Ten smart ways to stay warm without burning through your budget

The average household electricity costs can spike by more that 20% in colder months, as people try to heat their homes.

This, paired with Eskom’s 12.74% tariff increase, means electricity users could be in for a small fortune.

Thankfully, there are some ways to manage your electricity use AND stay warm.

Dickson share his top 10 tips for a warm and energy efficient winter...

1. Understand what is pulling your power:

In order to cut back on your electricity use, you need to know how much electricity your appliances use.

For example, running an oil heater for eight hours overnight can use up to 16 kWh per day, costing you around R260 a week.

Dickson recommends using smart devices to track electricity usage so you can see where to cut back.

2. Avoid Overloading Appliances:

By managing your high-demand appliances, you can reduce your electricity demand.

Smart automation can stagger your appliance use ensuring that only one high-demand appliance is running at a time.

3. Set Smart Time Limits:

Certain appliances do not need to be running all day and can be draining your electricity unnecessarily.

A simple step like running your geyser for only a few hours when you want a hot bath can help cut costs.

4. Time it Right:

This tip is mainly for Homeflex customers who pay different rates depending on the time of use.

Running appliances, such as a washing machine, outside of peak times can save you as much as R6/kWh during peak winter times.

5. Watch the Winter Spike:

Even with electricity flat rates, heated underfloor systems and electric blankets mean your household consumption will climb.

With smart home devices you can make sure your appliances are only on when you need them.

For example, you can programme your heater to switch on 30 minutes before your alarm goes off, giving you a toasty warm room without using electricity all night.

6. Let the Weather Decide:

Instead of applying general settings to all programmable devices, you can make sure your smart home takes the weather into account.

For example your lights can turn on a little later on clear days versus gloomy days, and some days may not require the heater to stay on.

7. Control Energy from Anywhere:

Worried you left a device switched on?

Smart home technologies allow users to turn connected appliances off from their smartphone and/or tablet from anywhere in the world.

8. Stop Paying for Sleep Mode:

Certain electronic goods, like microwaves, computers, televisions and coffee machines, still consume electricity when you are not using them.

By unplugging all non-essential appliances when they are not in use, or switching off items that are pulling unnecessary power, you can cut your electricity use significantly.

9. Safeguard Your Solar Investment:

Rooftop solar is a valuable investment, and one that needs to be protected.

Smart power indicators can help solar PV users manage energy more effectively when grid power is unavailable, by disconnecting non-essential appliances.

They can also automate other smart devices to make sure your essentials stay on without overloading the system.

10. Protect Your Appliances:

Even though load shedding has largely eased, power surges still pose a risk to your appliances.

Smart home technologies can help protect your devices by allowing you to set a safe operating voltage range.