Did you know that leaving a light on in an empty room overnight, uses the same energy as it takes to make 1000 cups of tea! Did your mind just do a back flip over that stat? Because ours certainly did. According to the City of Cape Town’s Environmental Resource Management, this is the case.
In celebration of Energy Month, we thought it would be useful for all of us to take into account how much energy we actually consume. Will we have enough for future generations? How long will it all last? These are some of the questions we should be earnestly asking ourselves. Being oblivious to these facts, while switching on air cons, leaving laptops and computers on overnight, and leaving geysers on 24/7, is not the answer.
When it comes to energy saving, some think that it doesn’t really affect them. The load shedding that we have all had to endure in the past, is already enough so that’s all the ‘saving’ we do. But that’s not true, you can always save more and in the process collect extra money to spend on things that really matter. Not sure how much energy you consume? Well worry not because Kestrel Renewable Energy has developed a way for everyone to calculate exactly how much energy they use. Have a look at how the formula works with these four examples:
Rating X Hours used per day = Energy used per day X Days used per month = Energy used per month
| Appliance |
Rating (kilowatts) |
Hours used per day |
Energy used per day (kilowatts) |
Days used per month |
Energy used per month (kilowatts) |
Cost of energy used per year (at 78,840 cents/kwh) |
| Television |
0,300 |
5 |
1,5 |
15 |
22,5 |
R212,87 |
| Cell phone charger |
0,010 |
4 |
0,04 |
30 |
1,2 |
R11,35 |
| Microwave oven |
2,000 |
1 |
2 |
25 |
50 |
R473,04 |
| Iron |
0,750 |
0,5 |
0,375 |
30 |
11,25 |
R106,43 |
Now that you can see where you’ve spent the most energy and how much it costs, the next step would be to try and reduce your energy footprint. It might sound daunting, but it really doesn’t have to be. Eskom has compiled some energy saving tips that are guaranteed to add some jingle to your pockets, so you can spend on what really matters. Take a look:
- When taking on the task of ironing, rather do an entire batch all at once, as opposed to lighting the iron up every morning to iron. This is a definite energy waster.
- When no one is listening or watching, turn your television and radio sets off.
- In order to keep a room cool in the summer months, use curtains that are light so that the sun can be reflected outwards.
- It is more economical to defrost food in the refrigerator then to do it in the microwave.
- When using the oven, try to prepare an entire meal with it. Your main course, vegetables and dessert can all be done in the oven and it’s even better if they can all be cooked at the same temperature.
So you see, it’s really not that hard to conserve electricity and everyone benefits from it. Help alleviate the pressure that our power points are under and save money while you’re at it