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document.write("<h5>Power Saving</h5>");
document.write("It never ceases to amaze me about the lack of common sense applied to this subject or the lack of national/provincial/municipal incentives to make savings by way of financial assistance provided to consumers. In Durban we have recently received what can best be described as a heartfelt plea to save electricity from the head of our electricity utility to avoid the risk of further load shedding. Others more sceptical might call it a warning to consumers to cut their usage. Whatever way you describe the letter, the fact of the matter is that Durban Electricity does not assist the consumer either materially or technically with the means for saving electricity. For example, having spent approximately twenty thousand Rands on various projects to reduce our dependance on electricity, we still only ever receive an \"estimated\" electricity account. Now for those persons out there that can't work out the problem with this appalling service from the people who want us to save electricity, how are we supposed to measure just how much our efforts are saving??? I have no idea right now if the work we have done at our residence over the past four months has resulted in a 1% or 50% saving. In other words have we done enough? or do we need to do more?  The other issues that never ceases to amaze me is that government want us to save electricity, BUT other than to threaten us with more electricity cuts if we don't sabe enough,they offer no incentives.For example-lag the water geyser with extra insulation, or the most basic - insulate the roof space or loft. No instructions to architects either to reduce the size of windows in new buildings, no incentive at town planing to new home owners to design more efficient houses etc. The list can go on and on. But who am I to complain? only one of the poor suckers who have to live with the ongoing risk of not enough electric power to supply my business, whilst the guys at the top can't do their jobs, but get a fat salary for allowing the situation to develop.<br /><br />Reduced window size reduces the loss of heat from within the home as well as reduces the input of heat from the sun, so less airconditioning is required. In SA we don't have the luxury of double glazing available, so reducing the size of our windows is the next best way of saving electricity through minimizing the glass area of a home.<br /><br />As I mentioned above, insulating the loft is probably the cheapest way of saving power, but unlike the old standard of roof insulation of using only 100 mm thickness, it is now recognised that for the best results, use 300 mm thickness of roof insulation.<br /><br />Consider the use of gas for water heating or better still a combination of salar water heating with a gas back up system for those long wet months or cloudy days. That way you will never run out of hot water and you will reduce the dependance on electricity. <br /><br />Regards<br /><br />Peter R . Peter Rose");
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