They guys dug up 33 termite nests and found 18 fat queen termites on Thursday. This was when just concentrating on the area around the house for one day. The fundis (workmen) said that they should return after it starts raining, as more termites will probably surface then - some may currently be too deep underground to find, due to the drought conditions.
The electricity bill debate rages on. Had some friends over last night. One friend of ours gave us a copy of his electricity bill that shows his monthly Active DC consumption is 118 units - ours is 1850 (sometimes over 2000)! His bill was around 4,000/- for one month. Another friend in a smaller compound said that his bill once tipped 37,000/ - he has brought it down to 26,000/- per month by using energy saver light bulbs, so what gives?!
In the bill, the water heating consumption is stated seperately and in our case does not seem to be too high, so not the problem. (love the irony of discussing electricity bills over a lavish dinner party!)
Daily, we use one water heater on a timer switch, an iron (often), one fridge, one outside freezer, one kettle, one tv, one computer. All cooking is on gas.
Our frugal friend did point out that we have eight large sodium security lights in the garden that are left on all night, whereas at his house, he just makes do with a few low energy lights attached to the outside of the house and leaves the rest of the plot in darkness.
I said, 'I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm afraid of what's in the dark!' He said, 'let your two alsatians and two nightwatchmen do their job!'
Alternatively, we could have a faulty electricity meter that races around all day with its own agenda?! Whatever happens, I will do my best to get to the bottom of it.
The diary of a British expat living in Kenya. News, views, debate and a healthy dose of trivia.
Sodium lamps draw a lot of power. Most average 100W, or 800W an hour as they run each night for 10-12 hours (8000W-9600W)used...or 8-9.6Kw/H. High output florescent bulbs would probably be closer to 40-50 W, fewer would be required but still half of what your current consumption would be.
ReplyDeleteAs far as indoor use goes, they only significant savings with compact florescent bulbs would come from lamps that are left on a long time. Short, on/off cycles will balance out the same and possibly even cost more due to the significant amount of energy required to "start" them.
Do they have dimmers in Kenya? I never saw any, but that does not mean they do not exist. By simply dimming a bulb 10% can equate to a savings of 30-50 percent...without very much lumen loss.
Horrible going through life being an electrical engineer...makes the nerd-value quite high...
Who did you use for your termites? I need to do the same...
ReplyDeleteDefinetely quiery the electricity bill. Do some research and ask about it. That doesnt sound right at all.
ReplyDeleteHi Texan mzungu - thanks for your technical advice!
ReplyDeleteWe plan to change all our outside bulbs to low energy (x14!). the sodium lamps currently have 125w bulbs inside - there are 7 of them. We are looking into whether we can put low energy bulbs here too. Thought about strip lights, but the sodium units were pretty expensive, so not ready to replace them yet. As you can imagine, our garden at night looks almost the same as in broad daylight!
We also had a couple of fundis over today, who told us that our electricity meter is circa 1976, so we will call out KPLC to check that it is working properly and is not faulty. Apparently KPLC will fit a second meter for one month, then take note if there is a disparity between the two.
Anon, Re termites - we used a company called Cockrid. (nice). They were pretty good I think.
Hi, Am kenyan living in NBi. if you could downgrade you Loo/bathroom lights to 40Wts..then AND VERY IMPORTANT do not use the hot water geyser thingi..try and use the instant showers and retain the geysers for occasional soaks. This will reduce your bills by half. Finally insist on family and help to always turn off the lightswhen not in use. Good luck
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