Hilux 4x4 Forum

Power saving is a hot topic as "Eksdom" is not happy with the amount of money they are "stealing", I say "stealing" and not earning as earning would imply that they actually WORK!!!!!

I thought I will share what I have done and plan on doing to save on the electricity bill or maybe even becoming Eskom independent.

• Electrical stove replaced with Gas stove, my farther lasts 7 to 8 months on a 19kg gas bottle

• Energy efficient fridge/freezer not to long ago I bought a new fridge and freezer, the two together using quite a bit less then the old one

• The geyser is currently on a timer running only 4 hours a day, 3 early morning and one hour from 5pm, in time I will get a solar greaser

• the pool pump has been optimized, measure the pool to get water capacity, then check the flow rate on the pump, by doing that you can work out how long it should run a day to complete one cycle

• Needles to say all lights is energy saving globes

• The latest addition is a 1250W pure sign wave inverter with a 350Ahr deep cycle battery that will run the lights and AV system, the battery will charge from a solar panel, and if needed it inverter has a charger or bypass function for days when weather is not ideal

Lastly we are in the habit of switching off everything that is on standby so I think we are going in the right direction

geyser blanket ?

insulation of hot water pipes ?

think pink to keep the house warm in winter ?

stopping draughts to keep house warm in winter ?

shading to keep house cool in summer ?

If you sorted out your geyser and stove you probably cut 80% of your bill. Those are the two big electricity users.

confidently, today orded my solar geyser today, they will be fitting it Thursday

gas stove is at home and so is the full also think 19kg gas bottle

have a few smallish converters 800watts, and 400watt

solar panel will follow

boiling at the municipality screwing up my account, and threatening to cut my power.

the sooner I am self sufficient the better
we have a small house, so a few solar panels and few batteries with the generator as back up, then they can screw themselves and cut me off and I will see what the judge says when I defend my self in court.

over and above that will remove my funds out the corruption cycle

sorry for the rant, however gatvoll

prices of panels and pure sign wave inverters have come down, and becoming more and more affordable and possible to get off the grid

guy across the road, now has solar powered outside lights as well

MMM have gone this route already converted all the lights to led's to run from 12v system with 105Ah battery and 160 watt solar panel as charging source. Saved about R300 a month but after eskom's increase i am back to where I was before saving,,,,,so now is the time for geyser blankets, isolation of pipes and timer switch.... :x

Fernando there is a LOT of new solar products being manufactured and tested locally.

this industry may just come of age in the next few years ..... (can only dream of better prices ...)

Interesting fact. It is illegal in the Western Cape to be totally self sufficient from electricity, residential or industrial.
Is it the same in other provinces?

Rooies wrote:Interesting fact. It is illegal in the Western Cape to be totally self sufficient from electricity, residential or industrial.
Is it the same in other provinces?

Not disputing the fact, but that is bulls**!!!! Eskoms shortfall is sparking a boom in the industry for alternatives, and we are getting closer and closer to being self sufficient.

Rooies wrote:Interesting fact. It is illegal in the Western Cape to be totally self sufficient from electricity, residential or industrial.
Is it the same in other provinces?

have also heard that, however they give us 50 units a month for free, and plan on making use if those lol

beyond that, believe that, that specific law needs and will change in time, as around the world people even sell excess power into the grid, and there is talk of that here also

however the estimated up and coming prices I will not pay

I have also converted all my lights to run off batteries and only need the solar panels(after december expenses).
Next is prepaid then the geyser and stove.
Has anyone made the calculation on going gas with the geyser and stove vs. solar geyser and gas stove.
Why I ask.... have heard that the saving from a solar geyser only just justify its cost as the lifespan of the average solar geyser is not that long.
Also most Solar geysers still uses power so in the case of a power outage or a few cloudy days you will be left in the cold.

I would like to hear from you as I have to consider one of the options.

Danman wrote:I have also converted all my lights to run off batteries and only need the solar panels(after december expenses).
Next is prepaid then the geyser and stove.
Has anyone made the calculation on going gas with the geyser and stove vs. solar geyser and gas stove.
Why I ask.... have heard that the saving from a solar geyser only just justify its cost as the lifespan of the average solar geyseris not that long.
Also most Solar geysers still uses power so in the case of a power outage or a few cloudy days you will be left in the cold.

I would like to hear from you as I have to consider one of the options.

This is my firm opinion ..... have removed a few of these for customers that have gone back to a conventional geyser. The real beneficiaries of solar geysers are the suppliers / installers and Eskom.

