Monday, 10 October 2022
News — DOMESTIC ELECTRICITY CONSUMERS CAN NOW PRE-PLAN THEIR ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION
The consumption Estimator Tool
INTRODUCING THE CONSUMPTION ESTIMATOR TOOL
Intentional efforts to save electricity, and monitor electricity consumption can help consumers to significantly lower their electricity bill. The Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA) has made it easier by introducing a consumption estimator tool that will help electricity consumers estimate how much power their appliances and home electronics use and understand how much money they are spending to use them.
The consumption estimator tool was designed to help domestic electricity consumers to estimate and better manage their electricity consumption by focusing on household appliances to gauge the amount of KWh/Units consumed by each appliance and convert the KWh consumption to monetary spending/consumption within a specified period of consumption time.
Each household appliance has a specified amount of power it consumes as it performs its task, usually displayed as the maximum wattage. For instance, one iron could consume 1000 watts and another 670 watts. The consumption estimator tool demonstrates the best estimates of how much each of the appliances consume and how much that energy costs. Essentially, one will be able to monitor how much energy is consumed by the types of appliances they own, and how much money the consumption will cost them. It will help consumers to calculate, for example, how much it costs to bake a cake with the type of oven they own.
The consumption estimator gives results of one’s energy consumption and their costs on a daily basis and on a monthly basis. For instance, say the consumer is calculating their estimated daily cooking consumption and spending, the tool will show them the estimate of how much they consume per day, how much they spend per day, as well as consolidate those calculations to display the estimate of how much they consume and spend per month.
using the tool
It is important to note that in this way, the domestic consumer will be able to monitor how much their electricity consumption behavior costs them. Furthermore, the consumer can be able to estimate using the tool, what behavior changes to implement and how much they can save them, both in energy and money. For example, if a consumer cooks three meals a day in different times of the day, for a collective period of three hours, the tool will display how much energy is consumed during that process and how much money is spent. The same consumer could then calculate an estimate based on a behavior change they wish to implement, such as how much energy would be consumed and its cost, if they cook all three meals once a day, for one hour.
The consumption estimator tool is a handy, user-friendly tool that all domestic electricity consumers can access at no cost, through the Authority’s website, www.esera.org.sz.
The tool showing results for selected appliances