Try a 267% electricity increase on for size

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Drake2007

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By 2012, electricity will make up 10% of household expenses.
There are rumours that on September 30 Eskom will be asking for a 40% price hike each year for the next three years. Reports say that this could see our electricity prices more than double. Just doubling our electricity bill would be a relief - what South African households will actually experience is electricity that is 267% more expensive in 2012 than 2008. Simply adding percentage hikes together does not show the compounding affect of price hikes on top of price hikes...
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ANC = FAIL
 
Oooh don't tell LancelotSA that. He'll label you a conspiracy theorist, tell you that it affects the rest of the world, thrown in some sarcasm in an attempt to mock you and then accuse you of being sarcastic and throwing about insults :/
 
*sigh*

How to destroy a country in a few easy steps by the ANC :erm:
 
Smooth Criminal said:
Oooh don't tell LancelotSA that. He'll label you a conspiracy theorist, tell you that it affects the rest of the world, thrown in some sarcasm in an attempt to mock you and then accuse you of being sarcastic and throwing about insults :/
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You're a conspiracy theorist? :P
 
The official increase is 30% but my June/July electricity price increased by a whopping 130%!

Energy / Eskom = utterly fuked up
Water = same boat and sinking
Health department = UK NHI wannabe
Transport = looming taxi strike soon to be implemented electronic tolls at R0.4 per km? +/- R2000 extra cost per month for me to work in Jozi
Telkom / Neotel = ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
SAPS = leathel weapon zero
SARS = increase individual income tax for 2011
 
This might encourage people who can afford sun-panels to get them and just rape the poor people that is already struggling with R1000 a month...
 
My bad, I only listed the twats that directly effect me pocket wise. I don't fly that much and don't own a TV so I had no part in the R11 million payout to that CEO whatever his name is.
 
SlyFly said:
This might encourage people who can afford sun-panels to get them and just rape the poor people that is already struggling with R1000 a month...
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I was thinking the same thing, solar panels might just become cost effective now.
 
Eh! said:
My bad, I only listed the twats that directly effect me pocket wise. I don't fly that much and don't own a TV so I had no part in the R11 million payout to that CEO whatever his name is.
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No problem, no one is expected to remember their long list of ****ups :O
 
SlyFly said:
This might encourage people who can afford sun-panels to get them and just rape the poor people that is already struggling with R1000 a month...
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Solar panels actually work out to be more expensive over the long run. I believe popular mechanics ran a story about it last year. i.e. the capital outlay in purchaseing panels and installing is more than the monthly electricity costs paid, say over a period of 20 years.
 
Presently a Stirling engine using air. http://www.stirlingengine.com/ecommerce/product.tcl?product_id=84 achieves 15% efficiency. The hydrogen based one achieves 30%. Parabolic trough systems combined with a turbine achieves 15%. With a 60% efficiency the unit area is reduced by 4 to achieve the same output power. See:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4243793.html That will change if Lonnie Johnson’s invention works. The Atlanta-based independent inventor of the Super Soaker squirt gun (a true technological milestone) says he can achieve a conversion efficiency rate that tops 60 percent with a new solid-state heat engine. It represents a breakthrough new way to turn heat into power.

* http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4724683/fulltext.html ''Johnson tube, a thermodynamic heat pump.''
* http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6489049/fulltext.html ''Electrochemical conversion system''

Focus a the suns rays using a http://www.solarfire.org/tech/helios/helios.html mirror design on to his heat pump and you should be able to remove yourself of the grid. For night time use Molten salts are melted during the day and using a heat exchanger powers his heat pump design. 60% is an astounding efficiency gain.
 
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Thanks for the link Cap, been working like a pig this year and been out of touch with recent developments. That article is from the Jan 2008. The edition I read was much later and it basically concluded that all alternative energy source worked out more expensive than fossil fuel.
 
I was thinking the same thing, solar panels might just become cost effective now.
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I heard from an electrician friend of mine there was a man who wanted to convert his entire business to solar/wind power (the people where he works, huge dairy farm), and here's the kicker...

They (whoever does the installations) refused to do it if he was not connected to the Eskom grid so they can tap HIS unused power.
So people, this is what communism does, you can go alternative energy, but they still want a piece of that pie!
 
We have a bunch of student communes in Pretoria near the university, I pay more than R5000 per month on electricity each! its becoming insane. I`l have to start arranging shower buddies :)

Eskom keeps complaining that they dont have money to do the upgrades, but they actually pay you to install a solar geyser and use less of their services = less money for them! Who the hell wrote that company policy?

http://www.eskomdsm.co.za/?q=Solar_water_heating_Read_more

Go check it out, maybe if you all get solar geysers paid for by eskom partly then there will be enough power to go around :) Ofcourse then they sell less power and will most likely increase the prices by 500% to compensate....
 
Eh! said:
Thanks for the link Cap, been working like a pig this year and been out of touch with recent developments. That article is from the Jan 2008. The edition I read was much later and it basically concluded that all alternative energy source worked out more expensive than fossil fuel.
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This is true if you go the commercial root. You will have to do this stuff yourself or buy all the materials and employ a semi-skilled craftsman to make it. Anybody that can weld, build houses, fix cars would be able to assemble the designs. Patents is another issue, the http://www.stirlingengine.com/ecommerce/product.tcl?product_id=84 and
http://www.solarfire.org/tech/helios/helios.html are not patented. A farmer for example can place multiple Sterling engines in parallel powering them with Helios mirrors. If builds the system himself it would be viable given Eskom's rate hikes. For residential households generating hot water is also easy, many patents on the idea though.

http://homepower.com provides resources for building your own fridge using ammonium and parabolic mirrors etc.

The solution to South Africa's problem is setting up solar farms with http://www.solarfire.org/tech/helios/helios.html to power turbines where water is available or Stirling engines. These distributed power generating networks feeds their power back into the Eskom grid , especially farms would be viable for this.
It is a matter of jacking up the cost of Eskom power to where the construction costs meet.

Another issue is the following: Eskom needs to maintain extensive power grids to farms over huge distances, but farmers can't pay R10000 / month more to water their crops, they will start going over to parabolic mirrors and Stirling engines or turbines. The unit area you need to power a 10Kwatt motor is 20x20m or 4% of a hectar - a very small space. This assumes a 15% efficient parabolic trough system. With Lonnie Johnson's 60% system the costs would come down considerably. We just have to hack the patent and copy his design once it becomes commercial. Such a motor running during the blazing sun can pump water for 6 hectar bananas saving R3000/month on Eskom. Eskom could totally drive farmers of the grid as they only need to pump when the sun shines BUT Eskom would still need to maintain the power lines! Thus where will they get revenue to maintain it? The ANC and Eskom is lying to us, nobody knows what is really going on at Eskom.
 
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Good

This, like everything, is market driven. If Eskom push their customers too far, customers will start looking at the alternatives. Now is a good time to start an alternative energy installation company...

Edit: Alternative energy may still be expensive, but when you see such a dramatic increase in grid electricity fees and at the same time a slow but steady decrease in solar panel costs, it may just be viable.
 
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