Rainwater Harvesting
It is now viable to harvest rainwater for your whole household. This includes rainwater harvesting, storing and pumping rainwater for bathing, showering, toilet flushing, pool, laundry and irrigation. Rainwater harvesting together with other Water Rhapsody products can save up to 90% of your water bill.
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Category Archives: Energy Saving
What is a Carbon Footprint?
What is a Carbon Footprint? Carbon refer to Carbon Dioxide, a colourless odourless gas, formed by the burning of carbon/fossil fuels, or breathed out by animals/humans from the lungs Footprint – Impression of a human or an animal foot on a surface. (Oxford Dictionary) Definition Carbon Footprint is the total set of greenhouse gas emissions/release/production/discharge, cause by an organisation, event, production or person through burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heating, transport etc. In other words: The measurement of the total amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Methane (CH4) emissions of a defined population, system or activity, considering all relevant sources sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population, system or activity of interest, is called The Carbon Footprint. Origin Carbon Footprint originates from the ecological footprint discussion. It’s a subset of the ecological footprint and of the comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment. The Ecological Footprint is a measurement of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems. How is it Measured? The Carbon Footprint is measured in units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent. Two Parts: Primary Footprint and Secondary Footprint. Primary Footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from burning Fossil Fuels, … Continue reading
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Energy Saving, Environmentally Friendly, Go Green, Grey Water Recycling, Rainwater Harvesting, Recycle, Renewable Energy, Solar Geysers, Water Conservation, Water Tanks, Yes Solar
Tagged Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Offsetting, Climate Change, COP17, Ecological Footprint, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Effect, Greenhouse Gas, Greywater re-use, Mitigation, Rainwater Harvesting, Water Rhapsody, Water tanks
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Water Rhapsody EC has successfully completed the Carbon Footprint Analyst Course:
Presented Carbon Footprint Analyst Course - Level One We were introduced and informed around the following subjects and buzzwords: Carbon Footprint Greenhouse Gasses Fossil Fuels Climate Change Global Warming Carbon Markets Carbon Credits Kyoto Protocol COP 17 Carbon Neutral Carbon Offsets We will be discussing some of these terminology over the following few weeks. We want to share some light on the discussions of these subjects going around at the moment in South Africa, adding to the excitement and results anticipated from the COP17 in Durban 28 Nov-9 Dec 2011.
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Energy Saving, Environmentally Friendly, Go Green, Recycle, Renewable Energy, Water Conservation, Water Tanks, Yes Solar
Tagged Carbon Footprint, Carbon Footprint Analyst Course, Carbon Markets, Carbon Neutral, Carbon Offset, Climate Change, COP17, COP17 Durban, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas, Kyoto Protocol
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With Yes Solar your solar geyser will pay for itself!
“Last year I installed those solar panels in my house for the geyser, that energy-efficient kind. Today, I got a call from the contractor who installed it. He complained that the work had been completed a year ago and I still hadn’t paid for them. Hellooo … just because I’m blonde doesn’t mean that I am automatically stupid. So, I told him
Go Green in 4 Weeks
Week 4 Day 22: Start a lift club. Sharing is caring especially when it comes to transportation. When neighbours and co-workers ride together, everyone benefits. Day 23: Read the ingredients. Knowledge is power. Knowing what’s in the products you buy will help you understand their impact on the environment. Day 24: Use less. When you are able to use only what you need, you help reduce unnecessary waste. Keep a journal of your food, petrol and material consumption to better understand where you can cut back. Day 25: Go outside. Enjoy the great outdoors more. Plan a hike or picnic instead of languishing indoors. When you use outdoor spaces more, you use less energy to heat or cool the inside of you home. Day 26: Go low flow. Purchase low flow shower heads, taps and toilets to conserve water. Let Water Rhapsody install a Multi-Flush in all your toilets. The toilet will only flush as long as you hold the handle down. Day 27: Support tree huggers. Stay informed and involved with local and national environmental efforts. Find out how you can support greening initiatives in your area. Day 28: Spread the word. … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Saving, Go Green, Recycle, Renewable Energy, safe water, Water Conservation, Water Tanks
Tagged Know Ingredients, Low Flow Showerheads, Natural Resources, Rainwater Harvesting, Recycle, Reduce Waste, Spread Going Green, Supp, Tree Huggers, Water Rhapsody, Water tanks, Yes Solar
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Wind Power in South Africa
Kilian Hagemann, director at G7 Renewable Energies (one of SA’s leading large-scale wind farm developers), rates wind power as the leading technology available to meet South Africa’s renewable energy targets. “It’s the only technology that has really been successfully rolled out on a large scale worldwide and we have a wide variety of international projects to learn from to ensure a successful implementation in SA. According to Hagemann, South Africa can expect to see its first large-scale wind farms operating in late 2013 if the procurement process is concluded by the end of this year.” “We expect the SA market for wind-power to grow significantly over the next three years. I’ve had various meeting with role-players, including government officials, and it seems clear to me that the current SA administration is intent upon moving increasingly towards renewable as far as energy supply is concerned.” Applications for at least 88 wind farms have been received by the Eastern and Western Cape authorities and some of these wind farms are expected to have as many as 600 turbines located on them.
