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Thread: load shedding

  1. #1
    Diamond Member wynn's Avatar
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    load shedding

    from Huffington Post slightly edited to suit us.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda...b_6225300.html

    Electricity is overrated. The thought of load shedding for hours or days at a time probably would have shocked me before. Now that I've been through a few load shedding seasons when power outages are fairly common, I can say from experience that living without power for extended periods of time is not going to kill you. Yes, I have all my electronics : laptop, iPhone, Kindle, you name it. I'm not living off the grid. So when the power goes out and I have no internet and no means of "entertainment," I suddenly remember what it is to just breathe. And relax. And hear nothing but the waves and the wind. And I remember that the world keeps spinning regardless of how much or little I do every hour. Power outages are excellent opportunities to disconnect and reflect. And you know what else happens when the power is off? You talk. You actually put the phone away and you talk to the person next to you. Without distractions. When is the last time you did that with any regularity? It's a reality check.
    "Nobody who has succeeded has not failed along the way"
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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wynn View Post
    Power outages are excellent opportunities to disconnect and reflect. And you know what else happens when the power is off? You talk.
    I hate these types of people who always see the silver lining. It should be illegal to pretend everything's fine and dandy when it isn't.

    I'm so glad my car exploded on the highway, after I'd put out the flames I got to walk 35miles home and it was fantastic to see all those little things you miss when you're driving. It was great to feel the rain on my face, it really made me feel completely at one with nature and got my endorphines flowing. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH
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  3. Thank given for this post:

    roryf (08-Dec-14), wynn (03-Dec-14)

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    Platinum Member pmbguy's Avatar
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    Totally inspiring... quick lets all download another Mandela screensaver
    It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. – Charles Darwin

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    I've had load shedding at home the past two Sunday afternoons. The two experiences couldn't have been more different.

    Two weeks ago it started at about 16h20 - with 4 laps to go from Lewis Hamilton winning the F1 drivers championship. After passing appropriate expletives, I had my laptop whipped out, fired up, online via 3G and live streaming from Supersport in time to see him cross the finish line.
    Crisis averted.

    This last Sunday it started at 16h00, just as we were seeing guests off on their way home.
    Fortunately the gate is on battery backup, so no drama there.
    Then my wife, daughter and I settled on the front porch to watch the coming sunset.
    The normally empty street became quite busy with strangers walking by.
    Most of them waved and we waved back.
    Some had dogs I recognised from properties close by, so I guess mostly they were residents in the neighbourhood out for a stroll to kill time.

    Quite a relaxed couple of hours all told.

    About half way through, the conversation moved onto what life might be like if there was no such thing as electricity.
    We agreed seeing the neighbours was a pretty cool side effect, but on balance, having electricity had far more upsides than being without.

  6. #5
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    Well we're at stage 3 load shedding at the moment. Stage 3 is the worst stage of shedding although I wouldn't put it past them to define stage 4 and stage 5 in the forseeable future.

    They're dropping 4000MW of consumers off the grid due to diesel shortages for their gas turbines and water shortages at other generation sites. These rolling blackouts are likely to continue at least until the middle of this month when industry demand will start to reduce due to the holiday shutdown.

    I'm running a profitable little sideline in generator rentals at the moment. All 4 of my company generators which we normally use on site plus my own personal generator are rented out to customers.

    I've had a couple of 8.5KVA ferroresonant UPS's in my workshop which I acquired about 2 years ago from a customer who was throwing them out after they were lightning damaged. They've been awaiting awaiting repairs at my leisure ever since and I finally got around to fixing them last weekend on my Sunday off and they're already sold and installed at two different customers along with battery banks.

    On top of the usual mayhem that is the Cape Town silly season we've just got 2 more confirmed jobs this week to install back-up power solutions, one at a call centre and one at a small data centre so we're probably going to delay our holidays by a few days to get them completed.

    If you really want to ride the load shedding wave and you have a few million to play with then start importing batteries. We're awaiting a shipment of batteries to be released by customs and we just ordered a delivery of some more from JHB. I'm predicting a national battery shortage early in the new year.
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    Gold Member Houses4Rent's Avatar
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    What costs for a generator must I expect to keep a PC with periphery going? What about the noise and fumes factor?
    Do they run on diesel? Then it would be pointless. Eskom is short of diesel, patrol stations are short of diesel so my generator would have nothing to run on either?

    I am so fedup. This morning I checked website, no load shedding. At 11h00 it went puff. Our slot on stage 2 would have been 10-12h30. So they tell me its delayed load shedding, Comes back and I check website telling stage 2. At 15h30 I happen to go to website again to copy and paste the URL for a friend. At that occasion I see it was then stage 3. WTF, three status changes in half a day... Its now random whether one gets power or not as there is no planing possible unless one checks every 5 minutes...

    While I was on the landline to council the landline went puff too.

    Next its will be potluck to get Diesel at the patrol station or not.
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    Diamond Member Justloadit's Avatar
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    Its not that there is a shortage of diesel in the country, its that they can not feed the turbines enough diesel to run.
    The original design was for the diesel turbines to run 3 to 4 hours at a time, they are currently running 14 to 16 hours at a time.
    The immediate tanks at the turbines can only supply enough fuel for 4 hours, so while the turbines a re running, they are filling the tanks, however, the turbines are burning twice as much diesel as they can fill the tanks up, causing the situation that we are experiencing, where at some point, there is just not enough diesel in the tanks to continue running the turbines.

    What is frightening, is that in the last month, they have burned R1.2billion of diesel, and have only been allocated with R2billion for the year. They have already burned R10billion this year in diesel. Apparently government has pledged another R1.5billion, which burning at the current rate will only last till middle of January 2015.

    Contrary to what one of our nitwit MPs said, ESKOM is in major crises. They are in major financial trouble, and irrespective of what NERSA approves or not, at the current expense that ESKOM is experiencing, they are going to charge much much much more per KiloWatt if they want o remain in business, and as users of electricity to run our business, and to make a profit, we will pay! or use an alternative energy source.

    One of the economists made a complex calculation, on what this debacle is costing the economy, between 10 and 28% of the GDP, equivalent to 1 million jobs.
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  9. #8
    Gold Member Houses4Rent's Avatar
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    I had to go through three patrol stations a few days ago to find one which still has diesel. And the radio reported of cases where people had to drive to 5 to find diesel. There is certainly a problem in Cape Town. One attended said they do not have diesel since a week and have no idea when they will get again...

    That design that the turbines burn diesel faster than it can be feed is rather silly like probably all else in that institution. My felling is its a major problem, but I would not have thought that its as big as you described it. Scary.
    I doubt we will ever find out the trust about it either, we will just have to suffer the fall out.

    So can anybody give me some idea about my generator needs?
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  10. #9
    Moderator IanF's Avatar
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    I just bought a Ryobi RG 1000 i generator invertor, after a few days I will let you know how it goes.
    Only stress when you can change the outcome!

  11. #10
    Diamond Member Justloadit's Avatar
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    Nice, hope it is the 4 stroke. 2 stroke requires a bit more maintenance.
    I just received my little 10KVA diesel gen. Will be making the base and getting the electrical ready to handle the long outages that will come next year.
    Ha at least I can still have a couple of cold beers while looking at the star lit sky
    Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
    Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za

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