The Mail & Guardian has now put the full, uncut version of my diesel article on their website. Click here to read it.
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The Mail & Guardian has now put the full, uncut version of my diesel article on their website. Click here to read it.
RSS feed for comments on this post. | TrackBack URI
February 12th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Dear Don
I read your article in the Mail & Guardian “A case of collect-a-con” with a lot of interest and then visited your website “Greener House”.
Perhaps you can help answer a trend I find quite worrying?
Why with the Eskom crisis is the generator is being hyped as the answer to our work/home energy problems? Very little is being said about Interrupted Power Supply (UPS) options.
We have recently installed a UPS at our home office (with limited functionality in our home) and I honestly believe that it is one of the best things we have ever done.
A UPS provides a pure power thus is does not spike and damage sensitive equipment. Unlike with diesel/petrol you do not need a permit to keep large quantities on site, you do not have the risk of potential leeching, the UPS is quiet running and does not emit harmful fumes. And perhaps most important, one of the perks of the UPS is that you can charge it using solar energy.
Yet when I mentioned this to a media contact I was told that they “are looking at alternative power sources in order of preference and time permitting, we will look at UPS. Personally, I think it is more important to highlight solar power and wind turbines etc and I intend to do so, so we’ll just see how it goes”.
If we are already considering the pollution being caused to the environment with the number of vehicles on our roads what will the added impact be of the generators being bought and run from our homes? Yet this message does not seem to be getting out there?
Virginia
February 15th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Virginia,
I am planning to do some research on UPS for an upcoming article and will report back. It certainly seems to be a cleaner option than a diesel generator. I do worry, however, that if the whole country had UPS, we would use more electricity, because of all those batteries being charged. This is a smaller concern if they are set up to charge in the middle of the night, when demand on Eskom is at its lowest. Does yours have the capability to be charged only at certain hours?
Don