  HTT_Calculator_Lighting_cost_analysis_SouthAfricaAug2011.xls

The electricity rates for Cape Town for 2011 are here:  http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/electricity/tariffs/Pages/default.aspx

Cape Town’s new tariffs and charges (rates and taxes and electricity)

{Extracted from CityNews April 2010} The proposed new tariffs and service charges are set out in the draft budget. Water and sanitation charges will increase in line with inflation. However, electricity tariffs have risen sharply due to the Eskom increases, and solid waste removal charges have also risen to pay for new landfill and transfer station infrastructure.

Water and sanitation charges will increase in line with inflation, and property rates increases are in some cases below inflation. However, electricity tariffs have increased sharply due to the City being obliged to pass on the tariff increases granted to Eskom by the National Energy Regulator. Solid waste removal charges have risen to pay for new landfill and waste transfer station infrastructure.

The proposed service charge increases, given in the tables are:
• The property rate has dropped to 0,531 cents in the rand
• An average increase of 10% for water and sanitation
• An increase of 18% for solid waste removal
• An increase of 38,5% for solid waste disposal
• An average increase of 24,6% for electricity, based on Eskom’s increase of 28,9% for this year
• The first R200 000 of your property’s value is rates-free.




Water and sanitation tariffs 
Please note that the City has increased the number of billing categories, or ‘steps’, for water and sanitation.
These new steps are better suited to the volumes people actually use.
The first ‘Step 1’ – the free basic allocation – remains unchanged, but bigger volumes have been allocated into smaller blocks. The tariffs proposed in the budget relate to the new steps shown alongside.

Solid waste tariffs
There is a new charge, for ‘clean’ builder’s rubble.














Electricity tariffs 

These remain in three broad categories:
‘Lifeline’ – which caters for poorer people and has no service charge,
‘Domestic Low’ – with no service charge, and
‘Domestic High’ – which does have a service charge.

Examples of actual costs in each of the categories are given in the tables alongside.

How the electricity tariffs work
The tables below show what customers can expect to pay for electricity at the proposed new tariffs, and the examples explain what portion of purchases is made up of the free allocation, at the subsidised rate and at the normal rate.

Examples at the LIFELINE energy rate
• Person A buys R240 (including VAT) worth of electricity once per month.  For each purchase, he will receive 366,3 kWh, made up of 50 kWh free, 100 kWh at the subsidised rate, and 216,3 kWh at the normal rate.
• Person B buys R60 (including VAT) once a week. For the first purchase in the month he will receive 50 kWh free, and 90,6 kWh at the subsidised rate – a total of 140,6 kWh. On his second purchase he will receive 9,4 kWh at the subsidised rate and 66.9 kWh at the normal rate – a total of 76,3 kWh.  For the third and fourth purchase of the month he will receive 74,7 kWh – all at the normal rate. If one adds all four purchases together, he also receives 366,3 kWh in the month, the same as Person A.
• Person C normally buys R200 (including VAT) once a month.  For this he will receive 316,5 kWh made up of 50 kWh free, 100 kWh at the subsidised rate, and 166,5 kWh at the normal rate. However, in this particular month, Person C requires a small top-up amount and buys R40 worth of electricity.  Person C will receive 60,4 kWh for this purchase – charged at the normal rate – bringing the total energy purchased in the month to R240 – 366,3 kWh in total.

Examples at the DOMESTIC LOW energy rate
This tariff is relatively simple. Whatever energy is purchased, the tariff remains the same and the value is a simple multiplication of tariff x units (kWh) purchased.

Examples at the DOMESTIC HIGH energy rate
• Person D buys 500 kWh of electricity four times a month. His normal account will contain two components: an energy charge to the amount of R455,85 and a service charge of around R52,50 for the week (seven days are used here – actual value will depend on the exact length of time between purchases).  Both of the purchases in the month (if equally spaced) will be identical.
• Person E buys 2 000 kWh of electricity on the first of the month, resulting in an energy charge of R1 823,40, and a service charge of either R225 (for a 30-day month) or R232,50 (for a 31-day month).
• Person F buys electricity once a year. He uses 24 000 kWh in the year, and will therefore pay R21 880,80 for energy for the year. He will also pay the service charge for 365 days, which will total R2 737,50 for the year.
Please note that the service fee is a daily fee and works out to be the same amount over a year, whether you buy once a week, once a month, or once a year.
 


