{"id":491857,"date":"2021-05-22T07:00:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-22T05:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=491857"},"modified":"2021-05-22T07:02:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T05:02:19","slug":"how-to-save-up-to-r15000-a-year-on-your-electricity-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/491857\/how-to-save-up-to-r15000-a-year-on-your-electricity-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"How to save up to R15,000 a year on your electricity bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cash-strapped consumers will need to prepare for hikes in the price of electricity from 1 July as the impact of Eskom increases take effect at a municipal level.<\/p>\n<p>From 1 April 2021, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved Eskom\u2019s allowable revenue from standard tariff customers to be increased by 15.06% for Eskom direct customers.<\/p>\n<p>An estimated increase of 17.80% for the supply of electricity to all municipalities will be implemented on 1 July 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Through a few relatively simple and practical changes to the way they use electricity, consumers can do their bit to not only save the planet, but also save themselves a whack of cash &#8211; upwards of R15,000 a year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFintech\u2019s PayCurve recently indicated that nearly 80% of South Africans take out expensive, unsecured loans to service their monthly obligations. With the rising cost of electricity and fuel, as well as the ever-present risk of load shedding, we need to find innovative ways to reduce pressure on our resources and save money,\u201d said Susan Steward from Budget Insurance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe tweaks we can make at our homes, businesses and on the road may seem insignificant, but could amount to thousands in savings per year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Budget Insurance offers the following tips to save on electricity:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bright idea<\/strong>: switch to energy efficient light bulbs if you haven\u2019t done so already. They may be more expensive, but last longer and use substantially less electricity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Out with the old<\/strong>: letting go of large appliances such as a fridge can seem counter-productive when trying to save money but newer fridges are far more energy efficient and will save you more in the long run. Appliances are graded from A to G on their efficiency, with A being the most efficient and G being the least.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Winter warmer<\/strong>: Switch to more energy-efficient ways of staying warm, like using thick blankets and padded clothing instead of heaters and taking a shower instead of a water- and electricity-consuming bath.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The habit of saving<\/strong>: Get your entire household to turn off any lights and appliances that are not in use, and to use them only for as long as required.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Smart plugs for smart people<\/strong>: Smart plugs can be set to switch off your appliances such as TVs and sound systems entirely as opposed to putting them onto stand-by mode which guzzles power. Smart plugs typically have a companion app allowing you to set preferences, schedules and names for the devices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Time for timers<\/strong>: Timers, or smart switches &#8211; whether for geysers, pool pumps or security lights &#8211; will help you only consume electricity at specific times. Especially useful with geysers &#8211; one of the most energy consuming items in the household.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Long-term planning<\/strong>: there are some bigger ways to reduce a home\u2019s electricity consumption and should be considered as part of a longer-term investment and cost saving exercise. This includes putting in solar panels, switching out electricity-run stoves and ovens for gas and replacing air conditioning with ceiling fans and fireplaces. A pre-paid electricity meter would also be an effective way to monitor your home\u2019s power consumption and assist with budgeting for power on a monthly basis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/475432\/heres-how-to-save-up-to-r17000-a-year-on-petrol\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Here\u2019s how to save up to R17,000 a year on petrol<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cash-strapped consumers will need to prepare for hikes in the price of electricity from 1 July as the impact of Eskom increases take effect at a municipal level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":491859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[9948,1164,26],"class_list":["post-491857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-budget-insurance","tag-eskom","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491857"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492659,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491857\/revisions\/492659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}