Electrical power failures in Farmall Randburg

**Patk** · 19-Oct-13, 07:13 PM

There are a number of smallholdings in Farmall (Behind Kya Sands and across the river from Cedar Lakes) that have power supplied by City Power Johannesburg, while the majority of other smallholdings are supplied directly by Escom. I am unfortunately supplied by City Power.
The problem that we face is that every time it rains, even if it is for a minute or two, all the properties powered by City Power experience a power failure,and we are now at the start of the rainy season. This problem has persisted now for almost two years.
When we query the reason for the failures we are glibly advised that the loss of power is weather related.
When pressure is applied to the authorities that are responsible for the problem, we are advised that it is as a result of old infrastructure which needs to be replaced, but unfortunately there is no budget at the present time for the upgrade.

It started to rain 30 minutes ago and our power has failed. We are again running under generator power which does not come cheap. Previous outages have lasted as long as 14 Hours, but on average last for 5 to 6 hours.

Anyone have any ideas as to how to handle this situation?
All input is appreciated.

**tec0** · 19-Oct-13, 11:26 PM

We have the same problem, each time we have rain the power goes out. Also we get lots of power spikes and when our power goes out it can be a few hours to a few days depending. Last time we were without power for almost 3 days.

Sadly no solution as yet... However I am looking for a refrigerator that runs on paraffin this will save a lot of money as I don’t need a generator to keep my food fresh. Secondly I am looking into solar power to run the basics “lights and maybe a small TV” Lights is mostly for our security.

Lastly I am looking into GAS as a solution to water-heating and cooking.

**Justloadit** · 20-Oct-13, 07:08 AM

Hi Teco,

For a fridge consider the fridges used in caravans, they can run on mains, gas or battery power. They are called absorption fridges, and have no moving parts, but work on converting heat into cooling.

On the lighting side, I may have a solution for you. Depending on the amount of power you use, redundancy and the time you wish to run, I can almost give you a system off the shelf which I have been working on for some time, and is at the point that I just need to complete labels and manuals to be offered into the market. For maximum efficiency and least cost on the power storage side, You must change all your bulbs to LED, and preferably 12V LED. I manufacture a LED module for 12V which is very efficient. I found that my 2W module, gives off 240 lumens, which is equivalent to 20 lit candles, which is adequate for most applications. If you want more light simply add more 2W lights. Alternatively I can manufacture for 12V systems, 1W, 2W, 3W,6W, 9W.

To give you an idea off the brightness of a 1W 12v LED, it is equivalent to 10 candles, and will light up a room 3m by 3m enough that you can see everything in the room clearly, you can not read though, unless you point the light, no more than 1 meter from your reading material. My 3Watt security light has as much intensity as a 150Watt incandescent light.

If you are interested, PM me your requirements or place them here and I will see how I can help you with my product line.

**tec0** · 22-Oct-13, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by Justloadit

Hi Teco,

For a fridge consider the fridges used in caravans, they can run on mains, gas or battery power. They are called absorption fridges, and have no moving parts, but work on converting heat into cooling.

On the lighting side, I may have a solution for you. Depending on the amount of power you use, redundancy and the time you wish to run, I can almost give you a system off the shelf which I have been working on for some time, and is at the point that I just need to complete labels and manuals to be offered into the market. For maximum efficiency and least cost on the power storage side, You must change all your bulbs to LED, and preferably 12V LED. I manufacture a LED module for 12V which is very efficient. I found that my 2W module, gives off 240 lumens, which is equivalent to 20 lit candles, which is adequate for most applications. If you want more light simply add more 2W lights. Alternatively I can manufacture for 12V systems, 1W, 2W, 3W,6W, 9W.

To give you an idea off the brightness of a 1W 12v LED, it is equivalent to 10 candles, and will light up a room 3m by 3m enough that you can see everything in the room clearly, you can not read though, unless you point the light, no more than 1 meter from your reading material. My 3Watt security light has as much intensity as a 150Watt incandescent light.

If you are interested, PM me your requirements or place them here and I will see how I can help you with my product line.

Had a look at your website and your products. I also forwarded it to my friends so that they can have a look at your products solutions.

**Justloadit** · 22-Oct-13, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by tec0

Had a look at your website and your products. I also forwarded it to my friends so that they can have a look at your products solutions.

Hi Teco,

Thanks for your support

**ians** · 20-Oct-13, 10:01 AM

Led lights with a solar panel as justloadit indicated and gas.

MY electricity was switched off you almost year due to non payment, the bill just got out of hand and I could catch up, we used gas for cooking and bathing and solar panels which charged the batteries and ran the lights.

My 2.2 kw generator...RR2500
Solar panel and lights...R1100
2 plate gas cooker..R250
Invertor to run the TV...R1200 complete with the 105 amp/hr battery

They also switched off my water, so I invested in a plastic pool as a holding tank where i collected water for bathing and washing and connected flexable pipes to the gutters to channel the water to the pool, I eventually got 1000 litre tank which I put at the gutters

**Dave A** · 20-Oct-13, 11:38 AM

It says something of our level of expectation on service delivery that all posts so far are suggestions on how to reduce your reliance on municipal services. It seems you have to burn down a municipal building and loot some shops to get taken anywhere near seriously by government nowadays.

**Patk** · 20-Oct-13, 06:22 PM

At this rate we will soon be back to making candles and will need to explain to our childrens children about the time that we could evoke light from fittings on the ceiling by just turning on a switch. Quiet Frightening this rate of progress, but possibly needed to push us to a state of self sufficiency and less dependent on authoritarian dictatorships.

**Patk** · 21-Oct-13, 05:16 PM

Happy to announce that our power was restored mid afternoon and has been uninterrupted ever since. The most amazing aspect is that it was restored while it was still raining and this is the first time we have had both power and rain at the same time for at least 18 months. Dare we believe that they have eventually found the reason for the failures.
I do believe however that in our situation that we become less dependant on Municipal services and will be investigating the move away to solar and other resources.
I would be interested in obtaining information into led lighting systems where possible.
Could someone please explain to me how i can communicate directly with other members om the system.
Thanks again for all your input. It helps to know that we are not alone and that people do care for others as has been displayed.