How do you "cope" with the blackouts?

[Jet-Fighter7700]

load shedding starts, whip out my wireless earphones, hotspot with the idiotphone, and watch some YouTube while people run around with Candles and matches.
suppose it could be worse, especially when the Base station next to us gets raided and stripped for its batteries.

and do have to say we moan and cry, but at least we aint in Zim where electricity/water is all but a distant memory.
same as the rest of Africa if I'm being honest. electricity should be called the White peoples poison,

in Africa it was always called the dark continent for a reason. guess were joining that club again.
politicians should campaign on their success on how they have decolonized Africa, forcibly if need be.

and celebrate the success of load shedding, getting people back to their roots,
potholes? why you riding 100 in a taxi, walk everywhere, that's how it was always done,

shelves bare, just dig around in the bushes, or hunt once again.
Africa should be Africa, poor, primitive and lawless. such luxuries like medicine, food and electricity are western concepts we should get rid of.

 

[Athos]

Battery backup for my ONT and Router. Can do 18ish hours on it.

 

[heartbroken]

Second DB board in the house with dedicated battery backup. All lights, internet, TV's and computers work during normal 2 hour load shedding. Gas stove and gas oven. Anything longer I just flipt the changeover to the generator and the whole house is online again, can even vacuum and run the dishwasher. I only really used the generator once, they stole cables and the neighbourhood was without power from Friday morning until late Sunday.

 

[SykomantiS]

Mostly minimalistic with the fibre router and ONT on a Ratel 420, mostly because my company does not see loadshedding as an excuse not to work. Rest is Magneto lights and a gas stove.

 

[SAguy]

Second DB board in the house with dedicated battery backup. All lights, internet, TV's and computers work during normal 2 hour load shedding. Gas stove and gas oven. Anything longer I just flipt the changeover to the generator and the whole house is online again, can even vacuum and run the dishwasher. I only really used the generator once, they stole cables and the neighbourhood was without power from Friday morning until late Sunday.

You running an inverter charger, or inverter and solar? What's the sizes?

 

[RedViking]

Drink sugar water.

 

[Intox]

UPS for ONT + Router and power bank for phone.

 

[Lupus]

I can see this happening in the future for complexes and estates, makes more sense to centralise the backup power - and figure out a clever way to limit the load and somehow recoup the cost - probably a smart meter of some sorts and a small modification to each home's power supply

Estates need to start letting people put up panels, they seem to value prettiness and pettiness over allowing people to work from home and such.
I mean they moan about people with generators, but then you can't put up panels or an inverter?

 

[pinball wizard]

Drink sugar water.

No wonder you're fat.

 

[blaaislaai]

Just keeping my internet up and running. Working from home via laptop

 

[JohnStarr]

2 rechargeable lights if it's done at night; ONT/WiFi router on a mini UPS; watch something on a laptop when the kids are asleep.
That said, I'd like to look at an inverter system for next year.

 

[RedViking]

No wonder you're fat.

I do push ups downs afterwards.

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

As long as the beers stay cold in the fridge I actually do not give a **** about load shedding at all to be honest

 

[Magnum]

Its Cheaper for me to drive 5KM and Sponge off someone else's power.... We never in the same bracket.

 

[bwana]

I have to work around loadshedding. No fibre, no mobile network, nothing.

So for me its rather pointless putting a backup in place so I just get drunk instead

Because no house?

 

[The_MAC]

Estates need to start letting people put up panels, they seem to value prettiness and pettiness over allowing people to work from home and such.
I mean they moan about people with generators, but then you can't put up panels or an inverter?

All they need to do is set some rules, but other than that, not sure what the issue would be - solar panels look awesome on homes - especially because they are all uniform colour anyways

 

[Lupus]

2 generators and a 2400 Mecer inverter for the office laptops, monitors and such. I had a 900w generator which has had a lot of usage, but last year I got a 2.8kva one that has for this last week had a lot of work.
The 900w ran out of fuel last week and I'm like eh.

 

[Pho3nix]

They don't pay me enough to afford the petrol to get there anymore. Maybe I can get my greasy paws on some of that crisp new Vodacom money though.

Going through this debate at the moment at work.
Since we are at Level 1, everyone can be in office within reason.

Load-shedding really can't be an excuse not to be working anymore. No one has gotten a raise in a while so as adults we manage expenses to make sure we still get an income.

 

[WAJ]

Put together a system few years ago (DIY). Used an old computer UPS, drilled holes in the casing, then pulled thick power cables through for an external 200AH battery to power it a lot longer than the tiny internal one.

Runs the TV, lights, and Mnet in the lounge. Later I added 150W solar panels to keep it topped up, as the internal charger on the UPS is not sufficient to fully charge that large battery when we have frequent load shedding's per day.

The rest of the house has all kinds of rechargeable LED lights, a lot of LED torched and so on. I also have a 2.5KW generator which only gets used when the power is out for extended periods to power the fridges and freezer.

Also used a 12V gate motor battery, step down voltage regulator (since the Internet Router is 9V) so at least I still have internet on the laptop.

 

[The_MAC]

Going through this debate at the moment at work.
Since we are at Level 1, everyone can be in office within reason.

Load-shedding really can't be an excuse not to be working anymore. No one has gotten a raise in a while so as adults we manage expenses to make sure we still get an income.

Yeah, I work with a lot of people who simply don't work during load-shedding - no effort to get any backup

It is ultimately an own-goal, because you just fall behind and have to pick up the pace later.

If the company can't afford to subsidise home back-up power, then what you going to do, twiddle your thumbs for 4 hours a day - there are cheap solutions to get you through the power cuts

I know some very low level low paid employees will struggle, but that might be an exception