Kiss Eskom goodbye

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daily Investor
  • Start date Start date
D

Daily Investor

Guest
Kiss Eskom goodbye

South Africans are so tired of Eskom that many have become energy independent. Those who have not done it yet should make a plan to kiss Eskom goodbye.
 
For 5k or even less you can have lights, gas stove and backup for your internet during load shedding.
So spending huge amounts is just for people that want to watch tv
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
For 5k or even less you can have lights, gas stove and backup for your internet during load shedding.
So spending huge amounts is just for people that want to watch tv
Click to expand...

It really isn't. Sure you can have a couple of lights or whatever for LS slots - but when you have a 72hr outage like we had the other week - a 5k solution will not cut it. Even more so when working from home.
 
Priapus said:
It really isn't. Sure you can have a couple of lights or whatever for LS slots - but when you have a 72hr outage like we had the other week - a 5k solution will not cut it. Even more so when working from home.
Click to expand...
Well 72 hour outage is not load shedding.
We once was off for 6 days due to a blown sub station. I just went and hired a generator for that 6 days and ran it a few times for 2 hours during the day to keep fridges/freezers cool and charge everything. Cost was under 2k.
 
Quote of the week:



“It is expensive to invest in a solar PV and battery backup system, but it is even more expensive not to do it and rely on Eskom.”

“We all have a responsibility to become independent of Eskom as there is no concrete plan for fixing the power utility.”
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
Well 72 hour outage is not load shedding.
We once was off for 6 days due to a blown sub station. I just went and hired a generator for that 6 days and ran it a few times for 2 hours during the day to keep fridges/freezers cool and charge everything. Cost was under 2k.
Click to expand...

The point is, to say solar is for people who want to watch TV is silly. A lot of people will happily go without TV for a couple of hours.

But when you start getting regular 10hr outages (stage 6), it's no longer about "wanting to watch tv" - is it?
Getting solar also means less dependance on the state and that is only a good thing in this country.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rh1
BBSA said:
That, and rent-to-own.

I always find it strange that people without cash can make a plan to own a car but not a solar system.
Click to expand...

People's priorities are messed up in general.

It's also about the "image" - people buy flashy cars, with money they don't have to impress people they don't know or like.

Both my cars are over 10yrs old and I have no intention of replacing them as they're both paid off and do their job.

When it comes to solar - it's a grudge purchase for most, so they will find excuses not to get it.
 
Priapus said:
People's priorities are messed up in general.

It's also about the "image" - people buy flashy cars, with money they don't have to impress people they don't know or like.

Both my cars are over 10yrs old and I have no intention of replacing them as they're both paid off and do their job.

When it comes to solar - it's a grudge purchase for most, so they will find excuses not to get it.
Click to expand...
Excuses? Why? We had a month or two of stage six where you had one or two 4 hours shifts a day, nobody died and not even food in the fridge went bad.
These days we have here and there a two hour shift of load shedding every day. Not spending 200k on a system seems a great option these days.
Buying solar is more the "image" thing these days. Its like the CrossFit guys, they tell everyone in every conversation and try to make up excuses why its essential to get and to justify their purchase.
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
Buying solar is more the "image" thing these days.
Click to expand...

If you own the property you live at, getting solar makes sense. Electricity is just going to keep on going up, not going down, at least from Eskom.

You don't even have to go the whole hog. You can install it in stages if you can't arrange the capital in one go.

At the end of the day, each person needs to do the math and figure it out for their households. Even in Cape Town during winter we've probably cut our electricity costs by at least 75% over the last few weeks since we got solar installed.

We basically have our install set up to only use the grid as a last resort. On sunny days we haven't even used a single unit of electricity from Eskom. On cloudy days we draw maybe 50% what we used to. And this isn't on some mega build. It was 130k in total. Less than a budget car.

In the short run it stings, but in the long run it's going to save thousands.
 
zolly said:
If you own the property you live at, getting solar makes sense. Electricity is just going to keep on going up, not going down, at least from Eskom.

You don't even have to go the whole hog. You can install it in stages if you can't arrange the capital in one go.

At the end of the day, each person needs to do the math and figure it out for their households. Even in Cape Town during winter we've probably cut our electricity costs by at least 75% over the last few weeks since we got solar installed.

We basically have our install set up to only use the grid as a last resort. On sunny days we haven't even used a single unit of electricity from Eskom. On cloudy days we draw maybe 50% what we used to. And this isn't on some mega build. It was 130k in total. Less than a budget car.

In the short run it stings, but in the long run it's going to save thousands.
Click to expand...
Yes we been hearing this for years, yet we read daily about batteries and inverters failing. You have not saved anything. You took out 130k and are either paying interest on that 130k or losing interest you could have got on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X