James Carstens, Goodwood
Your latest article
about Andrew Rolf’s “bloated” electricity bill really intrigued me (“Bloated bill leaves senior frustrated”, Off My Trolley November 6). Unless he is running some high-powered activity at home, how can a single person, living alone, incur electricity charges of close to R2 000 a month?
His meter could possibly be faulty – if it still needs to be read, then it’s pretty ancient.
He should invest in a prepaid meter as I did several years ago.
We are a three-adult family and our electricity usage is less than R1 200 a month.
I have some tips for my fellow readers: We have a 150l hot water cylinder – it uses around four to five units overnight, heating the water unnecessarily – at a cost of around R10 a night. Save R300 a month immediately by switching the geyser off – we switch ours off at around 10pm and on at around 6pm and the water remains hot in the morning to warm in the afternoon.
Also, for the past 12 months, I have been buying the maximum number of domestic rated units – 600 – irrespective of actual usage – at a cost of R1 210 and we have
thus far “banked” a saving of close to 300 units for the year on
the prepaid meter.
Bear in mind if you buy, say, 400 units in one month, you cannot buy 800 in the following month at the same cost per unit – you will receive 600 units at the domestic rate and 200 units at a much higher cost per unit.