NCR. Electricity Usage / Charges.

[Flowta]

My wife and I used to live in a complex in Parklands and our bill (prepaid) was R 250.00 in summer and R 350.00 in Winter. In April we moved to a house in Blouberg Rise and bill jumped to R 800.00 (meter payment). Immediatley threw out all old light bulbs and replaced with energy saving ones and bought a 4 plate gas hob (had a 2 one in Parklands) and now bill has dropped to R 400.00.

 

Water, we cut our bill by only filling toielt cistern when needed as 90% of cistern floats dont work as they should. Busy investigating a borehole and then disconecting toilet cistern from main water line and use borehole water flush the loo.

 

Grey water - will be connecting all grey water outlets like, shower, dishwaher etc to a tank for watering the garden.

 

Solar power - can also be done DIY with huge savings.

 

Allready have a composter (Makro R 800.00) and soon worm farm. Kinda feels good saving some bucks and doing something for Mother Nature.

 

Well done, this is the kind of thing I like to see.

 

Retro-fitting your geyser is the cheapest way to do solar. Though most times you won't qualify for a rebate. Another option is a heatpump. guaranteed at least 1/3 of the electricity usage if you use a quality heat pump. That is solar's flaw, it doesn't work at night. I don't trust the solar salesmen.

 

Using both would be even better but the payback period goes through the roof.

 

Also there is a lot to be said about proper insulation of geyser and piping, good practice is the at least the first 3 meters of piping from the geyser should be insulated.

Also the quality of the geysers we get here (locally made) are not so good, so geyser blankets are a good idea.

[Flowta]

Phooew, your power must be cheaper in CT so you get more units, but all been equal, up here in JHB R250.00 would buy you around 200 units of power, however you still need to deduct VAT and your contribution of R90.00 meter tariff, so you wont get more than 120 units of electricity for R250.00 - My geyser alone consumes more than that.

 

I cant see how anyhousehold can run on 120 units of power, your fridge and one light would consume more.

 

..but I like the idea of a composter, something I think I may look into, the soil around us here is dead, you can dig and dig and never see an earthworm, I think that will help regenerate the soil immensely.

 

Here are the tariffs for the City of Cape Town municipality. Other municipalities charge different rates, and have different tariff structures.

http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/electricity/tariffs/Pages/default.aspx

 

If you qualify as a low user then your units are cheaper.

 

My wife and I don't spend more then R300 a month on electricity(usually R200) and qualify for 50 free units per month.

oh yesm, we don't have a solar geyser either

[Flowta]

k, i understand savings.

 

my point is, before i've used one lightbulb, i pay R300. the actual usage is very low - i dont have the statement with me to give figures - but every time electricity cost goes up, the LEVY goes up with that percentage. so i keep on paying more and more, with no incentive at all to save anything. if i switch to soloar heating, i'd still have to pay this levy to charge my cellphone.

 

Who is your supplier? What tariff are you on?

[cat-i]

Who is your supplier? What tariff are you on?

flowta the statement lies around in the office somewhere, needed it for various enquiries that didnt get me anywhere - will answer once i know.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Here are the tariffs for the City of Cape Town municipality. Other municipalities charge different rates, and have different tariff structures.

http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/electricity/tariffs/Pages/default.aspx

 

If you qualify as a low user then your units are cheaper.

 

My wife and I don't spend more then R300 a month on electricity(usually R200) and qualify for 50 free units per month.

oh yesm, we don't have a solar geyser either

 

Well, you need to let me in on your secret, I see you also pay the R90.00 METER TARIFF and your rates are somewhat cheaper than JHB but not heavily so.

 

So if you only use R200.00 and you deduct your R90.00 Tariff, leaves R110.00 less Vat leaves you buying R97.00 odd of ACTUAL electricity units for the month.

 

Thats roughly 100 units - just a fridge consumes more than that in 30 days - factor in your 50 units free and its 150 units for 30 days to run a household - I dont see it, I really dont.

 

By the way, we get no free units here.

[Flowta]

Well, you need to let me in on your secret, I see you also pay the R90.00 METER TARIFF and your rates are somewhat cheaper than JHB but not heavily so.

 

So if you only use R200.00 and you deduct your R90.00 Tariff, leaves R110.00 less Vat leaves you buying R97.00 odd of ACTUAL electricity units for the month.

 

Thats roughly 100 units - just a fridge consumes more than that in 30 days - factor in your 50 units free and its 150 units for 30 days to run a household - I dont see it, I really dont.

 

By the way, we get no free units here.

 

I think you might have misread the tariff structure.

 

I fall under the lifeline tariff (<450kWh)

It is on a sliding scale as follows.

 

Block 1 (0 – 50 kWh) 0.00 c/kWh

Block 2 (50.1 – 150 kWh) 58.11 c/kWh

Block 3 (150.1 – 450 kWh) 70.4 c/kWh

 

No meter/service charge.

so for me for 450 kWh it is

 

50*0.00 + 100*58.11+300*70.4= 26931c + VAT= R269.31 + VAT = R307.0134

 

If your consumption is 450kWh<consumption<1500kWh then the rate is 93.31 c/kWh

(450kWh at this rate is R419.895 + VAT = R478.68)

 

If greater than 1500kWh then there is a service charge of R6.58 per day and 79.97 c/kWh

(450kWh in a 30 day month at this rate is R359.865 +6.58*30 + VAT = R635.28)

 

NB: If you were being charged a certain tariff and you use less, you won't automatically be moved to another tariff. You usually have to request it and they often want 3 months of proof.