Load shedding – again?
With winter not in full swung yet South Africa’s electricity shortages are so severe that Eskom is regularly cutting supply to some of its major clients to prevent the entire supply network to collapse. During peak times last month Eskom had to use it’s gas turbines, which should only be used during emergency situations. While Eskom and Ms Dipou Peters, Minister of Energy, maintains that no outages are expected, the market still reacted sharply last week to rumours of South Africa possibly facing a re-occurrence of the load shedding crisis of 2008. Me Hilary Joffe, Eskom’s head of communications, admitted that Eskom’s power reserves was so low the last year that scheduled maintenance work had to be postponed. The current load on the national power network is under severe stress. The situation was exacerbated by the explosion of the Duvha power station at the beginning of the year, resulting in a loss of 600MW in generating capabilities. The 600MW is enough to supply the city of Bloemfontein during peak hours. According to Mr Mike Rossouw, chairman of the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG), it happens more regularly that supply to some aluminium smelters and Eskom’s bigger industrial customers has to … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Saving, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Solar Geysers
Tagged Load Shedding, Solar geysers, Solar power, Yes Solar
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Lewis Pugh on Karoo Fracking
This is the content of a short speech given on Friday night in Cape Town by Lewis Gordon Pugh OIG (a.k.a. the Human Polar Bear) about the proposed fracking for gas in the Karoo, by Shell. He received a sustained standing ovation !
Securing energy needs
Everyone in the energy (petroleum) industry talks about security of supply. In the case of electricity security of supply, feedstock (mainly coal) for base-load power station is locally available, whereas in the petroleum industry analysts are concerned that almost 100% of crude is imported into SA. This is seen as a major risk to the country, considering that the bulk of crude imports are from Middle East. So when the Petroleum Agency of SA permits companies to investigate the availability of shale gas plans, this is the opportunity for SA to minimize the risk that experts talk about — of crude processed in South African refineries imported from the Middle East. One just needs to read the Energy Security Master Plan — Liquid Fuels that was published in August 2007 to see the government’s concerns about security of supply. The energy plan supports the promotion of local production of liquid fuels and recommends a policy of limited imports. In other words, companies search for crude, shale gas, natural gas, and mine more coal, etc. In the energy plan it is mentioned that in support of energy security and the balance of payments, there is a need for the maintenance of … Continue reading
Interesting Facts about Electricity
A spark of static electricity can measure up to three thousand (3,000) volts. A bolt of lightning can measure up to three million (3,000,000) volts – and it lasts less than one second! Electricity always tries to find the easiest path to the ground. Electricity can be made from wind, water, the sun and even animal manure. Burning coal is the most common way electricity is made in the United States. The first power plant – owned by Thomas Edison – opened in New York City in 1882. Thomas Edison invented more than 2,000 new products, including almost everything needed for us to use electricity in our homes: switches, fuses, sockets and meters. Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity – but he did prove that lightning is a form of electrical energy. One power plant can produce enough electricity for 180,000 homes. Alternative Energy The bicycle is the most efficient form of transportation known. It uses five times less energy than walking. B.C.’s forest industry obtains 25% of its electricity from biomass — in this case, the waste material from their own industry. A system of distribution and transmission lines brings electricity to southern Manitoba through 70,000 km of lines. That’s … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Saving, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Solar Geysers, Solar Power, Solar Water Heating, Water Conservation, Water Tanks
Tagged Alternative Energy, going green, Saving Electricity, Solar geysers, Solar panels, Solar power, Static Elecrisity Spark, Wind Tubine, Wind Tunnels, Yes Solar
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Fascinating Facts about Energy
Science Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be converted from one form to another. Find an elastic band, and stretch it out. The stretched rubber band has potential energy. If you let it go, it moves and has kinetic energy. Have you ever wondered how you might get a hot air balloon to float up and down? How would you launch it? How would you get it back to earth? The balloon rises by warming up the air inside it. It descends by letting the air inside it cool down. It all works because of heat energy. Electricity travels at 300,000 km/sec. If you travelled that fast, you could travel around the world eight times in the time it takes to turn on a light switch. The energy produced by the atom-splitting of one kilogram of uranium is equivalent to the burning of 1.3 million kilograms of coal or 1.35 million litres of oil. People run on energy too, and food is our fuel. The unit we use to measure expended heat energy is the calorie. Calorie expenditures comparison: Lying at ease – 1.5 cal/min Tennis – 7 cal/min Playing drums – 4–6 cal/min Golfing – 6 … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Saving, Green, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Solar Power, Solar Water Heating, Water Tanks
Tagged Electricity, Energy, going green, Hot Air Balloon, Hydrogen Nuclei, Interesting Facts about Energy, Natural Resources, Saving Electricity, Saving water, Water tanks, Yes Solar
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