When everybody saves, everybody wins

22 August 2016 - 17:09 By Western Cape Government
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SPONSORED POST

Image: Western Cape Government

If the Western Cape wants to grow the economy and create jobs, it needs enough electricity. And if it wants to create a cleaner environment and slow down climate change, it needs to produce more electricity from green alternatives.

In order to achieve both these aims, the Western Cape Government has identified Energy Security as a priority intervention, known as a Game Changer, which it will be driving over the next few years.     

In partnership with municipalities, the provincial government has set ambitious targets to reduce our dependence on coal-fired electricity and generate green energy, with a main goal being a 10% reduction in demand from Eskom over the next few years.

If households and businesses invest in green technologies such as solar water heaters and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and reduce their electricity use, then together we can achieve this goal and meet the energy challenges of tomorrow.

Saving electricity during winter is a great place to start. In winter we are hit with a double whammy: electricity prices go up and we use more electricity to keep ourselves warm.

We use most of our electricity for water heating (29%), heating our homes (21%), cooking (21%), and lighting (10%), so these are the areas you should target first.

Some actions won’t cost you anything. For example, you can save up to 5% of your electricity bill by simply turning your geyser down to 60 degrees celsius. Switching off unused lights can also save you up to 5%. If you’re willing to spend a bit of money and buy a geyser timer and LED lights, you can bring that saving up to 30%. If you’re able to invest even more and put in a solar geyser, you can take your saving to over 50%.

You can save electricity in every room in your house through a few simple steps.

Check out the things you can do:

To find out more about these and the other steps you can take to reduce your electricity bill, visit www.switchandsave.com.

By working together, everybody wins. You save money and the Western Cape has more energy to grow.

 

This content was paid for by the Western Cape Government. It does not involve Times Media journalists.

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