That said, it's not difficult to build your own solar heating panel with copper tubing ..... will cost a pretty penny in materials to start off, but will last for 20 / 30 years with ease. The challenging issue is to integrate it into your existing system, especially if it's an in-line pressure geyser, but there are ways.

Danman wrote:I have also converted all my lights to run off batteries and only need the solar panels(after december expenses).
Next is prepaid then the geyser and stove.
Has anyone made the calculation on going gas with the geyser and stove vs. solar geyser and gas stove.
Why I ask.... have heard that the saving from a solar geyser only just justify its cost as the lifespan of the average solar geyser is not that long.
Also most Solar geysers still uses power so in the case of a power outage or a few cloudy days you will be left in the cold.

I would like to hear from you as I have to consider one of the options.

I would be interested to see the ROI between a gas geyser and Solar. I know gas geyser could be limiting, but to think about it, its just 2 of us in the house and only use hot water in the bathroom, we have a dish washer so hardly ever need hot water there.

I use my gas stove, and by doing so, I've cut over a 3rd of my electricity bill.

When cash is right, I'll defi install a gas geyser, used them for 4 years when living oversees and not a worry in the world if installed right.

Further, I also wanna run my house off of 12V systems and Genies and claim my free units.

All I'm concerned about though is, they not stupid, a few months ago there was a "Gas Shortage" due to who knows what and prices went up, and as soon as they see every 1 is getting clever to eskoms rip off and moving over to gas, they'll just start placing taxes and prices increases on gas so we pay the same again. Just m2cw don't shoot me.

Question: How can they pass a law making it illegal to be self sufficient? Isn't that our human right and entitlement to provide for ourselves where possible, as long as crime aint involved? How do the shacks work then?

Sorry ranting... but good post so we can all see where to save. Forgot to say, You can also expect a few visits when doing these power savings. When I installed my water tanks, they came round asking how was I fillilng my pool ect.. and keeping the water usage so low. Had a few visits from what appears to be Monkeypality lately since using gas, but never open to hear there story. Will need a warrant to come check my place for how I'm saving.

In the Western Cape we have had gas shortages on a couple of occasions during the last few years.

LARGE users have shown gas to be more expensive than electricity !! YES, that caught me of gaurd as well.



SOLAR .... not installing it at my house in a hurry. our maths shows it wont ever pay for itself. The ONLY benefit would be to be independant of the grid, then I would rather go gas as a 2nd option.

This is the thing, except that the alternatives will only pay for itself in a couple of years. But if it means getting of the grid and not costing you every month why not?

Going to the extreme would be getting a solar pool pump, I got quoted at R25 000 !!!!!!
that is a lot, and the batteries will not last forever, but solar geyser... definitely!!! My father cuts just with that alone quite a bit and if you do a DIY installation it will cost you under R5000

What boils my blood is that we spend a fortune on "Saving" and then Eksdom comes along and increases the rates anyway, so where is the saving then??

Polarbear2008 wrote:What boils my blood is that we spend a fortune on "Saving" and then Eksdom comes along and increases the rates anyway, so where is the saving then??

The Saving goes to the less fortunate and those that steals

I am always wary of any "scheme/plan" that involves a substantial capital outlay in order to save money

Maybe it is just my (sometimes irrational) hate of marketing yada-yada and salespeople in general, the way they try and sell you something that you don't need!

I feel the same about solar geysers: they only advertise the "rebate" you get from Eskom, but we all know that the suppliers jacked up the price when Eskom started doing that! :roll: I do not believe that it will ever pay for itself!!

That being said: I do believe that one should not be complacent about these things: insulation, switching off lights, geysers and other power sources etc. LED's, geyser timers etc. and other smaller costs incurred to save is justifiable, but do the math carefully!

Save power, remove the turbo and EFi and and and....

I have a heat pump instead of a solar geyser. Uses less electricity than solar and it doesn't matter if it is cloudy. Solar is only better if it is HEAVILY insulated with huge capacity so that you can turn the electricity off totally and not worry about a few cloudy days.

One day I will make a DIY solar geyser to feed the heat pump - when I find the time! I plan to use a huge 2000L tank heavily insulated as a sort of heat sink that the heat pump would draw on.

I saw some figures somewhere where a guy monitored the electricity saved by switching the geyser on and off and it amounted to zero saving! He used some fancy loggers and went to great length to ensure it was all fair and square. He concluded that it was better to use a good blanket and to insulate all pipes including the last 2 meters of the cold pipe feeding the geyser. Makes sense to me...

time to throw a spanner into this nice calm discussion ....

