Once you start researching this subject, you realize that every city in every country basically has the same challenges when it comes to electricity. Either there isn't enough electricity, or it's very expensive, or use of energy is completely inefficient. Most seem to be interested in cheaper electricity but not all give a thought to side effects like generating CO2 and what that does to the environment and are often not aware of- or concerned enough to look for alternatives.

Here are a few energy problems that big cities face, and how they deal with these problems.

Regulating time-of-use
As consumers become more sophisticated, they use more electricity than ever before. This is to be expected with our constantly growing global population, so the problem has to do with economies of scale. The use of electricity isn't spread evenly throughout the day. We have peak times when there is a lot of demand on the electricity grid, and off-peak times when there is less demand. This means that an electricity provider needs to have infrastructure in place to supply the maximum demand at the peak of the day, but when it's not peak time, that extended infrastructure stands idle. To regulate this phenomenon cities often switch to time-of-use tariffs. It is a way to "reward" off-peak consumers with cheaper electricity and “punish” peak hour consumers with more expensive electricity.

Outdated technology
Conventional items like electrical stoves & geysers, aluminum cooking pots, incandescent lamps and heater elements all have one thing in common... low efficiency. There is a lot of room for improvement here, and the improvement not only lies in making appliances like heaters more efficient but how about making them unnecessary?

In South Africa for example, most homes are built using river sand & cement for screed; and plaster sand & cement for plastering. From an energy consumption point of view, the materials are not only inefficient but are also expensive to cool in summer and heat in winter. If we used more efficient materials we could come to a point where we hardly need any heating or cooling. Ever hear of volcanic glass fibre?

Developments in LED technology for example could have us all switching to lamps that use 1/10th or less electricity, while doing the same job.

Questionable alternatives
While the computer age has seem tremendous technological advancements, we seem to be more complacent with technological developments in energy. Microwave ovens came into being using much less electricity, but many health gurus are not convinced that food is still the same after being micro waved and it seems they may have reason to be concerned. If you’d like to read up on the origins and hazards of microwave ovens.

Island Heating Effect
Experts call it the island heating effect and it affects big cities. So apart from needing to find new sources of energy and much more energy, a very real challenge is what the energy that we generate do to the areas we live and work in. And so had to discover that our buildings are not necessarily energy efficient, and that huge amounts of electricity goes into heating and cooling these buildings that have a very poor thermal conductivity curve. Bear in mind that when they were designed 50 years ago very few developers thought about this. It is just amazing what we took for granted for so many decades, but then we have the privilege of hind sight, don`t we?

Renewable energy developments
It is fascinating to see what engineers in Australia managed to do with wind generators and a unique combined flywheel technology. Hydrogen as a fuel for cars and airplanes is a technology which was hidden for years but is definitely going to be huge in the next 50 years. The use of permanent magnets to generate huge amounts of electricity is already being done, although expensive to build it’s relatively cheap to maintain. And it does not generate any CO2.

Efficient Electrical Energy Management is geared to help our clients to use electricity much more efficiently and more effectively in an ongoing manner as and when new technology arrives. We also advise clients on alternative alternative solutions to energy needs.

It all starts with measuring; understanding what it means, then control it in order to improve it.

Let's take a little closer look at geysers which are responsible for enormous amounts power usage on the grid.

Most geysers are 3kW. If you multiply that by just 3 million homes and you have a potential electricity usage of 9,000,000 Kilowatts. That's about 3 Eskom power stations. How much coal is that every day?

Automatic Control Panels come standard with many solar water heaters. This consists of a processor, solenoid and a small circulation pump which makes it possible to circulate only heated water to the geyser, otherwise heated water is lost at night or during colder periods.

As far as we can tell there are no comparisons available to compare solar water heater systems in terms of efficiency, but then who cares when sun energy is free (for now). Sin tax could become sun tax one day... Let's hope it doesn't.

There are 3 basic solar water heater systems available in South Africa.

1. Direct heating

Normally it consists of a solar panel and geyser connected to it.

An approximately 1000mm x 500mm solar panel, depending on the various manufacturer`s designs, consists of thin pipes connected to a bigger inlet and outlet manifold.

The absorbed heat causes the water to circulate through the system and the geyser temperature depends on the design and amount of sunlight.

The panel can be made from certain UV plastics, copper, stainless steel etc.

These systems seldom have Automatic Control options and at night the heated water cools off because nothing stops the circulation when the temperature drops.

Another disadvantage of this system is that it may be damaged when temperatures below freezing point results in burst pipes or just iced up pipes.

The main advantage is the cost, it is fairly simple and economical.

2. Indirect heating systems

This system is slightly more sophisticated. It could be a copper or a stainless steel system.

The system consists of a solar panel, a heat exchanging element, (very much like an electric element), a geyser and an automatic control panel with a solenoid and circulation pump.

It is called a closed system because the anti freeze is used as the heat transfer agent and it this overcomes frozen pipe problems.

3. Vacuum tube systems

This is probably the latest invention in Solar water heating.

All the previous solar panel designs are basically the same, however the difference is that in this case the solar heating pipes are enclosed in vacuum tubes!

The vacuum in the tube insulates the thin pipes in the solar panel against the elements and it is not affected by external fluctuations in temperature!

The direct heat absorbed from the sun`s uv rays is transferred to the water directly, instead of through a medium like antifreeze and this an advantage.

The vacuum tubes will probably have to be replaced after 5 to 10 years, however the specific system I am referring to is very popular in

Europe and carries the European Buro of Standards approval, which is not easily granted.

Once again it comes with its own Automatic Control Panel with all the obvious advantages mentioned above.

Why do we tell you about solar energy?
Efficient Electrical Energy management is committed to the more efficient and effective use of electrical energy to reduce the carbon footprint, save coal, have less power stations and start employing the God given sources of energy, which is so abundant and free. What an enormous (albeit underutilised) gift we have in the sun`s vast generous source of energy.

In India the government had to find a solution for hot water in rural areas because the poor were destroying the precious forests for firewood. A subsidy scheme was launched to make it possible for anyone to buy a solar water heater. The results were amazing, a huge reduction in time spent finding firewood and the forest could “breathe” again. Apparently this scheme is still growing.