Not Long Before we pay for electricity!

[Michael Alexander]

Had two chaps with me this afternoon, wanting to know if Spar would be interested in having a pre paid  electricity terminal so that the Oranjemund people can pay their powerbills when they shop, just like in the real world.

Heard that the power meters are on order.

Just hope the mine makes sure that all the power cables go where they are meant to be going before they start charging.... don;t want them to be taken to court if they charge people for their neighbours power....

I am not going to go into the power distribution in Oranjemund, as we discussed it in depth about 20 months ago, safe to say, most of the old timers know that it is not as simple as having a Kiosk on the street corner with a single line going to every single houes..... decades of cables criss cross these fences.....

[Charles Scheepers]

Might be a good time to invest in a good gennie????? When these poeple work on power or water, they tend to destroy more then repair. I see a Sh*t load of "load shedding" in the future....

[Skinny]

Bloemfontein municipality is heading like Joburg, with estimate bills and cut offs. At the moment we have about 12 men crawling over the roof installing solar geysers with battery banks for back up power, then goes to small generator if black outs occur and no sun. Yes the initial cost is expensive and we get a rebate from ekisdom for the installation and we have had prepaid meter put in but his management has worked out that we will save about 60% on a normal elec bill of R2000.00 (estimate) so after a R525.00 for the meter, R30 000 for solar, R15000.00 back from ekisdom we should recooperate our expenses in a year or less. Good saving. And also adds to price of the house when you sell it, so double bonus. We have friends who put prepaid in, they bought R20 000.00 worth of coupons (annual expenditure on elec), three years later yes 3 they have still have R9000.00 left of the intital 20. Makes you think. Oh and you get 50kw free every month. So all in all it is good stuff, and the genny can run for 6 hours on 5 litres of fuel.