Oh my! Just learned today that power rationing is to end but electricity bills have been loaded to meet the cost of the alternative power provided by diesel generators. These generators were shipped in on a private contract with Aggreko, to help the Government combat the problem of water shortage/lack of hydro-electric power.
This would explain why for the last two months our domestic electricity bill has been 35,000 Kenya shillings! (£300)! Before it was 25,000/- (£200) per month and a year or two before that 15,000/- (£100) - yet we consistently use the same amount of power, for lighting, fridge, water heating (the oven is gas), all year round. (obviously there is no central heating here!).
I know that we shouldn't wish for El Nino rains of course - but just enough to fill the Nairobi dams and give Kenyan farmers a fighting chance with their crops next month would be nice!..
We are every day syphoning our soapy bath water out of an upstairs window to a standing water butt, to re use out in the garden. This involves my husband filling a hose pipe that runs through the window with tap water, then jamming it into the dirty bath, then listening for the water to trickle into the barrel downstairs. Our water preservation/collection methods are state of the art!!
The diary of a British expat living in Kenya. News, views, debate and a healthy dose of trivia.
35,000 for electricity? wow! KPLC shoudl move in with me and we'd forego the rent
ReplyDeleteSure you dont have a chu chu train?
ReplyDeleteWow!! You know that is a blessing in disguise. You can open a back to nature experiential lodging. Throw some chickens in the back, and put your guests to work cleaning your house and creating "save the planet" interventions.
ReplyDeleteSound crazy, well... look at this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/dining/26farms.html.
Woman paid 300 dollars a night to live in a tent on a farm. She then paid 35 dollars to pick beets and eggs for the farmer to sell at the market.
After several dry years in Morocco, we are finally having a wet year here. It appears that Western Europe, the Mediterranean, and most of the West Coast of Africa are having a wet year now, too.
ReplyDeleteExpat 21 in Morocco
expat21.wordpress.com
Well, that leaves me with mixed emotions...
ReplyDeleteI had a bit of a row with my landlord prior to my departure. Seems they were having "trouble" reading the electrical meter on my rental house. They surprised me with an additional bill three hours before we departed for the airport and she was asking for KES 40,000 in addition to what I had already paid.
It sucked as she parked behind my vehicle and would not allow me to leave until I paid it...had real potential to turn ugly. I had to end up paying it just so that we didn't miss our flight as she dropped this bomb on us at 8:00pm. Thank God I had cash on me for the trip!!!
At least knowing there was a dramatic increase makes that pill a tad easier to swallow...albeit I still feel like I got hosed.
Ouch. I know my parents haven't had water for about 12 days now. Very smelly!
ReplyDeleteEl Nino hit last time I was living in Kenya ('98) and it wasn't a fun time. Hope it's better this year and you get the rain you need but not too much!
Bankelele and Eric - I think that we are going to have to forego our night security lighting in future and are looking at solar panels (though the initial cost for these is high) (we currently have one electric water heater on a timer). Don't really see where other cuts could be made?!?
ReplyDeleteTexan mzungu - sorry to hear that you had such a torrid exit from the country! Somebody blocking you in with their car sounds pretty aggressive!
Nutty Cow - if you were to drive out of Nairobi now, toward Athi River on the Mombasa Road, you would not believe it - just brown, brown, brown with the odd petrified tree or a gazelle or a lone zebra
have you tried changing the bulbs around the house to the Ugly energy saver ones and see how much that helps? Did this for my mum and installed the motion detector security lights and this made some difference. also check the meter as KPLC meters are extremely unreliable and we had to have a new one fitted. 35000 is a really huge bill for what you have stated as your consumption.
ReplyDeletewe do the siphoning of our bath water using old garden hose out of the window, across the garden and into a water butt everytime one of us has a bath. In Basingstoke !!
ReplyDeleteDear ladies, I hear your pain and hope to be the one to help reduce that dependency on the KP&T Ltd.
ReplyDeleteA Kenyan with dreams of helping Kenya go solar, my strategy is to avoid large installations, and instead approach it with moderate outonomous systems.
Your blog paints a good picture of how it is to cope in the city in the sun.
I invite you to brainstorm with me on my blog. What would you be willing to pay to be rid of blackouts?
http://www.blessedsun.wordpress.com
How does the bathwater work for your plants? The last time I tried, a lot of trees and flowers dried out from the soap..
ReplyDelete:-(