SANS 10400-XA:2011, and SANS204:2011

REMEMBER those two standards !!

All new homes MUST install solar ! It even goes as far as determining the SIZE of the solar system (so forget about going big to get enough capacity ....)

few other nasty surpizes in there as well ....

know a few people who had their plans "upended" by these new regs !!!!

as for the tariffs ...

eskom has been delivering the SAME number of units for the last decaded - as costs and salaries increase these same units will just cost more and more .....


FORGET about the cost of these units. Start WORRYING about the new factories that are NOT being built as there is not enough electricity !!!!!! HOW do you grow an economy without building new factories ?????

ChrisF wrote:time to throw a spanner into this nice calm discussion ....

SANS 10400-XA:2011, and SANS204:2011

REMEMBER those two standards !!

All new homes MUST install solar ! It even goes as far as determining the SIZE of the solar system (so forget about going big to get enough capacity ....)

few other nasty surpizes in there as well ....

know a few people who had their plans "upended" by these new regs !!!!

Yup! know of a few myself .... and it doesn't just apply to new homes .... it applies to any new alterations to existing structures. I further believe that when fully implemented, all structures placed on the market for sale (old or new) will have to comply.

We're in for some huge expenses down the line.

I'm sure heat pumps would be acceptable as well to the new standards as I got my rebate from Eskom when I fitted mine.

Yes, as far as I know, heat pumps are acceptable ....... I think you have to attain a prescribed score IRO energy saving and it includes things like in-roof heat insulation, pipe lagging, what roofing material, walling material, cavity walls, percentage of glazing against exterior wall area, double glazing, what door material, what lighting, lamp energy consumption ...... etc, etc, ... the list goes on and on ......

What a mission, but I suppose it really is time we caught up with the rest of the world regarding energy standards.
Does sound very expensive though....

It is a bit annoying that none of these fancy new standards will apply to the low cost housing designs, I assume. Those are the houses and people who would need all the insulation and energy savings more than anyone! Apparently people freeze to death in those corrugated iron shacks as well. Terrible. Maybe the Govt should give out fireproof polystyrene sheeting or something. I am willing to bet that if the simplest insulation was implemented in all the shacks and low cost houses, the energy saving would be far greater than anything that could be achieved by raising building codes for formal houses.

Just thinking aloud....

We have just had a dutch consultant on the farm, and we were talking about solar power. In Holland, you get a rebate for installing solar -and a full installation (panels, wiring and transformer) all came in at around R 10 - R 11/Watt.

I questioned the "transformer" apparently what happens is every house is kitted out with an electricity meter (digital). So during the day, when your panels are pumping (when the sun shines in Europe !! :razz: ) your meter counts down - and then at night when you turn on your lights etc.. it runs up i.e: during the day you supply the grid (and get credits !!) and then at night you draw from the grid and get debited !!! hence no need for battery banks and inverters - its all smooth running...

Eish, could take two generations for that to happen here though...

Brilliant idea. I heard they wanted to do that here, but needed to change the whole system to do it - probably will never happen!

too many post and reply s since I was last here, so wont reply to each one!!

as for the cost and paying itself off, did not do all that maths, however did look at the following!!

price of power has almost doubled, and is set to continue for ever like this(for ever is a very long time, I know!! )
however Eishcom is building coal fired power station currently, to so call plug the gap in demand!!
and we have an abundance of coal

then the paw paw will hit the fan and that will be taboo as by that time the rest of the world would of moved on to greener energy and eishcom will continue with mad increases in prices to fund the greener energy, nuclear/solar farms/wind, what ever they feel works best to milk us!!

on the gas geyser, yes had a look at them, and they do work great in europe
however with gas one still pays for the gas
solar is for free, yes the system costs money to get it
and they dont last for ever
hence, why I opted for the system that I opted for
tank is stainless, and my system will not have electric pumps and a solar panel that charges the battery the powers the pump and all those complicated things

further, and enquirer about this when I was looking at the systems
one can still set the temp of these geysers, so will have my one on Max, yep, can always add cold water or open the tap less, and will have the power on the electric element off on the DB board, will only be used when it really necessary, not when a system designed for general use by the general average population decides it should come on
once the system is paid for, its for free
even the electric geyser get repaired, however that is why we have homeowners insurance!!

one of the reason why I did not go for the gas geyser, is the point that has already been made of the gas shortages and prices, so will only depend on gas for cooking, and from friends and family that use gas for cooking only, that gas lasts a loooong time, and with proper planing and with a spare bottle or two should never be out of gas at home

further with our shower pattern at home if will fit right in
further, changing to alternatives does require certain changes in life style routine

should have all the correct things today for the gas stove, and hope that by the end of weekend the gas stove will be in

have heard that solar panels prices have come down again, and hope they come down again soon before I get my one!!

kfxnando wrote:have heard that solar panels prices have come down again, and hope they come down again soon before I get my one!!

