Ripple Relays

J

Just_Ice

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Hey, lately eskom (the filthy bastards) have been turning of our geysers through their "ripple relay", leaving me with cold water. I just wanna know what do these relays look like? And where are they installed?
Because no one has installed anything inside our house at the switch board thing. Or is it outside on the pavement in the electricity box thing?
 
When I was in Gauteng, they installed the box just to the side of the main distribution box.

I defeated it because it meant that the whole family could not enjoy a warm shower in the evenings.
 
See! And all you people out there saying don't worry, your water will cool by 10 degrees and you'll have a nice warm shower! Bollocks!
 
Could possibly be installed inside the distribution box?
Cool by 10oC??? Might as well shower with only the cold water tap on!
 
Mine is installed in the green box on the sidewalk. From there 2 seperate live wires (one blue and one white) feed the house, the white one (in my case) comes from the ripple switch into the house, through the mains switch and into the geyser trip switch. The blue is the normal live feed for the rest of the house. Open up your DB board in the house, THROW THE MAINS SWITCH TO OFF!, depending on your setup, you need to take the other end of the the red wire that goes into the geyser tripswitch and screw that together with the other red wires either coming out of the mains/eart leakage being fed from the blue live wire. Viola, no more cold water.

Ofcourse, touch a live red wire with any part of your body and hot water will be the last thing on your mind...so be carefull.
 
Maybe I am lucky, but our ripple switch never gives us "cold water" (other than when it is cocked up - like once every 18 months or so).

Out of all the myriad stupid ideas and general rubbish Eskom feeds us, ripple switches are the only win imho.
 
My ripple relay was never sealed when they installed it so i can push the little white switch back up, saves me playing with two red wires and having a shocking experience. :)
 
We used to regularly run out of hot water in the winter mornings. The problem was resolved by turning up the thermostat on the geyser to 85 degrees, which defeats some of it's purpose - we probably end up using more electricity.

Our relay switch is in the garage, sealed and before the DB board. Apparently you can be arrested for tampering with it, although I don't know if this has ever happened.
 
I have a box on the wall next to my distribution box inside the house. It's got a small window in it with a round thing inside.

Is this a ripple switch?
 
Waaib said:
I have a box on the wall next to my distribution box inside the house. It's got a small window in it with a round thing inside.

Is this a ripple switch?
Click to expand...

No.

Mine is two switches that look a bit like the DB box trip switches.
One is marked 0:1 - this is always ON.

The other is smaller, and has a icon of a open circuit on one end and a closed circuit on the other. When the geyser is switched off, the circuit is open.
 
Moederloos said:
No.

Mine is two switches that look a bit like the DB box trip switches.
One is marked 0:1 - this is always ON.

The other is smaller, and has a icon of a open circuit on one end and a closed circuit on the other. When the geyser is switched off, the circuit is open.
Click to expand...

Ok. Thanks. So does Eskom install these on request or should I just ignore the whole thing?
 
I check again. There is a box on the wall that says "Ripple Relay" - I reckon this is it.

How do I know if it is being used by the municipality?
 
It has a bis sign on it saying ripple relay, you will know if you have one.
My house was built in an area that has supply problems (pre-loadshedding). We all have them installed. I can hear when it turns off. Will post a pic of one for you.

Yes you need to turn your geyser up, the theory is that if your water is hotter then you need to use less off it to have a shower/washing etc. Also the geyser stays hot for longer. We had cable theft the other day and had hot water for 11 hours (3 showers).
It works very well but you have very hot water, its almost boiling. The geyser is off for most of the day and only comes on at night, also its better if you have a modern geyser.

PS... we dont have load shedding, not sure why but I think its because of the ripple relay.
 
How do I know if the ripple relay is being used / operated by the power people.

Not sure if has anything to do with anything but my place has pay-as-you-go electricity.
 
I have to break the seal and push the relay back on because somehow when they remotely switched it off, and it will never come on.......
 
I have to break the seal and push the relay back on because somehow when they remotely switched it off, and it will never come on.......
Click to expand...

In which area do you reside? This could be due to signalling errors. There is at least one area where this happens and is the result of a substation fire where the damage is not yet sorted out
 
Super necro incoming.

I have a ripple relay installed that does absolutely nothing but it's LEDs are still flashing away. Doing a renovation soon, can I just remove it completely?
 
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