• For more information, contact the City’s call centre on 0860 103 089.

HTT comments:
Prices will increase on 01Jul 2010.  Pre-Paid customers: see this article to see if it’s worth while to do a bulk buy purchase ahead of the increase: If you have a pre-payment meter: FAQs answered by Eskom on radio 567CapeTalk and Saving 24.8% by loading your pre-payment electricity meter
Did you notice the 93.5% in the daily service fee for Domestic High users?  From R3.88 to R7.50 per day! That’s from R116 per month to R225, or from R1,416 per annum to R2,736 (gulp).
BTW: you are a ‘Domestic High’ user if you use more than 800 kWh per month (average).  See here for more info: Cape Town Electricity Tariffs

What uses up the most electricity in your home or office? (calculator)

This is the question everyone has been asking and I too have been wondering.
I have created an “ElectricityUsageCalculator” (Excel spreadsheet) for you to calculate your usage and where you can make savings.

In fact, in the quest for the answer I have taken the long path of reducing my household’s electricity consumption and I thought that I’d share this information…

Before I get to the detail, I’d like to thank the following people/organisations/forums for sharing their valuable information:
Talk Radio 702 Power Guide: http://www.702.co.za/power/usage_list2.asp
Eskom’s Conserving Electricity page: http://www.eskom.co.za/live/content.php?Item_ID=274&Revision=en/0
Saving Electricity 101: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
Why not pay those sites a visit?

If you do want to save electricity/money try these steps (in the order listed):
*) turn down the temperature setting on your thermostat (mine is set to 40 degrees C) – you know when it’s set right by the amount of cold water that you need to mix when you’re having a shower…. If you’re mixing a lot of cold water, then you know that your thermostat is set too high – you need to turn it down (colder), until you are mixing no cold water (or little) in your shower.
See here: how to lower your geyser's thermostat
Heat loss will be small on modern (or geyser‑blanket clad) geysers and piping, but the lower the thermostat temperature, the lower the losses, and the lower the electricity that is used to get the water to the thermostat temperature.
Comment from Dave on http://energycrisis.co.za/?p=56: “I turned my geyser down from 60oC to 50oC and saved 20% on my bill”

*) use less hot water (ie. Install a low‑flow shower head [I have an RST low flow one], and shower quickly) to save electricity – the less cold water that your geyser needs to heat up, the less electricity is used.

*) use the ‘Electricity Usage Calculator’ to see where you ‘spend’ your electricity.

Download from here: ElectricityUsageCalculator02.xls

I was amazed to see that my main “culprit” was not my geyser, but in fact my swimming pool pump! [thanks Tim Truluck for pointing this out to me!]

Instructions for using the calculator:
Don't edit the shaded cells....

Step 1) In the worksheet ‘PerHourCosts’: check the ratings (W) listed [column D] and adjust to your appliances' ratings;

(Note which appliance is the most costly to run per hour)

Step 2) In the worksheet ‘UsageCosts’: fill in the 'hours used per item per month' [column D];

Note: 'Cost per item per month' - the high cost items is where you can save the most


  
 *) Use solar power to heat your geyser: install solar panels. If you are building a new house or if you replace your geyser, then install solar panels and a time switch.  A solar‑only geyser will heat up the water more slowly (note: the thermostat plays no role in limiting the solar‑only upper temperature).  Installing a time switch in a solar installation will: 1) ensure that electricity is not used on a sunny day (i.e. on a sunny day you would rather have a slower heating up of the water by the sun, rather than use electricity and solar to heat up the water faster); 2) ensure that electricity is used so as to guarantee that there is hot water early in the morning and, in late afternoon on cold/cloudy days.

