Electricity usage seems high

sgs said:
That said, it took a lot of work to get things down to this level. Geyser is usually the main culprit - so start there by setting the thermostat correctly. Also, make sure it is a proper high-pressure geyser and not one of those old copper tanks - those EAT electricitly. Also, when opening mixer taps, make sure it is set to cold and not in the middle - setting it to the middle adds in hot water which uses electricity. (This seems pedantic, but it can make a significant difference and it does add up quickly.)

But other than that, I got a power meter and audited every single appliance in the house to see where power went. Found some unlikely power gulpers. (Like an old HP Laserjet - it goes to sleep, but it still chows half-a-unit a day just sitting there doing nothing.) Measuring is the only real way if you suspect that something is not as efficient as you'd like it to be...
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Soo much this.

Took a while to get into the habit of unplugging phone charges from the wall instead of just the cable and so on, but every little bit helps.
 
Nerfherder said:
Geyser is 2/3 of your usage so I think it will make up the difference.

This is the problem - people turn off lights to save electricity but its not what causes high usage.
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spot on - since moving to solar + sonoff switches there are some lights in my house almost on 247 some leds are 5w.

5w * 24 isnt even 100w a day. This barely has any impact on your usage.
 
Geoff.D said:
This!.. It is the geyser heaters and stoves followed by fridges and deep freezers, then TVs etc ( excluding gaming stuff) ,THEN only lights!
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I have 4 fridges and a chest freezer the chest freezer pulls 60w the fridges pull from 30-70w. These are also very low on power usage.

typical household power hog is likely a 80+ deg geyser esp in winter.
 
airborne said:
As I mentioned the rate I’m paying hasn’t changed so whether I state the rand or kWh value is irrelevant. I can’t remember the actual kWh used over and above off hand but it corresponds with the rand paid, so we are using noticeably more KWh with the new meter and coming out of winter our usage should be falling not increasing.
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Just look at your statements. Unless of course you simply throw them away. While the statement does not tell you how much you actually use, it does show you how much you are buying every month. And, if your average usage exceeds 600 units per month, you pay the higher tariff. Hence why it is so critical to keep the average usage below 600 kWh per month. I purchase a voucher once a month at a steady rate of about 540 units. That way the council can fiddle as much as they like with how they calculate the average usage, it will stay below 600 average.
 
Snyper564 said:
I have 4 fridges and a chest freezer the chest freezer pulls 60w the fridges pull from 30-70w. These are also very low on power usage.

typical household power hog is likely a 80+ deg geyser esp in winter.
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Erm is that 60W with or without the compressor?

Should measure fridge/freezer over time including duty cycle cause man that compressor can spike when it starts and run much higher than simple idle.
 
sgs said:
That said, it took a lot of work to get things down to this level. Geyser is usually the main culprit - so start there by setting the thermostat correctly. Also, make sure it is a proper high-pressure geyser and not one of those old copper tanks - those EAT electricitly.
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Nope. The answer is to post what your standing losses are with your new geyser. And. if you know what the older geyser's standing loss was.
It is all about insulation. I prefer that old geyser to the new ones.
sgs said:
Also, when opening mixer taps, make sure it is set to cold and not in the middle - setting it to the middle adds in hot water which uses electricity. (This seems pedantic, but it can make a significant difference and it does add up quickly.)
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Yup. Add only as much hot water as required. Takes LOTS of family training to get that right.
sgs said:
But other than that, I got a power meter and audited every single appliance in the house to see where power went. Found some unlikely power gulpers. (Like an old HP Laserjet - it goes to sleep, but it still chows half-a-unit a day just sitting there doing nothing.) Measuring is the only real way if you suspect that something is not as efficient as you'd like it to be.
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NOTHING is on that does not need to be on permanently. And printers especially. No phone chargers, nothing. Only plugged in and switched one when required.
 
AlphaJohn said:
Erm is that 60W with or without the compressor?

Should measure fridge/freezer over time including duty cycle cause man that compressor can spike when it starts and run much higher than simple idle.
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Sorry just checked stats used less than 1kw a day so 30-45watts. But it does jump to I think 200w when compressor kicks in
 
zerocool2009 said:
Inserted my Sept usage on Tswhane’s website this morning. With all loadshedding... 170kw for Sept!
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Yup. Our usage is exceptionally low this month. We will be accumulating plenty this month, maybe even enough to skip a complete month's purchase. ( That has advantages because it will push our average usage figures down). But I don't think that is a good idea -- the less the damn council knows about our habits the better.
 
Geoff.D said:
This!.. It is the geyser heaters and stoves followed by fridges and deep freezers, then TVs etc ( excluding gaming stuff) ,THEN only lights!
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Drives me mad hey. My MIL is militant on this and its so annoying. She screams at my kids to turn off the lights in my house but its a cave so its lights going on and off like a disco.
I'm actually having to replace light switches because they end up breaking.
 
Nerfherder said:
Drives me mad hey. My MIL is militant on this and its so annoying. She screams at my kids to turn off the lights in my house but its a cave so its lights going on and off like a disco.
I'm actually having to replace light switches because they end up breaking.
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yet she is the one baking rusks 6 hours a day! :)
 
AlphaJohn said:
That seems more than 15% no?
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I don't know his provider, so I won't know %'s - nor am I keen to look them up.

What i'm saying - is that buying through a vendor ups the price as they charge a margin on top.

With another vendor MeterMate iirc it's 15%, Citiq even more and who knows what Impact Meters charges for the privilege.
 
My missus and I and use about 400kWh a month for R1 200.
I generally buy R600 on the 25th then another R600 on the 1st of every month (to align payday with my clicks cap or whatever).

Anyway is the below normal on a R600 spend?
Units 207.0 kWh
Token R 379.88 VAT R 56.98
Vending & Channel Fees R 72.26 VAT R 10.84
Network Access Charge R 14.40 VAT R 2.16
Eskom Homepower 4 Network Access R 55.20 VAT R 8.28
 
itareanlnotani said:
Gaming PC can easily use 300-500W an hour even if "only DoTA". So thats quite possibly your culprit for some of that. Turn off when not in use.
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Disagree, but it depends entirely on the specs of the OP's computer. I have a Ryzen 3600, 16 gigs of ram and a RX 5700 and I use about 120W for esports titles (LoL/Dota) at 240fps (with a 240hz monitor included in that wattage), while AAA titles go to about 250W.

My PC drops down to about 60-70W when doing other stuff (word processing, surfing, media consumption) so unless his PC is really old and has rubbish power management, I doubt it's the PC that's devouring all the electricity.
 
Vorastra said:
How tf are you running all that at only 500-600kWh a month. We use ~740kWh and don't have half that stuff.
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2 bedroom house with 2 people most of the time (3 people for two nights a week when my partner is over). We have a solar geyser and our consumption is about 300-450kWh per month, depending on how cold it gets.

Some of the things in our house:

1 x full size fridge
1 x bar fridge
2 x 40" tvs
2 x computers (1 gaming machine)
1 x microwave
1 x over/stove
1 x dishwasher

Sometimes a 3D printer when it's brought in for some of the work my brother does.
 
These are the Tshwane tariffs for 2022/23.

We never use more than 350 to 380 kWh per month. We buy the first two groups every month, and thus build up
a spare kitty with the units above the average usage. We are a two people household.

0-100kWh = R2,1269x 100 : R212,69 + 15% Vat = R244,59

101-400kWh = R2,4891x300 : R746,73 + 15% VAT = R858,74

401-650kWh = R2.7118x250 : R677,95 + 15% VAT = R779,64

0-400kWh = R959,42 + 15% Vat = R1103,33
 
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