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City of CT launches electricity saving campaign
- Authors
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- Name
- Vivienne Roberts
- in/viviroberts
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From the City’s website found here
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">The City is calling on residents to reduce their consumption of electricity. As residential electricity consumption is responsible for some 43% of total electricity consumption in Cape Town, the City has launched a creative marketing campaign calling especially on those who fall in the mid-to high-income groups, and who use the most electricity, to reduce their consumption by between 25 to 40%. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">By means of a marketing campaign with the slogan ‘Electricity is expensive. Saving is simple’, the City has devised a practical checklist and developed an information-filled website to encourage residents to save. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">The City has spent considerable time researching what residents can do to save electricity. There are ‘no cost’ actions, such as turning the geyser thermostat down to 60°C, which will enable residents to save at least 5% on their electricity bill; investing less than R1 000 in an energy efficient showerhead and a geyser blanket and investing in solar water heating and ceiling insulation. The higher the investment, the greater the saving. Doing all of these will save residents 50% or more on their electricity costs, while adding to the value of the property. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">Electricity consumption: mid-to-high income residential, Cape Town </span>
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Over the next three months, homeowners will receive electricity saving flyers with their rates accounts. In addition, the campaign will also feature in print and radio advertisements, presentations to community groups and exhibitions in shopping centres.
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">The City also leads a range of other initiatives to encourage energy efficiency. An Energy Efficiency Forum has been set up for large commercial and industrial electricity consumers to provide managers of offices, shopping centres, hotels and other commercial and industrial buildings with practical knowledge on energy efficiency solutions. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">The City has developed Green Building Guidelines and is also working on a programme to support the mass implementation of solar water heaters. The City’s Youth Environmental School (YES) programme already reaches about 1 600 schools per year, and electricity saving worksheets for learners, a teacher’s guide and an electricity awareness play have been developed as part of the campaign. In addition, the City’s ‘Smart Living’ programmes reach thousands of public and private sector companies and residents each year. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">Public lighting, traffic lights and the City’s own large office buildings are being retrofitted to be more energy efficient. The City is currently undertaking energy efficiency retrofits of some of its largest buildings, namely Durbanville, Fezeka, Ottery and Plumstead Civic Centres. A reduction in energy use in these buildings ranging from 12% to 18% (depending on the building) is expected to be realised in coming years. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">An audit of the City’s flagship building, the Civic Centre, has been completed and a tender for the first phase of the energy efficiency intervention for that building is in preparation. The City has long recognised the importance of buildings as energy consuming infrastructure and their impact both on electricity consumption and on the carbon emissions of the metropole. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">These initiatives indicate the beginning of an era where the improvement in energy use of the City’s buildings will supplement the retrofit work to the City’s street and traffic lights, the installation of solar water heaters to the City’s clinics, nature reserve facilities and fire stations, and the residential electricity savings campaign, all aimed at ensuring that Cape Town is a low carbon city. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">Click <a href="http://cityweb.capetown.gov.za/en/Documents/Enform/Electricity%20cost%20savers.pdf">here</a> to read the City’s Ten Best Ways to save electricity at home. </span>
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<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;">Click <a href="http://cityweb.capetown.gov.za/en/PublishingImages/E-nform/Elecchrt.jpg">here</a> for an electricity usage breakdown.</span>
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