How do I find out how much electricity something uses?

Adapted from “Saving Electricity 101”: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html

Look at the label - nearly everything you can plug into the wall has a label that says how much electricity it uses.

If the label only gives the number of Amps and not the number of Watts, then just multiply the Amps by 220 to get the number of Watts. (Amps x Volts = Watts. So a hot plate that uses 3 amps uses 3 x 220 = 660 Watts.

Note that if a device is powered by a transformer (one of those great big plugs), then the transformer has converted the electricity from AC to DC, so you need to multiply by the DC voltage, not the AC voltage of 220. For example, if the device says "INPUT 9V, 0.5A", then that's 9 volts x 0.5 amps = 4.5 Watts.

Another tip:
*) Remember to turn off your ‘plug’ circuit breakers when you’re in “load-shedding” mode – this will ensure that your appliances are not connected to Eskom when power is turned on again – remember, when power is turned on again, there is usually a surge (over 220V) which could damage your appliances. Leave a light turned on, so that you know when power has returned, then turn your ‘plug’ circuit breaker back on again.

{Note: This HTT calculator is also available from the article “Does a time switch on your geyser actually save electricity?”}

If you have a pre-payment meter, then you can save 24.8% on your electricity if you buy now, only 6 days to go!

Eskom electricity tariffs will go up by 24.8% on 01 April 2010 - that leaves 6 days for you to stock up on cheaper electricity:
I'm going to save that 24.8% by pre-purchasing as much electricity as I can afford before 01 April 2010 – just like I did last year (and the year before).
Once I've purchased all that electricity, I'll want to make it last as loooong as possible - I'll do that by checking where the biggest savings can be made by re-analysing my household's usage and cut down on the most expensive appliances: Saving electricity tips

See here for this posting (still relevant) for all the answers and the "Electricity Tariff Calculator tool": Beat Eskom price increases

This year's increase details:
When are the tariffs going up? @ 23h59 on Wed night 31 March 2010.
How much will the increases be? 2010's increase is, on average 24.8% (see here for NERSA’s media release)

The posting answers questions like:
How full can your pre-payment meter go?
How much can I purchase on my credit card?
Which tariff plan am I on?
If I fill my meter up too much will I lose my free 50 kWh per month?

And while you're saving money, why not ready the blog "Why pay cash for pre-paid electricity when you can use your credit card?" and earn cash back and "reward points".


 

How to save electricity:
*) turn down the temperature setting on your thermostat - here's where and how: Where is my geyser's thermostat? How do I turn it down?
*) use less hot water (ie. Install a low‑flow shower head). See here to purchase RST Profilence (RST contact details) and here for a report on savings (water and electricity
*) Shower, don't bath: see here for report on how much less power a shower uses than a bath
*) Install a geyser blanket to insulate your geyser and pipes. See here for a report on savings when using a geyser blanket (30% improvement)
*) use the ‘Electricity Usage Calculator’ to see where you ‘spend’ your electricity.
*) Reduce your pool pump's ON time per day
*) Install ceiling insulation. See here for more info and suppliers
*) Lastly, use solar power to heat your geyser: install solar panels. If you are building a new house or if you replace your geyser, then install solar panels and a time switch. See here for non-savings installing a time switch if you don't have a solar geyser: non-savings report

Oh, and while we’re talking about rate increases – don’t forget that Metrorail plans to increase train fares on April 1.  The fare increase, the first since 2003, will see customers paying between R40 and almost R100 more than the current prices for a Metroplus monthly ticket.

1 more day to purchase 27.3% cheaper electricity... do it now

CapeTown electricity is going up by 27.3% on 01July - that leaves 1 day for you to stock up on cheaper electricity:  

Refer to my earlier blog "Does it pay to topup your pre-payment meter?", I have purchased a few months' worth of electricity.

Here are some of the questions that are answered:
3) How much pre‑paid electricity can I purchase before the increase?

