To switch off or not to swtich off is not the question
Posted by: Fireworks in Untagged on
Feb 18, 2008
After reading Peter’s great suggestion on how to make saving electricity fun for the whole family I was again reminded of the conflicting information I keep reading and hearing regarding the usefulness of switching off one’s geyser as a power saving solution. So I set out to resolve the issue once and for all: Can switching off your geyser save electricity or not?
For those of you who have not been reading the papers, the debate is between those who say it does (for what they believe are obvious reasons) and those that say it doesn’t (for what they say are equally obvious reasons).
I’m sorry to say that I haven’t found any definitive answers yet. What I did find though was a crystal clear explanation of what the actual problem is we face in South Africa today (with regards to our electricity problems I mean). And while I still don’t know whether switching off the geyser actually saves any electricity I now do know that switching off my geyser is part of the solution to our electricity woe’s.
The key to understanding our electricity problem and to understand how I can be part of the solution was understanding exactly what our problem was.
There are two kinds of energy shortfalls. The one is a capacity problem and the other is a supply problem. In other words, when we don’t have enough water in our dams then we have a supply problem and we have to use less water. When we don’t have enough pipes to supply the water to everybody who has a tap then we have a capacity problem. And the way you cope with that is to regulate or control when people use their taps.
So while we have an electricity generating (supply) problem through poor planning, that is not actually our problem. We do have a certain amount of electricity available at any one time, just not enough (capacity) if everybody demands it at the same time.
Therefore the solution is to either demand less or spread the demand out better so that everybody is able to still draw the electricity they need.
So reducing your electricity footprint, using less electricity, is going to help for sure. But what will be even more effective in the short terms is to shift when you use electricity. (If you want to read more check out Duncan Drennan's excellent description and discussion on this topic and the source of my enlightenment on the topic.)
Back to the question: to switch off my geyser or not to. The bottom line is that it’s actually irrelevant whether switching of your geyser saves on your monthly electricity bill or not when it comes to being part of the solution. Your geyser is the single biggest consumer of electricity in a home (25%) and by switching it off during a significant part of the day you will be reducing the electricity it demands from the grid and thereby freeing up electricity for more essential users like the mines, hospitals and the like who cannot function at all if they don’t have an uninterrupted power supply.
The numbers look like this: Eskom needs to free up 3000MW during peak times. If a million households shift their 2kW geyser’s on/off cycle to off-peak times then that is a saving of 2000MW.
What are you waiting for? Install a timer on your geyser and get back to doing what you do best.
written by david, 18 February, 2008
written by hullflyer, 19 February, 2008
I have been a user of solar hot water for the last 25 years. It saves me about 40% electricity in summer and 20% in winter.
I would like to see tax breaks for solar installations.
The government could provide incentives for solar users, like in Europe where people who install Windturbines and Photovoltaic collectors get credit for execess energy they put into the grid, they can then use that credit when their systems are not generating. Its like a battery.
How about ZERO VAT and other tax incentives to install solar and wind generating systems which are very expensive. A wind turbine for a household or smallholding costs about R100 000 but will most probably not be allowed by most municipalities in urban areas.
But if every suburb financed and shared one huge one it would be feasible.
I'm not sure what 1000kw Thin film PhotoVoltaic system would cost. But you need to cover the side of your roof facing the sun to generate enough electricity to power your home. This technology seems to hold the most promise for urban users.
We can wait for the government and Eskom to get their butts into gear but they have already said that they have no immediate solutions and that it will take at least ten -20 years to build new mega power stations.
I reckon if private enterprise and the public got together we could find solutions and implement them within one year.
written by Perry Curling-Hope, 19 February, 2008
This statement is incorrect, as geysers in 'standby' mode are 'OFF' most of the time anyway, swithing 'ON' less than 5% of the time to make up for heat losses through the insulation.
Typically, a geyser will lose 3deg.C during the first 8 hours after being switched off.
According to an article published by the Department of Minerals and Energy, http://www.dme.gov.za/energy/e...ctors.stm, South Africa’s residential electricity use constitutes about 17% of total demand. Of this, water heating, (ie:the geyser, the primary target for ‘ripple control’ ) comprises 24% of domestic consumption.
This works out to 4.08% of total consumption. This figure is consumption, not contribution to peak demand, and can only be reduced by reducing household consumption of hot water.
