Just a few tips to minimise risk of load shedding

With the winter chill enveloping most parts of the country, space heating will become the second highest cost-pusher of an average household’s electricity bill.

Space heating and the geyser constitute 55% of an average household’s energy usage per month, with the geyser being responsible for 39% of the electricity costs.

Eskom has had to implement load shedding mainly due to a sharp increase in electricity demand in the evenings over the past few days.

Customers can help minimise the risk of load shedding, and also keep tabs on their electricity bill this winter by following some of these energy-saving tips:

• Use electric heaters that are controlled by thermostats.

• Electric blankets are the cheapest way of warming the bed, but don’t keep them on throughout the night.

• Turn your electric blanket on for an hour or two just before bedtime to heat it up and switch it off.

• Only heat rooms that you and your family are going to use.

• Insulate ceilings and make sure there are no gaps that let cold air into your house to improve the efficiency of your heater.

Other ways of reducing electricity demand include:

• Never leaving appliances such as televisions, computers and entertainment systems on standby mode.

• Remaining on standby mode, these appliances still use up to 15% of the electricity that they would normally use.

• Switching off lights in unoccupied rooms and replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or light emitting diodes (LEDs).

• Taking a shower instead of taking a bath (a shower uses a lot less water than a bath) – also consider installing an energy- and water-efficient shower head.

• Also remember to unplug cell phone chargers and other chargers when your device is fully charged.

• Cover you pool and reduce you pool pump filtering to one cycle per day during winter

If every household makes some minor changes, collective electricity use can be lowered by 10%.

This means the monthly energy costs will be reduced, reducing the demand on the national grid, while at the same time doing our bit to save the planet.

For free breaking and community news, visit our websites:

Ridge Times, Standerton Advertiser & Highvelder

Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

For news straight to your phone invite us:

BBM – 266F5BCC

WhatsApp – 0748872805