To save money you can top up your pre-payment electricity to a maximum of 9,999 units. www.energy.co.za allows purchases of up to R2,500 per transaction but more than one transaction can be made…. as long as your credit card can take it! If you try and top up too much, then your meter will disallow entry of the ‘token’ – you will need to wait until you’ve used up some units.

Note: that if you pay a ‘daily service fee’ [on tariffs: ‘Domestic 1’ or ‘Domestic 3’], then you cannot pre-purchase ‘daily service fee’ “credits” (in other words, you can only stock up on units, not ‘daily service fee’). This means that if you purchase 4 months worth of units, you will pay the current per unit price of electricity, and in 4 months time when you purchase again, you will then be charged 4 months of ‘daily service fees’ (at the new increased rate)…. So, there’s no getting around the ‘daily service fee’ increase.

4) When must I key in my purchased units?
The purchase transaction is for units (not Rands) – the pre-payment meter has no knowledge of the actual price of the electricity, so it doesn’t matter when you enter the token into the meter – as long as the purchase is made before the price increase comes into effect (that’s probably 01July for City of Cape Town).

...and more

And while you're saving money, why not ready the blog "Why pay cash for pre-paid electricity when you can use your credit card?" and earn cash back and "reward points".

Where is my geyser's thermostat? How do I turn it down?

I have had a lot of questions related to my blogs on saving electricity:

Does a time switch on your geyser actually save electricity?

Why is it necessary to install a time switch on your solar geyser?

If you have a solar geyser, then make sure you install a timeswitch!

To summarise:

If you don't have a solar geyser then you need to concentrate on:

-> using less hot water (shower [not bath] using a low‑flow shower head),

-> reducing the temperature of your geyser's thermostat, and

-> reducing the heat loss from the hot water pipes (insulate them)

(and not on turning your geyser off).

If you do have a solar geyser then you need to

-> do all of the above (for no solar geyser)

-> as well as installing a time switch.

But, where is that thermostat that I keep referring to, and how do I adjust it so that the water is not so hot?

The geyser's thermostat is on the geyser, inside a protective enclosure (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1: Geyser with Thermostat enclosure (closed)

To get to it, you need to:

1) turn off the electricity supply to the geyser (to be 100% safe, turn off all the switches on your electrical distribution board)

2) find the geyser - usually in the roof (Note: if you are climbing into your roof, then make sure that you step on the rafters (not on the ceiling board) otherwise you will fall through the ceiling and onto the floor!), then

3) open the protective covering

4) using a small flat screw driver, turn the thermostat setting screw to a colder setting [usually, clockwise] (in Figure 2 below, the setting is 40 degrees Celsius)

Figure 2: Thermostat enclosure open, and set to 40 degrees Celsius

Note: the thermostat settings are not exact and you might need to visit your geyser more than once.

Update on 16June2010:

Watch out or, at least, be aware: #WTF Geyser's element has just blown <3 years after installation... 5 year geyser warranty, but only 3 months on the element! #FFS #RipOff

http://www.xstream.co.za/warranty.htm

Why do I blog? I thought it was because I wanted to share information for the good of all, but I've just discovered that it "saves ME money"

Why do I blog? I thought it was because I wanted to share information for the good of all, but I've just discovered that it "saves ME money" - not "makes me money", not "saves others money" - it saves ME money.

The "makes me money" part is simple - Google Adsense places their "content-appropriate" ads on my blog and they pay me a small percentage of their advertising income based on the number of clicks that my readers find interesting.

So, how does it "save me money" you might ask?

Well, in my previous blogs about saving electricity I have tried to explain why it's necessary to install a time switch on your solar geyser and explained that without a time switch installed, electricity (not energy from the sun) will heat up the cold water faster than the sun can...... well, while keeping statistics on units/day usage, I discovered that my consumption wasn't giving the savings that I had expected!

In fact, since installing my solar panels last year, my electricity usage had not really gone down at all! In fact, at times, usage went up!

