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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Tag Archives: Yes Solar
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
Subsidies vir sonkraggeisers droop op!
Die installering van laedruk-sonkraggeisers in die Baai is voorlopig gestaak omdat Eskom se subsidies daarvoor opgedroog het. Die sondraggeisers is n Eskom-projek en word deur hom gefinansier. Sowat 30 586 geisers is al by regeringshuise hier aangebring. George Ferreira, van die maatskappy wat die geisers installeer, het gesê hulle het al 120 000 huishoudings voorsien. Ferreira het op n onlangse komiteevergadering oor infrastruktuur, ingenieurswese en energie gesê die projek is gestaak weens geldnood en hy weet nie wannneer dit hervat sal word nie. Volgens Mnr. Ferreira spaar huiseienaars maandeliks sowat R30 aan krag met laedruk- sonkrag-geisers. Hulle het egter heelwat probleme ondervind tydens die installering. “Talle huiseienaars wat by hul huise laat aanbou het se dakke voldoen nie aan die standaarde nie en ons kon nie installasies doen nie. Ons het ook enkele lekke ondervind omdat vullertenks wat plaaslik vervaardig en SABS-goedgekeur is, foutief was. Ons moes 6000 van die vullertenks vervang. Sommige foutiewe krane is vervang. Van die geysers wat verkeerd geïnstalleer is, het van huiseienaars se dakke afgewaai.” Dié probleme het veroorsaak dat die maatskappy nie soveel wins gemaak het as wat hy aanvanklik bereken het nie. Helga van Staaden – PE Express, 21 September 2011
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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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
No vision in Karoo fracking plans
A well written article from the Green Times: What is it going to take to stop the plans to threaten our sensitive Karoo region from being destroyed by Shell’s plans to blow it apart in search of natural gas? A controversial application by oil giant Shell to explore for gas in an area of the Karoo should be put on hold, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday.
Posted in Climate Change, Dam Levels, Rainwater Harvesting, Renewable Energy, Water Conservation, Weather
Tagged Dam Levels, Department of Water and Environmental Affairs, drought disaster area, Fracking, Indigenous Plants, Karoo, Natural Resources, Water Conservation, Water Rhapsody, Water tanks, Yes Solar
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Water Restrictions 2012
Read this interesting views and motivation for the Water Rhapsody Systems by Jeremy Westgarth-Taylor. Most of the facts are also applicable to the situation in the Eastern Cape. “Does it take a genius to predict drought? While the fear of water restrictions work in favour of those of us who are involved in water conservation, it would be preferable for all of us to have smoothed restrictions rather than an all or nothing scenario. All of us mean the population at large, the municipality, the Department of Environmental Affairs as well as Water Rhapsody. Please let me explain?
Posted in Dam Levels, Rainwater Harvesting, Water Conservation, Weather
Tagged Dam Levels, Department of Water and Environmental Affairs, Desalination Plant, Drought, Eastern Cape, Jeremy Taylor, Water Conservation, Water Restrictions, Water Rhapsody, Water shortage, Water sources, Water Stress, Water tanks, Water Tariffs, Yes Solar
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What is Climate Change?
Outline of the potential problem of climate change and its cause as understood by the South African Weather Service The climate of the world varies from one decade to another, and a changing climate is natural and expected. However, there is a concern that the human industrial and development activities of the past two centuries have caused changes over and above natural variation… What is climate change? Climate change is the natural cycle through which the earth and its atmosphere are going to accommodate the change in the amount of energy received from the sun. The climate goes through warm and cold periods, taking hundreds of years to complete one cycle. Changes in temperature also influence the rainfall, but the biosphere is able to adapt to a changing climate if these changes take place over centuries. Unfortunately, human intervention is currently causing the climate to change too fast. (Climate models predict that the mean air temperature over South Africa will increase by an estimated 2°C over the next century.) Plants and animals may not be able to adapt as quickly to this rapid climate change as humans can, and therefore the whole ecosystem is in danger. What causes climate change? … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Dam Levels, Green, Grey Water Recycling, Rainwater Harvesting, Renewable Energy, safe water, Solar Energy, Water Conservation, Water Tanks
Tagged Climate Change, Dam Levels, Global Concern, Rainwater Harvesting, Saving water, Water Conservation, Water Rhapsody, Yes Solar
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