Help Eskom and help yourself

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It seems the whole of Cape Town was affected by the recent load shedding a few weeks ago when Eskom’s coal reserves were soaked by unusually long and heavy rains. Our office didn’t have power for most of the morning, which made me realise how reliant on electricity we all are (and the need for solar panels on our office roof!) But what other options does our country have, which is so heavily reliant on coal? And what can you as an individual do? Robert Fischer gives us some advice and looks at the short and long tem options. Continue reading →

Ask An Expert: Cooking with less energy

Q: I think I use a lot of electricity for my cooking. I like to cook meals, which require long cooking times, like beans, stews and samp. What can I do to save energy?

A: Soaking your dry beans overnight before cooking is one way, but some people complain that this would affect the taste. Another way to save electricity when cooking is to make use of the fantastic Wonderbag! It’s actually a kind of donut-shaped pillow, filled with insulating material. After you’ve brought your beans or stew to boiling, put your pot into the Wonderbag, cover it and wait until food is ready! As simple as that. Read what Nontando writes about her wonderbag

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Pasta a la carbon-ara

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Have you ever found yourself wondering what the most environmentally friendly way to cook pasta might be? Gary has. It may seem like an odd thing to wonder about, but think about it: there are a number of different ways to get a pot of water on the boil in the typical home e.g. the kettle, gas or electric hob, solar cooker… Alongside this, he has also been interested in the difference in carbon impacts of gas and electric stoves, so he bundled these ponderings together, put together a few experiments and his results were very surprising… Continue reading →

The true cost of electricity: counting the hidden costs

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Did you know that the amount you and I pay for electricity does not represent its actual cost? There are many hidden costs to our electricity because the negative cosequences for our carbon intensive power is not included in the final bill. The Fourth Fact Sheet from the Smart Electricity Planning report investigates the true cost of our power further.
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Women, power and leveraging change

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We believe that two powerful ways to bring about positive change in South Africa are to give women access to energy and teach them about energy conservation and efficiency measures. Read more about it in the Third Fact Sheet from the Smart Electricity Planning Report. Continue reading →