Here are some of the reasons that I have come up with:

1) when the new geyser was installed, the installer (in all his wisdom and 30 years of experience) installed the geyser with the thermostat set to 60 degrees Celsius (my old geyser was set to 50) - I reduced the thermostat setting to 35 degrees Celsius and reduced usage (from about 42 units/day to 34 units/day = 19% saving).

2) time switch was not working - there was a problem with the wiring and even though the time switch was "switching", the geyser was never disconnected from power. Watch this space for stats on how much I actually save with the time switch which is now working correctly.

So, bottom line, due to my keeping detailed statistics to report on this blog, I noticed that the energy usage was not going down and this caused me to investigate further and find the problems with the thermostat setting and the time switch wiring! So, thanks to you, and this blog, I have saved myself (and hopefully you) lots of money!

PS: it took me a while to figure out that our old geyser had "burst" - there was no "big bang", nor was there any water pouring from the ceilings, but there was (hot) water fast-dripping from the overflow pipe. Well, that dripping caused our electricity usage to go up drastically (114%)! So replacing the geyser reduced my daily units from 92 to 41 units/day)

Update on 16June2010:

Watch out or, at least, be aware: #WTF Geyser's element has just blown <3 years after installation... 5 year geyser warranty, but only 3 months on the element! #FFS #RipOff

http://www.xstream.co.za/warranty.htm

Eskom price increases are looming…. Does it pay to fill up your pre-payment meter or not?

This article tries to answer all these questions and more…. (and ElectricityTariffCalculator.xls tool)

When are the tariffs going up? How much will the increases be? How full can your pre-payment meter go? How much can I purchase on my credit card? Which tariff plan am I on? If I fill my meter up too much will I lose my free 50 kWh per month?

First of all I’d like to acknowledge the sources of my information:

To answer my list of questions I Googled a lot but couldn’t really find any answers so I decided to write an email to Eskom and to www.energy.co.za. I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Eskom early the next day requesting more information (the region that I was in), but even more impressed when I received a telephone call from Donovan from the www.energy.co.za support team who meticulously explained how the tariffs work and gave me the answers below.

Other sources:

http://www.capetown.gov.za/wcmstemplates/Electricity.aspx?clusid=458&IDPathString=5992-6182&catparent=6182#electariff

http://www.capegateway.gov.za/eng/pubs/news/2006/jun/139535

Note: all specifics (tariffs and dates) relate to the City of Cape Town. Eskom customers and other regions will have different rates and dates, but the principles are probably similar.

1) When are the electricity tariffs going up?
City of Cape Town’s financial year runs from 01July – so increased tariffs will probably be on 01July, so you’ll need to purchase your extra units before then. Why not put a reminder in your calendar now….”Thurs26June: purchase n‑months worth of electricity”. (Eskom's financial year runs from 01April)

2) How much are the electricity tariffs going up?

I have read that they will be going up by 14.2% but I have not seen an increase yet. Eskom has requested approval for a 53% increase, but this has not yet bee approved. At this stage (as on 22April2008) neither the 14.2% nor the 53% increase has been finalised.

3) How much pre‑paid electricity can I purchase before the increase?

To save money you can top up your pre-payment electricity to a maximum of 9,999 units. www.energy.co.za allows purchases of up to R2,500 per transaction but more than one transaction can be made…. as long as your credit card can take it! If you try and top up too much, then your meter will disallow entry of the ‘token’ – you will need to wait until you’ve used up some units.

Note: that if you pay a ‘daily service fee’ [on tariffs: ‘Domestic 1’ or ‘Domestic 3’], then you cannot pre-purchase ‘daily service fee’ “credits” (in other words, you can only stock up on units, not ‘daily service fee’). This means that if you purchase 4 months worth of units, you will pay the current per unit price of electricity, and in 4 months time when you purchase again, you will then be charged 4 months of ‘daily service fees’ (at the new increased rate)…. So, there’s no getting around the ‘daily service fee’ increase.

4) When must I key in my purchased units?

