Water and lights bill

Has anybody else got there water and lights bill and fell over backwards with the increase? My bill has doubled. from paying 3grand to 6grand in one month. my neighbor has the same problem. What the ****** ***** is going on here.

 

mine went from R800 up to R3000....

 

Mine went from +-R300.00 to +-R400.00

 

No clue --- the meter dude read my meter for the first time in 18 months this month... been paying a guestimate - not sure if they just add XX% to the guestimate.

 

Mine doubled as well!

 

Yip - mine has doubled

 

Prepaid Electricity FTW!:bigsmile:

 

i spend now R2400+- a month on power

 

I'm on about 400 a month....but i have alot of HO CFL's so I spose i save a little there...

 

Mine went up as well I was paying around R450 a month now it is almost at R800 a month and that is with prepaid.... WTF :evil:

 

complaining will not help. Need to find solutions guys. Switching your geyser off when not in use helps. Also change all your lights to energy saver bulbs. I switch my geyser off when i leave 4 work in the morning and switch it back on when i return. Also check out the builder warehouse site got really good all round tips, there is alot you can do to make a change.

 

Switching your geyser off doesn't save money it actually damages your geyser. Think about it, when you have your geyser on it only drops by 1 or 2 degrees and it takes less than 5 min to reheat, when you switch your geyser off all day it drops way lower and it will take an hour or more to reheat the water. Electrical and building guys i am sure you can agree on this.

Why i am complaining i bought a gas stove and oven just two months ago and threw out the electrical one. Some thing must be wrong.

 

At least JHB is warmer now ... room is typically 22 degrees at night - not like a few weeks ago - 13 degrees. But in 6 months time I will have to seriously rethink - about keeping all the tanks running.

 

Turning your geyser off is PERCEIVED as saving electricity. The electrician I use for my building projects reccons that you actually USE more electricity when you turn your geyser off. I tried the principal of turning off for one month, and comparing to previous month, and I actually did spend MORE on electricity... but then again... it could also be one EXTRA meal I cooked that month at home, or the longer tv watching, or lights on that makes the difference... so I am not really convinced.

When a geyser stays on... the thermostat heats the water to the desired temp, lets say 60 deg for example. When the water reaches 60 deg... the thermostat turns off. A WELL insulated geyser will hold 60 deg from abour 3 hours... and the thermostat will only turn the geyser back on for a few minutes when the water reached 50-52 degrees. According to my electrician, if you time the amount of time that the thermostat is ON it is only a few minutes per 12 hour cycle (exl when you drain it to bath etc)... BUT if you turn your geyser off for extended periods during the day, it can take up to an hour and a half to reach full heat when you turn it back on. So the trick with a geyser is to actually ensure you have a well insulated geyser, (Most new geysers are very well insulated in design), and to wrap the geyser in a geyser blanket.

The reason why Eskom always tell you to turn off y our geyser is because it is one appliance they can get everyone to turn off and make us as the consumers think we are 'saving' electricity. What is in actual fact happening is at certain times of the day, (esp early morning and evening) when we are all cooking, bathing, showering, heaters on, we are consuming hge volumes of electricity. 90% of our geysers are now on because we have bathed/showered/cooked (i.e taken hot water out the geyser), and therefor ESKOM say turn your geyser off basically because THEY don't have enough power to supply. What WE are actually doing it turning our geysers off... and long term paying MORE four our electricity because it takes more electricity to heat a cold geyser than it does to MAINTAIN a heated geyser hot.

The BEST way for all of us to save electricity is energy saver globes. Energy saver globes now produce sometime MORE light than the standard incandescent light bulb, (Which is slowly being gazetted as ILLEGAL). You can even get energy saver globes for downlighters... and guess what... down lights are your MOST EXPENSIVE lights to use inside your house. We USE to have a 60w or 100w standard incandescent globe in each room when we were all much younger. The new houses now all have between 3 to 20 downlights... and now matter whether they are 12v or 240v... they are still drawing 50w per globe. Don't let the shops fool you into thinking that because you are using 12v that you are saving electricity... all you are doing is paying MORE for the transformer, and the same for electricity.

Change your bulbs to energy saver. Turn your tv off when not in use. UNPLUG un-used items. That cell-phone charger that is plugged in is actually drawing power even if you are not using it (same as tv/radio/dvdplayer/cd player/computer).

That's my 2cents worth

As a builder... I concur.

 

Thank you Zoom that was a very nice explanation and more detailed reason to my answer and yours.:bigsmile:

 

It's a pleasure Wito... I actually was typing up my response and saw you responded BEFORE me... hence I added yours to mine!

 

Thanks Zoom and wito - no more turning my geyser off anymore!

 

Guys, it works on the same principal as your heater in the tank. If you switch it off during the night, have a look in the morning how long it takes to get the temp back up to normal.

At the end of the day, power usage is calculated in the amout of watts per hour you use, and it has nothing to do with the voltage
So bottom line is that Zoom has his facts in order. I would just like to know how he keeps his bill that low.... R300 - R400 a month... Come on Zoom, tell us your secret....

 

got prepaid elec but now that rates and water is charged daily i have noticed a increase in that ...Bastards ....

 

My electricity went up more than double and I life in a one bedroom flat and I only have two tanks so how the ...... can it be and I am at work the whole day

I think the reason why we are paying so much is that we are paying for the people who striked and got their raise