LOAD-SHEDDING may severely impact business, but there is a booming power industry making money off Eskom’s power woes.
For business owners such as Cherika Delaney, from Pelican Park, load-shedding has opened up a new door of financial opportunities.
Delaney, the founder and owner of Fit A Battery Solutions, said her business – which began two years ago – took off as load-shedding got worse.
The mother of two, who started her business selling automotive batteries, invested and begun selling solar panels and inverters.
An inverter converts the DC electricity from sources such as batteries or fuel cells to AC electricity.
Delaney said she started selling inverters last year.
“It wasn't actually the main focus, but we noticed that during load-shedding our business picked up on a lot of inquiries about inverters.
“Especially the 1.2 KVA inverter, which is used for more basic needs; TV, laptop, Wifi router and a few lights.”
Delaney said her aim was always to try to keep the product cost affordable.
“We understand how important it is to have something that can keep your appliances going, especially for those working from home.
“Everyone is looking for alternative ways to to keep their necessities running, so what better way than to render them a service like this.”
Delaney added that they sold around seven inverters in one week of load-shedding.
“This is really a clever way to avoid load-shedding. Some might think it's unnecessary but what if there's a need; like your phone is flat and there's an emergency, or you need to send an important email for work? Or you need to warm your baby’s bottle?
“You can get a lot done in those two hours that everyone is experiencing load-shedding, especially when it happens unexpectedly. You don't even notice it’s load-shedding, because the inverter kicks in immediately. After load-shedding, the inverter charges its battery.”
Consumers have also reverted to other methods like the Wonderbag, which uses heat-retention technology to allow food to be slow-cooked once removed from the heat source.
The bag is also used to keep food warm for up to eight hours.
Henrietta Adams said she paid R200 for this essential item.
“The bag doesn’t use any electricity, not even a battery. I know that as a pensioner I don’t have money to buy things like a generator or inverter. And as a mother of a household, I need to make sure there is always a plate of warm food for my husband and kids.”
When it comes to choosing a system, Rohann Mattheus, a director at Solar Craft, says firstly determine your current consumption and how energy-efficient you are – not the size of your house or the number of people in it.
Secondly, by your requirements during an outage:
* Lights only: A small system of around R15 000 should work for sporadic outages of a few hours. It charges from the grid and switches to battery power when supply is interrupted.
* Energy-efficient globes help to get the maximum runtime from batteries. In this scenario, solar panels don’t make a notable savings difference.
* Lights and essential devices: if you need to keep devices like TVs, computers, Wi-Fi, electric fences, alarms and fridges running, a 3kW inverter with 2.4kWh battery capacity (three hours standby) is the minimum requirement. A 5kW inverter is recommended for upgradability.
For around R60 000 a system with 1.8kW solar panels can be installed, with estimated savings of about 8kWh to 10kWh on a sunny day. (A kWh is the unit in which electricity consumption is measured and indicated on your bill or prepaid meter. The current electricity rate amounts to about R2 per kWh.)
* Lights, essential and non-essential devices: Should you add devices like washing machines, pool pumps and microwave ovens, a 5kW inverter with a 4.8kWh battery (three hours standby) is the minimum requirement, although an 8kW inverter is recommended.
For about R90 000 one can install a 5kW system with 3kW solar panels and a 4.8kWh lithium battery, with estimated savings of 15kWh to 18kWh on a sunny day.
* Heating systems: This includes geysers, stoves and heaters. The latter two can be powered by a solar panel or gas system, but for geysers a solar water heater system – ie using pipes, not solar panels – is strongly recommended as a more money smart investment.