The purchase transaction is for units (not Rands) – the pre-payment meter has no knowledge of the actual price of the electricity, so it doesn’t matter when you enter the token into the meter – as long as the purchase is made before the price increase comes into effect (that’s probably 01July for City of Cape Town).

5) If I purchase a lot of units now, will I lose my free units per month (or be moved to a high-usage tariff)?

If you are on tariff ‘Domestic 2‘ (i.e. low consumption: less than 600 kWh per month) and if your average consumption over past the 12 months is less than 400 kWh per month, then you qualify for 50 kWh free per month (that’s 50 free units per month).

You are charged by ‘how much you consume’, not by ‘how much you purchase’…. So, purchasing lots of units before the price increase will not affect your free units per month (as long as you stay using less than 400kWh per month!)

Note: it’s human nature to use more when there is more…. ie: if the meter’s full, the human will use more electricity – so beware!

6) How can I calculate the savings?

Since the exact increases are not yet approved, it’s difficult to calculate the savings, but I have assumed two increases: 14.2% and 53% and allocated these increases to the ‘per unit’ cost and the ‘daily service fee’ – see the ElectricityTariffCalculator.xls for figures.

So, what's the bottom line? Does it pay to fill up your pre-payment meter or not?

Yes, if electricity goes up by (say) 15% then you will save 15% - so, figure out whether it's worth "investing" your spare cash into buying "cheap" electricity before the increases.

{It's the same reasoning process as when the price of petrol/diesel goes up - although your petrol/diesel tank has a lower capacity (50 litres, or whatever) - in the case of electricity purchase, the limit is your credit card limit :) }

Any more questions? Any errors spotted? Do you have any more information?

Write a comment and HandyTechTipper will attempt to answer asap.

If you have a solar geyser, then make sure you install a timeswitch!

To further clarify my blog: Does a time switch on your geyser actually save electricity?, if you have a solar geyser then make sure you install a time switch!
Without a time switch installed, electricity (*not* energy from the sun) will heat up the cold water faster than the sun can.
With a time switch installed, *only* solar energy will be used to heat up the cold water - electricity will kick in if the time switch is set to use electricity for critical time periods (early in the morning and late at night).
See here for more details: Eskom info on using a time switch with solar panels?

*) Installing a time switch in a solar installation will:
1) ensure that electricity is not used on a sunny day (i.e. on a sunny day you would rather have a slower heating up of the water by the sun, rather than use electricity and solar to heat up the water faster) and
2) ensure that electricity is used so as to guarantee that there is hot water early in the early morning and, in late afternoon/night on cold/cloudy days.

Remember to also turn the temperature on the geyser's thermostat down! (mine is set to 35 degrees C, and it's fine i.e. this is the temperature of the water on cold/cloudy days, but on sunny days the temperature is much hotter due to the solar panel doing its job)

Update on 16June2010:

Watch out or, at least, be aware: #WTF Geyser's element has just blown <3 years after installation... 5 year geyser warranty, but only 3 months on the element! #FFS #RipOff

http://www.xstream.co.za/warranty.htm

Battery+inverter or generator: the Pro's and Con's

With all the blackouts aren't you thinking of getting a Generator for your power needs? Well after reading this article you might put that "Genie" on hold for a battery/inverter combination!

This article that was sent to me by the "SA Community Information Centre" cic@constantcontact.co.za - an organisation that is dedicated to preventing crime in South Africa.

Why not visit their web site here: http://www.cicfamily.co.za and support them.

I found it very informative and decided to share it (with small modifications):

"
To shed light or not to shed light, that is the question?
Here is an informative e-mail we received that might help us through the dark times ahead:

With all the rumours that are currently flying around regarding the onset once again of "load shedding" I thought I would send you the following, with the hope that if you can send it out on your mailing list it might prove useful to some of your family members, and keep the neighbourhood peaceful as well as safe.

After careful consideration and talking to a number of specialists on the subject, I came to the opinion that generators have a number of disadvantages.

