GOING green helped a Sunshine Coast couple slash their electricity bill to R55 a month – and they did not have to go without the same mod cons as their energy hungry neighbours.
Instead of spending hundreds a month on ever-increasing Eskom bills, Kleinemonde based Rod McGregor Mann and his partner Alta Classen use the wind and sun to power their house, heat water and cook food – even when there is an outage.
“The biggest energy saving device is your brain,” 60 year-old Rod explains – to blank stares.
“The sun and the wind are free and I get wood to cook with from the rubbish dump every few weeks.”
Besides using a 300 watt wind turbine to power their hand built log cabin and a solar geyser to heat rainwater harvested from the gutters, Rod and Alta also save on their energy bills by using the sun and a massive polished aluminium reflective dish to boil the kettle – in 12 minutes.
“We also do a lot of cooking on our ancient cast iron Dick King bio-fuel stove which we have nicknamed ‘Puffing Billy’.
“Living like this means that our retirement income is not eroded by ever-increasing energy costs.”
The decision to build their home two years ago “off the Eskom grid” paid dividends recently when they were judged first runner-up in the household category of the annual Eskom eta awards aimed at “recognising excellence in the field of energy efficiency”.
The couple would have won their category if they had slashed an existing monthly electricity bill instead of building their eco-friendly house from scratch.
“We are both on pension and realised from the outset when we started building our house that we could not earn much more money so we decided to spend less on energy costs.”
Their log cabin, which is largely off the grid cost R250000 to build and uses R55 a month prepaid Eskom electricity even though it boasts all the gadgets their neighbours have.
“The only thing we do not have is a TV set because we don’t want one; we would rather use our computer and the radio.”
Instead of paying R14000 to connect to Eskom and get a 60 amp supply when they built the house – and then face a lifetime of being held to ransom by ever-increasing electricity costs – the couple spent R7000 on a wind turbine and two batteries.
They also purchased and installed a solar geyser. — davidm@dispatch.co.za
Free from power bill trap
Instead of spending hundreds a month on ever-increasing Eskom bills, Kleinemonde based Rod McGregor Mann and his partner Alta Classen use the wind and sun to power their house, heat water and cook food – even when there is an outage.
“The biggest energy saving device is your brain,” 60 year-old Rod explains – to blank stares.
“The sun and the wind are free and I get wood to cook with from the rubbish dump every few weeks.”
Besides using a 300 watt wind turbine to power their hand built log cabin and a solar geyser to heat rainwater harvested from the gutters, Rod and Alta also save on their energy bills by using the sun and a massive polished aluminium reflective dish to boil the kettle – in 12 minutes.
“We also do a lot of cooking on our ancient cast iron Dick King bio-fuel stove which we have nicknamed ‘Puffing Billy’.
“Living like this means that our retirement income is not eroded by ever-increasing energy costs.”
The decision to build their home two years ago “off the Eskom grid” paid dividends recently when they were judged first runner-up in the household category of the annual Eskom eta awards aimed at “recognising excellence in the field of energy efficiency”.
The couple would have won their category if they had slashed an existing monthly electricity bill instead of building their eco-friendly house from scratch.
“We are both on pension and realised from the outset when we started building our house that we could not earn much more money so we decided to spend less on energy costs.”
Their log cabin, which is largely off the grid cost R250000 to build and uses R55 a month prepaid Eskom electricity even though it boasts all the gadgets their neighbours have.
“The only thing we do not have is a TV set because we don’t want one; we would rather use our computer and the radio.”
Instead of paying R14000 to connect to Eskom and get a 60 amp supply when they built the house – and then face a lifetime of being held to ransom by ever-increasing electricity costs – the couple spent R7000 on a wind turbine and two batteries.
They also purchased and installed a solar geyser. — davidm@dispatch.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos