Eskom's confounding average electricity consumption

richjdavies said:
Having seen a lot of different houses I think that average could be about right.

Key is just how many people have a pool pump running 12 hours, bore hole irrigation for an hour, aircon or heating most of the day and 3 geysers they never use, and underfloor heating which comes on when they are asleep!

So they use 50-80kWh per day, whereas many/most people use 10-20kWh but it drags the average up!

Also Eskom doesn't serve many built up areas so do they consider a farm or block of flats or an estate as One HOME? Maybe... Wouldn't put it past them.
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2kw borehole pump that runs 2 hours a day, 2kw irrigation pump that runs 2 hours per day and pool pump that runs the moment the suns start shining till it sets. Solar geyser that uses element briefly for the 6am shower. Im one of those 30kw households. I do however have solar so this is what i would use from the grid if no solar were available.
 
RaptorSA said:
This piqued my interest.
Was waiting on December to run a full year's data but let's do a quick check.

1 Fridge, Electric Stove, Big TV, 3 computers, 5 monitors, 2 aircons (fan only mode mostly)... etc.

View attachment 1765603

30kWh "average" my arse.
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Looks about right. We average about 13 - 15 kWh per day - solar geyser and gas hob.
 
RaptorSA said:
This piqued my interest.
Was waiting on December to run a full year's data but let's do a quick check.

1 Fridge, Electric Stove, Big TV, 3 computers, 5 monitors, 2 aircons (fan only mode mostly)... etc.

View attachment 1765603

30kWh "average" my arse.
Click to expand...
Have 3 showers a day then come back here. Do you think the average household consists of 1 person?
 
RaptorSA said:
The luxuries you mention make up a puny fraction of the "households" in this country.
So no, that 30kWh number sounds like utter BS... and since they don't want to release the numbers or their calculations we can all assume by default that it's BS.
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On the flip side 6-7kwh per day is pretty low too.
 
RaptorSA said:
The luxuries you mention make up a puny fraction of the "households" in this country.
So no, that 30kWh number sounds like utter BS... and since they don't want to release the numbers or their calculations we can all assume by default that it's BS.
Click to expand...
MyBB already proved it's BS.
 
wingnut771 said:
Have 3 showers a day then come back here. Do you think the average household consists of 1 person?
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No but more people doesn't necessarily affect the averages as much as people think (depending on a bunch of other factors of course, I'm speaking generally)
I know 'cause I have the numbers from my renters.
 
Home doesn't equal a home

The avg house in SA has. A geyser. An electric stove and more than one bath session

So per bath session probably looking at 4.5-6kwh

And even the quickest cooking session will probably be 2kwh ours is nowhere near that, it shows in the taste

Then add base load sure some may get around with 100-200w so just that is 2.4-4.8kwh per day ours is nowhere near that

So many compare apples to oranges , ie gas cooking gas geyser and low tech home

Some can't even picture someone else's shoes let alone try them out

There are homes that consume more than that avg just to have the jacuzzi ready at night , and it runs on a timer daily
 
RaptorSA said:
No but more people doesn't necessarily affect the averages as much as people think (depending on a bunch of other factors of course, I'm speaking generally)
I know 'cause I have the numbers from my renters.
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The ones dragging the avg normally aren't renters

Have seen many homes that simply won't be able to make fo with single phase electricity

The avg guy would fall on his back if he had to see the electricity consumption bill of the more affluent
 
RaptorSA said:
No but more people doesn't necessarily affect the averages as much as people think (depending on a bunch of other factors of course, I'm speaking generally)
I know 'cause I have the numbers from my renters.
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Surely more hot water consumption equals higher kWh numbers?
 
wingnut771 said:
Yeah, we not even running aircons hard like in summer yet.
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I have run an aircon once or twice, the bulk of our load is our two electric geysers, one has a 4kW element and the other a 3kW. The I also run the pool a lot during the day in summer to heat it up, then there is the usual lights, washing machine, dishwasher, odd use of the oven or air fryer (small oven), two gates, garage door, TV's, laptops, air purifiers, etc.
 
My worst average for the year so far was in May which was around 14kWh per day. Normally it's around 11kWh. 2 adults (not WFH), electric geyser, stove, oven etc. but no aircon, no heaters besides electric blanket in the winter and no tumble dryer nor swimming pool.
 