A modern domestic geyser in ’standby’ mode runs about 1.3 hours out of every 24 to maintain temperature and overcome heat losses.These losses are not recoverable, as the water must be raised back to temperature at some stage, even if this occurs during an ‘offpeak’ period. It also represents a 5% duty cycle, 5% ‘ON’ and 95% ‘OFF’ It is this 5% of a the 4% total demand while geysers are in standby that is the subject of all this intense interest…ie: two tenths of one percent contribution to the national peak demand...scarcely earth ( or is it 'grid') shattering!
The primary purpose of controllers is to time shift the load, actual ’savings’ of energy are neglegible.
People who claim to have experienced a drop in electricity bills after having installed timers take no account of the likely drop in their hot water consumption due to increased awareness altering usage patterns.
They will claim their usage has not changed, yet no measurments are taken to confirm this, making it a nescessarily subjective assertion.
The only way to definitively save on consumption is to install a solar geyser. The cost of some R20,000 for the new high efficiency units place the installation beyond the reach of most households.
Perhaps a positive course of action would be for government to include domestic solar heating in its 'development' goals?
Unfortunately, the state has other priorities in the allocation of the 'funds'(that's OUR money!) at their disposal, such as acquiring armaments we don't need (under questionable circumstances) and pursuing ideologically motivated and damaging interventionist policies.
written by Claudio, 19 February, 2008
mate....Eskom has been stalling on sustainable solutions for 4 years already. They miss the boat and now they are asking the public to resolve the problem.
The biggest users of Electricity are the rich and there are many companies out their now who can easily start installing Solar Geysers today into all houses if they had the orders. It takes as much effort to send out e-mails about switching off as it does about changing your geyser. A R10 000 geyser is nothing for a house valued at 2 mil who use massive amounts of electricity just in the lighting around their houses....not to mention their big screen TV's, under floor heating etc etc....
If you were able to take one area like Constantia off the grid with a solar geyser, the saving would be constant.
Lastly Max, I am giving you feed back and trying to contribute to your awareness process but do not appreciate the tone in which you have relied to my mails. If you can't accept the feedback I suggest you remove your feedback option off the website.
Be cool in the heat of the battle against load shedding!!! ;-)
Ciao
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 1:04 PM
mate ... our communication stategy already includes solar ...
once the loadshedding crisis subsides - as it hits hard on the 1st March and will be worse during winter ... we're working on a crisis solution and then sustainable energy solutions which do take longer to roll out will then be focused on ...
You have to remember we are dealing with real experts on this issue -- we don't have business capacity yet to roll out solar geysers but in 6 months that will change and so will our messaging ...
On Feb 19, 2008 12:53 PM, Claudio Celestino wrote:
Great. I look forward to reading the results although can we really believe Eskom after all the bull S#!t they have been feeding us???
Another thought....how much effort are you guys putting into alternative energy sources, like solar which will take Eskom out of the picture? I think if you going through all this effort to unite a nation, why not unite them against Eskom who got us into this mess in the first place, and who have made no effort to support alternative sustainable energy sources in fear of loosing their monopoly and ofcourse revenue.
Why not promote Solar Geysers as the way forward. Its sustainable, enviro friendly and would save millions of MW for industry to be able to function.
Just some thoughts!
:o)
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 12:30 PM
Eskom is launching their new website this week -- and the results of their research project are there ...
its is the no1 'low hanging' fruit in the country ... geyser is one of our messages ... but its about raising consciousness to 'switch off'
and getting south Africans to positively unite -- not really just about geysers
On Feb 19, 2008 12:14 PM, Claudio Celestino wrote:
Sorry Max,
I don't believe switching off the geyser is a solution so cant support this campaign nor attach this signature.
Ciao
Claudio
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 10:20 PM
Claudio ...
would it be possible to attach this energy saving signature?
Thanks
Max
On Feb 18, 2008 8:28 PM, Claudio Celestino wrote:
Hi Max,
Just to let you know that I have a pay as you go electricity box in my home and have done numerous tests on how much I save switching off and on my geyser through the day at different intervals and my final conclusion was that I did not save any units through this process and so concluded that this did not save me any electricity.
What has helped though was when I turned my heat down on my geyser to below 55 degrees. Since I did this, I have seen a decline in my electricity usage.
So....I am not sure that your advice to switch off the geyser is actually helpful.
Cheers
written by Fireworks, 19 February, 2008
written by Louise, 20 February, 2008
Trish