South Africa is in the midst of 2 VERY big problems: Electricity and Water.

Whilst the Eskom Energy Crisis has been going on for a while now, the problems with out water supply is just beginning to come to the fore. The Garden Route area is expected to run out of dammed Water in 10 Months if no rain falls over the catchment areas soon. (CLICK HERE)

What is interesting to note regarding the Water Crisis is that the farmers and other commercial operations have met their savings targets, but it is the Residential Sector who have not! Something which will result in massive Water Costs increases.

Eskom generates more than 80% of all our electricity from Coal Powered Stations - Wet Cooled Coal Electricity Generation is highly water intensive with 1.3 Litres being used for every kilo watt hour being produced. Coupled with the fact that South Africa is one of the 30th Most Dry Countries in the world makes it critical for us to examine our water usage and ensure we are doing everything possible to reduce our consumption lest we all experience what parts of Port Elizabeth are experiencing.

Too  make matters worse incompetent municipalities owe the Water Boards millions of Rands, making it nearly impossible to ensure that the infrastructure is kept in shape. The result is crumbling infrastructre, and very shortly a shortage of treatment plants to provide our growing population and economy with the water it requires.

So whilst many of us have heard about the tips about making sure we switch taps off whilst shaving, getting dual flush toilets, watering at certain times of the day etc etc I would like to examine the impacts of electricity saving and its effects on water usage.

These calculations are based on 1.3 Litres of Water being used for every Kilo Watt Hour generated.

Solar Water Heating (SWH)

Our SWH systems have been tested by the SABS and the results are as follows: Our 150 Litre System saves about 7.5kWh a day.

This equates to:

  • 9.75  litres / day
  • 292  litres / month
  • 3510 litres / year
Energy Efficient Shower Heads

Our Shower Heads reduce Water consumption as their core function already, but they also reduce electricity usage because you use less water when showering it requires less water to be heated up by your electric geyser.

So lets do some calculations for a family of 4 people, all showering once a day for 10 minutes. Our shower heads will save roughly 2.2 kWh per shower, so will total a daily savings of 8.8 kilo watt hours which will save

  • 11 litres / day
  • 343 litres / month
  • 4118 litres / year
Remember this is water savings just from reduced Eskom electricity generation, this family of 4 will save more than 93,000 litres of water by changing to an energy efficient shower head from one that uses 16 litres / min.

Energy Efficient Lighting

LED lighting is the most efficient light source in the world, it approximately 90% more efficient that incandescent and halogens and around 50% more efficient than CFL or normal fluorescent tubes or globes.

Lets take an example of the Down Lighter, many people have these in their homes and they usually have a lot of them too. The usual downlighter is 50W in power, the equivalent LED that provides the same light output is 6W in power, this is 44W savings or 88% savings in energy usage for the same output.

Say this family has 20 Downlights and they use them for 5 hours every day. This totals to 5 kWh usage per day, if they were to convert to LED down lights that usage would drop to 600 Watts, not even a kilowatt!!!! Savings would be 4.4 kWh a day reasulting in Water savings of:

  • 5.7 litres / day
  • 171 litres / month
  • 2059 litres / year
Whilst a few thousand litres year and there might not seem like a lot, it really is! When it comes to striving to living a more efficient life style, using more efficient products:  Forward movement, however small, still plays a part!!!!

The additional water saving advantages are not only substantial but crucial to South Africa and we should all be aware of the water issues we are likely to face in the future!
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