Have an avg pc count per person of 2
WFH setup

My baseload is about 20kwh a day

Would i like it less HELL YES

Am working at consolidating with proxmox

It is what it is
 
Usage also varies a lot between a solar and non-solar household in some cases. I'd imagine people with aircons and solar probably run them in the daytime more than they would have otherwise. With solar I run pool pump 8 hours a day because it's free (6 kWh) vs. 2hrs in the past without solar (1.5 kWh). It's a make hay while the sun shines scenario vs. simply load shifting.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Honestly, I think the 30kwh number is probably not that far off the mark as a national average for residences.

The vast majority of houses are not very efficient at all.
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Only a third of households have a warm water geyser, and 27.3% have a PC: https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15473

Average household is going to be fridge and stove top, an old fridge uses quite a bit of power, pre 2005 ones are around 1700kWh/year (4-5kWh/day), after that they drop quite a bit, think up to 2015ish normal one is <2kWh per day, and the 2020 energy star standard was under 350kWh -> <1kWh/day. Space heaters for shacks could push that number up, but on average, no way you'll get to 30kWh as a national average. And as article stated, they took factories, mines, etc. usage as single customer to get to that number.

(For interests sake, I am looking at getting a new Fridge, B grade in EU for a fridge is around 130kWh/year, there's a reason South Africa's power usage for households is falling, and it's pretty much LED and fridge)

Personal:
Household in CT with 3 people and 2 fridges (hold-over from when 5) with 2 gaming PC's used quite a bit, plus electric geyser and stove top, winter average was around 9-12kWh/day, most of that is just modern fridges, lighting, and using an air fryer when possible instead of full oven. Change from when more people is around 1-2kWh pp that was basically just extra water from geyser.

Most power use is going to happen regardless of the number of people, stove top, fridge, and lights, with geyser's one just being difference of the shower itself (and it still has standing loss).

Household of 1 here in Austria, heating is via gas, but old fridge, stove, gaming PC, mini server permanently on, work laptop at 100W most of working time, and running a dehumidifier for washing (and then washing machine), I peak at like 9kWh, most days 5-7kWh (no one here is around 2kWh/day). With two others in apartment for a few months, my usage increased by like 1kWh, was not really noticeable, just the washing machine.
 
Johnatan56 said:
Only a third of households have a warm water geyser, and 27.3% have a PC: https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15473

Average household is going to be fridge and stove top, an old fridge uses quite a bit of power, pre 2005 ones are around 1700kWh/year (4-5kWh/day), after that they drop quite a bit, think up to 2015ish normal one is <2kWh per day, and the 2020 energy star standard was under 350kWh -> <1kWh/day. Space heaters for shacks could push that number up, but on average, no way you'll get to 30kWh as a national average. And as article stated, they took factories, mines, etc. usage as single customer to get to that number.

(For interests sake, I am looking at getting a new Fridge, B grade in EU for a fridge is around 130kWh/year, there's a reason South Africa's power usage for households is falling, and it's pretty much LED and fridge)

Personal:
Household in CT with 3 people and 2 fridges (hold-over from when 5) with 2 gaming PC's used quite a bit, plus electric geyser and stove top, winter average was around 9-12kWh/day, most of that is just modern fridges, lighting, and using an air fryer when possible instead of full oven. Change from when more people is around 1-2kWh pp that was basically just extra water from geyser.

Most power use is going to happen regardless of the number of people, stove top, fridge, and lights, with geyser's one just being difference of the shower itself (and it still has standing loss).

Household of 1 here in Austria, heating is via gas, but old fridge, stove, gaming PC, mini server permanently on, work laptop at 100W most of working time, and running a dehumidifier for washing (and then washing machine), I peak at like 9kWh, most days 5-7kWh (no one here is around 2kWh/day). With two others in apartment for a few months, my usage increased by like 1kWh, was not really noticeable, just the washing machine.
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How much more gas was used with extra 2 people? To keep this argument simple, we should convert gas usage into leccy kWh.
 
Flanders said:
Usage also varies a lot between a solar and non-solar household in some cases. I'd imagine people with aircons and solar probably run them in the daytime more than they would have otherwise. With solar I run pool pump 8 hours a day because it's free (6 kWh) vs. 2hrs in the past without solar (1.5 kWh). It's a make hay while the sun shines scenario vs. simply load shifting.
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yeah I used to only run the pool pump every second day or so back before solar, still had no issues with it, whereas now I run it whenever we have bright and sunny days so it's more often.
Dishwasher is also run in the morning, and some other high draw items throughout the day. Though part of me still hasn't gotten over keeping the batteries so I tend to go into hibernation mode at night.
 
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