The cheaper ways to survive load-shedding

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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The cheaper ways to survive load-shedding

There are several ways to ensure you are able to keep your household electrified during load-shedding, including generators, backup batteries, and going completely off-grid with solar power.

Eskom announced on Tuesday night that it would be implementing stage 2 load-shedding for the rest of the week, and only expects it to end at 22:00 on Friday evening.

This latest round of load-shedding came just as South Africa entered a cold snap, with the South African Weather Service forecasting that it would be the coldest week of 2021 to-date.
 
Simple things you can do to keep yourself sane

- Invest in a few powerbanks, 20 000 mah are helpful. Make sure that they are charged and use it to power your WIFI router as well.

-Fit battery globes in your lights, they can last the whole of loadshedding as they can work for a few hours when there is no power.

- Try and keep your devices charged if possible.
 
Since the original article goes up to R20k, here's what I got that's kept me working/gaming during loadshedding. I initially thought maybe I'd wasted my money since load shedding wasn't that bad, but this week proved my earlier decision correct.

flexopower.co.za

ECOFLOW DELTA 1300 - PORTABLE POWER STATION

The Delta1300 boasts the same power as traditional petrol home generators, without the fuel, noise, emissions, maintenance or weight. Portable (14kg) with 4 x AC pure sine wave 1800W total (3300W surge) and DC 6 x 5V USB fast charge & 1 x 12V CLA. Suitable for home back up, mobile power station...
flexopower.co.za flexopower.co.za
 
I've got a 2.5kva inverter generator but during the day one of these is all I need to keep the wifi up.

IMG_6044.JPG
 
Unless your loadshedding is over 4 hours, stop being dramatic.
 
abzob said:
Unless your loadshedding is over 4 hours, stop being dramatic.
Click to expand...
It used to be just 5 months ago in Johannesburg, man that was hectic and we had it for 15 years. 2 hours is manageable in the last 5 months, even seems City Power has less faults compared to their 4 hour sessions. We used to at least every 2nd shedding not come back up immediately, on this 2 hour sessions we're up within 15 minutes.
 
I spent R1600 odd on a Ratel UPS to keep my internet up. That already mad a huge difference. I can work on laptop power, entertain myself, and carry on. For lighting we have 3 solar lamps that charge in sunlight and last through the night (LED). Work has now provided a 150W UPS that keeps a laptop and screen going a few hours. I hardly notice load shedding during a workday anymore. All this did not cost that much and resolved 70% of my load shedding issues. I can also use the UPS to run my TV and Mi Box over weekends so we can carry on with entertainment etc. A lot of people think you need to drop R100K + to beat load shedding. In my experience you can negate a lot of the worst aspects of it for a lot less than that.
 
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Cius said:
I spent R1600 odd on a Ratel UPS to keep my internet up. That already mad a huge difference. I can work on laptop power, entertain myself, and carry on. For lighting we have 3 solar lamps that charge in sunlight and last through the night (LED). Work has now provided a 150W UPS that keeps a laptop and screen going a few hours. I hardly notice load shedding during a workday anymore. All this did not cost that much and resolved 70% of my load shedding issues. I can also use the UPS to run my TV and Mi Box over weekends so we can carry on with entertainment etc. A lot of people think you need to drop R100K + to beat load shedding. In my experience you can negate a lot of the worst aspects of it for a lot less than that.
Click to expand...
Exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for to power up the basics during LS like wifi, tv, laptop, etc there's so many to choose from and good to hear how certain ups inverters perform and are rated. Has anyone tried any of the small inverter chargers that you can buy at Builders, Ellies, Geewiz?
 
yozzi said:
Exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for to power up the basics during LS like wifi, tv, laptop, etc there's so many to choose from and good to hear how certain ups inverters perform and are rated. Has anyone tried any of the small inverter chargers that you can buy at Builders, Ellies, Geewiz?
Click to expand...
The ratel is excellent, and can recommend it. The work provided one is a Vizia UP200.

That was free so I did not question but it was not cheap. For double the cost of both those units I know people can get much bigger units that can power a lot more in the house at the cost of being less compact (things the size of a generator). I do not think I will get any more small backup devices. If I get something else it will be something that can power the more energy efficient stuff in the house in its entirety.
 
Hi. My i ask you something. My ellies inverter is fully charged but then the power went out it died as well and don't want to stay on, is there a why how I can reset it?
 
Cius said:
I spent R1600 odd on a Ratel UPS to keep my internet up.
Click to expand...
I spent R250 on a 12v alarm battery to keep my internet up - got 9 hours off it the other night when I forgot to switch back over.
 
SuzanJ said:
Hi. My i ask you something. My ellies inverter is fully charged but then the power went out it died as well and don't want to stay on, is there a why how I can reset it?
Click to expand...
Sounds like it's probably the battery
 
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