South Africans face rising electricity costs every year to offset Eskom’s debts and shortfalls. How do we lower our costs as much as possible, while still maintaining some quality of life?
The first line of defence against high electricity bills is to find out how many kilowatt hours each of your household appliances uses. When you know this, you can cut down on usage of the “main offenders”.
Related: Can Solar Panels Save You Money?
What Is A Kilowatt Hour?
Simply, it’s a measure of how much energy is being used. The measuring system works by taking a constant rate of power used over a specific period of time.
So for example, if you have a 1000 watt appliance running for one hour, it uses a kilowatt. A 2000 watt appliance uses 1 kWh in half an hour. When you switch on a single 100 watt light bulb, it takes 10 hours to rack up 1 kWh of energy.
How Much Does A Kilowatt Hour Cost?
According to our calculations, you can expect to pay an average of R1.98 per kWh. Or you can figure out your own costs: download Eskom’s tariff chart here.
To help you figure out how to keep your bills low, here are some infographics that show which of your household appliances consume the most power.
Images courtesty of Eskom
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