Fenando, check out these guys: http://www.rectifier.co.za" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Speak to Ferdinand, he's a good bloke, their prices were the best - and the panels range from German to Korean and chinese.

question to those that have implemented these methods.. have you seen a significant drop in your electricity bill? what percentage?

Die$eL wrote:question to those that have implemented these methods.. have you seen a significant drop in your electricity bill? what percentage?

The guy I bought the house from told me he spent R2000 a month on electricity, with what I have done I am down to R1000 and hope to save more

I've cut over a 3rd of my bill by using gas, my small cadac bottle costs R65 to fill and lasts just over a month so in total I'd say I'm saving R200 to R250 a month, not major but it counts towards the chrismas fund if added up over 12mnths.

Other things we do which makes a huge difference.

Dont run hot water taps for short periods if only cold water is required as this causes the geyser to fill up and switch on more frequently costing money.
Lights get switched off when not needed.
Only boil the kettle onn gas, this makes a huge difference to the daily usage, especially on weekends when we home.

I am saving about R500 per month on my bill with my heat pump (30%). Still have to get the pipes properly insulated and I don't have a geyser blanket for my 300L tank yet.

We have a gas stove for more than 10 years, and then Eksdom brings on the gas for electric. Just after thy stop that the price of gas nearly dubble. from R86 to R145 for 9kg then it whent to R168. Looks to me that Afrox had sponsored the gas for electric.

So make a long drop and use that gasssssss

Hey Pieter,

Check out these links for the small scale production of biogas. Something that can be done in any house garden, and the gas can be used for cooking or to run a gas fridge/freezer

http://www.biogaspro.com/assets/biogas_ ... uction.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.slideshare.net/RembrandtK/te ... production" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://csanr.wsu.edu/pages/Small-Scale_ ... Technology" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, more baked beans = colder beer

This is the way forward

About 2 years ago I got gatvol for my Bill from Twane(Pretoria) for Water & Lights. One month R3000 and then R2100 the next and then R1500 and then sky high.

I decided to fit a Prepaid Electricty Meter.They charged then R2000, not sure now but this is the cost of the meter and to install.

Now I use on the prepaid electricity R520 worth of electricity, the other part,i.e sanitary, refuse removal and property tax and water is now R850. Given a few rands in fluctation of water usage I pay not more than R1400 for the last 2 years per month.

You control your electricity usage, NOT THEM!!! No more wrong elec readings.

We have been using a timer on the geyser for more than 10 years. Back then I experimented a couple of times - timer on vs timer on over-ride. Almost 20% saving on the total electrical bill.

Some of the things we do to save ....

• only boil as much water in the kettle as required (you'll be surprised how much boiling time you can save and if you watch your meter it spins faster with the kettle on than it does with the geyser on).
• have a geyser blanket
• we mostly do 'cold' lunches, especially in the warmer months (salads / cold meats, even just sandwiches sometimes)
• Switch off all the 'stand-by' appliances (within practical reason)
• switch off all unnecessary lighting
• avoid switching energy saving lamps / fluorescent lamps on and off - these all have starter ballasts that use more to start up than is used to run the lamp for some period. This is especially true with the older fluorescent fittings, I'm told.
• Use the micro-wave prudently ... they are more energy hungry than you think.
• use electric blankets to warm the bed just before retiring and then switch off, rather than use space heaters.
• the pool filter is timed to run for only 6 hrs a day in winter and 8 hrs in summer.
• we do a fair amount of 'braaing' and mostly use a kettle braai. When we do then we often add a chicken or some other extra stuff to be used for a later meal. Many of these meats can be used without re-heating .... chicken, salt beef, kessler rib, eissbein, gammon, etc.

I have a DIY solar assisted geyser .... not sure how much it helps, but it preheats water taken into the geyser and as such must be providing a benefit. On average we use only about 750 units of electricity monthly, but then we are only two (kids have flown the coop long ago), or sometimes three if our daughter or MIL stays over for a night here and there.

