Gauteng's grand switch-off plan

So how will they decide to communicate to the switch to turn on or off.

NOW that is TOO much control. Ration the populance, charge extra for the power
but to tell people when they can bath or not is ridiculous. Disgusting! Way to go free
South Africa!

(bollocks)
 
I think it is a good idea. if every geyser in the country uses only off-peak capacity.

The inconvenience involved is minimal for households , unless we have a very cold winter.
Our immediate problems (frequent load shedding ) should be over .
 
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Ripple switches have been installed for many years.. Ekhuruleni Municipality installed the one in my house 10 years ago!
 
surely this can NOT be seen as a good idea?? I am all for trying to save water, electricity and all that.. but this is going too far! As someone in this thread said, next they will flush our toilet or switch the tv on in the evenings only! We pay a supplier to supply and when they cant they come into our homes and install devices cause they can't keep up with demand?
:mad:
 
Restrict people by other means. Charge a lot for going over a certain threshold and if someone abuses that cut them off temporarily or make them pay penalties proportional to their earnings. However don't control peoples' lives to the point of the Orwellian 1984.
 
They've been doing this for quite some time. We have remote ripple switches in our estate as well ... they control it via signals over the actual electricity line IIRC

Oh, and our electricity meters are also read remotely from a central system
 
And if you get solar heating installed, shouldn't that make you exempt?

If they do this I'm turning my geyser up to its highest level to allow me to use the minimum in hot water. Just make sure you run cold water before taking a dip :D
 
Our local paper reports that Richards Bay municipality (uMhlathuze) will be installing ripple switches in our are in the next 6 months to remotely control Geysers, Airconditioners and Pool pumps.

If the bliksem touches my aircon hes a dead man. It was 43 Degrees C yesterday....add 10 degrees discomfort for humidity.....cant even tell him to go to hell, hes here already!:mad::eek:
 
Furthermore is this government even capable of installing switches in everyones houses? Geysers are INSIDE the house, people work during the day - do you think these lazy b@st@rds would come after hours? At whose cost?

SA is incapable of putting together a working telecoms infrastructure but they want to control all these boxes across the electricity grid remotely? You CAN'T do that with robots, but you can with every flippin' household in the country? With cable theft and lack of maintenance these boxes will never work!
 
Leftfoot said:
If the bliksem touches my aircon hes a dead man. It was 43 Degrees C yesterday....add 10 degrees discomfort for humidity.....cant even tell him to go to hell, hes here already!:mad::eek:
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:) remember Eskom is a business , they need to supply to make money, they will not switch off our appliances
unnecessarily .I think remote switch-off only occurs when over-loading is likely to happen, in that case we have no power for every electrical equipment anyway.

`
 
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Scooby_Doo said:
well its this or load shedding pick one.
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It's not a choice of either one. Even if this is implemented, we have no guarantee that they won't load shed.

I've made this point before but I'll say it again, if Households make up only 12 of total usage, and we're so drstically short of power, how is this going to solve the problem (same with solar powered geysers).

It is irresponsible for the Gauteng municipality so say if they implement this than they won't have to load shed. I guarantee they will still load shed.

Sure we all need to do our bit, but unless the mines and big industry find ways of reducing/saving 5 to 10 %, we're in serious trouble for the next 5 years at least
 
there's 3 things i'm doing. Work my a$$ off, Save money & prepair to leave the country before the money i've saved is worth nothing!

I don't see SA pulling itself together anytime soon, there's alot worse coming!
 
LabAnimal said:
there's 3 things i'm doing. Work my a$$ off, Save money & prepair to leave the country before the money i've saved is worth nothing!

I don't see SA pulling itself together anytime soon, there's alot worse coming!
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i have to agree. uncertain times ahead.
 
LabAnimal said:
there's 3 things i'm doing. Work my a$$ off, Save money & prepair to leave the country before the money i've saved is worth nothing!

I don't see SA pulling itself together anytime soon, there's alot worse coming!
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Join the boat.
It's a race now between tying up our affairs here, and our money being worth nothing.


As for the ripple switches - no problem with them.
We have had them for years - one never even notices them doing their thing unless they break - which they do.
 
Geyser

Why use geysers at all. I don't know the name for it
in englisch, but it is called in German "Durchlauferhitzer"
Maybe a long word but it uses between 4 to 8 KW has the
size of w20cm-d15cm-h50cm. You can have it on 4 or 8
KW with a switch. Only switching on if the tap is on
If Eskom replaces all Geysers it would be much cheaper
then to lay cables to all the households. I don't know
if it works for 82 Million people why not here?
 
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