They are expensive to buy and run and maintain, the smallest you can reasonably expect to supply you with sufficient power is a 5kVA, a good/safe one of these will cost anything from R10,000 to R20,000.
Storing petrol is dangerous and whilst most people do it for their garden lawnmower etc. the amount needed for a generator is too much to be safe and I felt that with the maid or gardener handling it, it was an accident waiting to happen.
Generators are excessively noisy and will disturb the neighbours, they cannot be safely operated in a garage or enclosed space, and they emit dangerous exhaust fumes and must be well ventilated.
Most, if not all of them create a poor power supply with a number of "spikes" that will blow your computer and damage most household appliances. You have to make sure that your water heaters and certain other circuits are turned off before starting the generator and then you have to make sure the generator is properly switched off when the power comes back on to prevent feedback which again will damage your appliances.
If you are not at home then your wife, maid or kids will have to set it up and start it.
Taking all this into account I decided to make up my own solution.

I added up the total Wattage of what I wanted to run during "load shedding" and I purchased:

• 1 x 1,000 Watt inverter: cost R1,250 from PSS Distributors Nr ABSA Stadium
• 2 x 100 Amp "Deep Cycle" no maintenance batteries: cost R900 each from Dixons Batteries in North Coast Road.
• 1 x Intelligent charger: cost R850 from Dixons Batteries or Makro.
• Total cost: R3,900

There are two ways of using this system, the first and easiest is to simply connect it up and put an extension cord and multi plug into the inverter, connecting whatever you choose to run to this.
The second is what I have chosen to do, that is to get an electrician to disconnect the circuits I want to power from the Eskom supply (Distribution Board) and re-connect them to my unit, when the power goes out they just keep on working, when it comes back on the charger kicks in and recharges the system, basically the circuits I have selected are now running permanently from the inverter.

I have connected my outdoor security lights, alarm system, lounge sockets (T.V. DSTV and a couple of standard lamps), all my bedroom sockets for bedside lights and my office telephone and computer system). It might sound complicated but it’s basically just a bigger version of the UPS systems many of us are already using to power our computers, and the inverter is something every caravanner and camper knows all about. The advantage is that it's silent, safe and convenient, you can make it as big as you want, to power as little or as much as you need.

It’s not advisable to use it for the cooker, or for your hair-dryer, vacuum cleaner nor kettle, but then neither is a generator and with a 2 hour power cut it's surely not too hard to do without those.
You could run the refrigerator but again for two hours you don’t really need it.
You don’t need two batteries unless you are going to run a lot of items, as I do. Then it is advisable to have two batteries linked in parallel - the electrician has calculated that I can run all I have allowed for up to 4 hours without the need to recharge the batteries.

Points to be aware of:

• You must have "Deep Cycle" batteries, preferably low maintenance [normal car batteries are not designed for this purpose and will not last very long].
  
• You must have an "intelligent" charger: it’s worth spending a little more on this to make sure it does the correct job.
  
• If you have more than one battery always connect them with proper heavy duty battery connectors (you can buy them at Midas) and "in parallel" [that’s + to +, and - to - otherwise you will increase the voltage from 12 to 24 volts and damage the inverter!]
  
• If you decide to make this a permanent set up (as I have) then get a registered electrician to connect it up for you. (If all you are going to do is run an extension cable and sockets from this then you can easily set it up yourself.)
  

The advantages are obvious:

• It’s cheaper than a generator to both purchase and run and maintain.
  
• It’s silent: a generator in every house is going to drive us all to distraction.
  
• It’s safe: no petrol to store and no exhaust fumes to ventilate.
  
• It’s fully automatic if you’re not at home it just kicks in and does its own thing.

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Here's more info:

• Choosing Between an Inverter and a Generator
  
• What is the difference between a normal lead-acid car battery and a deep cycle battery?
• Does a time switch on your geyser actually save electricity?
• Now I know when Eskom load shedding will happen (well, almost....)

Stay tuned for an upcoming blog on "how to choose your generator": size (KVA or Watts) and how much can I connect to it? Plus: safety tips,