Andy if I may be pedantic:

traditional kettles are 1,8kW (some new ones are 3kW), with geysers klocking in at 3 to 4kW. But while being pedantic, a kettle heats water from the same delivery temp to BOILING, so it adds a lot more energy to the water PER LITER than a geyser. With the newer kettles you no longer "have to cover the element" so you can litteally heat one cup at a time. So YES, savings to had by not heating too much water.

starting balasts - for many years we told that a flourescent tube "takes as much energy to start as it does to burn for 8 hours" BULL !!! At 35W you can calculate the Joules used in an eight hour period, working this back to a starting time of 1 or 2 seconds this would be some 100 to 200 A !!!!! Myth busted. If you are not going to be in a room/area for more than 5 to 10 minutes switch OFF. In fact, you can now even install motion sensors to do this for you.


I know a lady that uses an electric blanket - under the carpet. less power than a heater, and the effect is "more subtle", yet her house is never cold ....

braai-ing .... YES, YES, and YES !!! (wood surely cost more that Electricary, but who cares ....)

DIY solar pre-heater - just be sure to add a three way valve and temp monitoring. In winter, or even at night the minicipal supply from under ground will be hotter than the cold water in the pre-heater ..... you dont want this trick to add to your electrical bill !!

Chris, of course you may be pedantic!

My geyser is still the old combo type, and although a 3KW element is available for it, I fitted one of the smaller ones .... 2KW or less if I recall, and yes, my kettle spins that meter!

My solar assist on the geyser is not too badly affected by the cold night air .... the way I did it was to fit a larger header tank which is still fed by the water main, but this tank is pre heated by the solar panel. The panel is not connected to mains and the header has about 2m of head over the panel .... reticulation is purely by convection so whatever heat has been gained in the header stays there for the most part and it's not cooled again through unwanted circulation through the panel.

I've always wondered about the ballasts on fluorescent fittings ..... I was told that story by many a sparky but had serious doubts about the "8 hours", so have always taken it with a pinch of salt. I have no doubt that it requires more energy to start, but wondered what length of time to run the light before you surpass that .... so I applied my own rule of thumb .... if I anticipate being out of the room for more than ½ an hour, I switch off, but if I'm constantly in and out I let it run.

I have an adequate supply of braai wood and occasionally add a few briquettes so, it doesn't cost me much at all to light the fire .... one can just about grill a complete chicken in a kettle braai (lid closed) with five or six briquettes ... takes a while, but hey, I think it's better that way.

Let's hear from the rest. What is your average monthly energy consumption (meter reading)?

now please help the dum and dummer me when it get to electricity. what size generator do you need to run a medium house hold, we have a grannyflat that has its own geyser, so two of all

Sjoe! That would have to be a pretty big genny, to run 2 geysers, fridges, freezers, lights etc. etc. ...... probably about 12KW output. Would set you back a pretty penny as well.

4x4megaworldpta wrote:About 2 years ago I got gatvol for my Bill from Twane(Pretoria) for Water & Lights. One month R3000 and then R2100 the next and then R1500 and then sky high.

I decided to fit a Prepaid Electricty Meter.They charged then R2000, not sure now but this is the cost of the meter and to install.

Now I use on the prepaid electricity R520 worth of electricity, the other part,i.e sanitary, refuse removal and property tax and water is now R850. Given a few rands in fluctation of water usage I pay not more than R1400 for the last 2 years per month.

You control your electricity usage, NOT THEM!!! No more wrong elec readings.

Did the same Louise, with the same results. An added benefit is the fact that when you go away for the December holidays you actually can benefit from your saving instead of receiving a double bill based on an over estimation by the greedy council.

Mud Dog wrote:Sjoe! That would have to be a pretty big genny, to run 2 geysers, fridges, freezers, lights etc. etc. ...... probably about 12KW output. Would set you back a pretty penny as well.

well I pay R24 000 plus a year to Eksdom, and recon that for that price I can get a very good genny and go on a 4x4 holiday with one years electricity.

solar geyser is in, sadly webshots site is about to close where I normally host my pics, and this site says pic is too big, so cant post a pic
so till I have a new place to host pics, NO pics!!

it was in yesterday, allowed the element to work last night and this morning, 2hrs each time, and by 13H00 this after noon after my teenage son having showered and me having showered to come to work, temp was 68*

just need the regulator and then the gas stove will go in, have every thing else including a full gas bottle