Bye, load shedding! Durban man lives fully off the grid

Bye, load shedding! Durban man lives fully off the grid

The worrisome news of Eskom possibly implementing stage 6 load shedding has left South Africans furious - but Graham Robjant of Glenwood in Durban has been living off the grid for a while now. This is how he did it... 

Solar System
Pixabay

On Wednesday, Eskom warned South Africans it could be forced to ramp up rolling blackouts to stage 6 after stage 4 was implemented. 

This comes as the price of oil continues to rise due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

READ: SA at the risk of stage 6 load shedding, warns Eskom

The embattled power utility says it continues to monitor and evaluate the impact of the war as oil and gas prices continue to soar.

Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer told the media that the utility is running at nine million litres of diesel a day, which is not sustainable.

The worrisome news has South Africans furious - but one man, Graham Robjant of Glenwood in Durban, does not have these problems as he has been living off the grid.

READ: JMPD officers to ease traffic congestion as load shedding, rain take toll on motorists

Robjant was unable to sustain his business due to load shedding, so he decided to get off the grid.

After he inherited money from his late aunt, he invested in solar and a wind turbine. 

Tips from Robjant to survive load shedding: 

  • One needs a cycled battery that is designed to charge and discharge on a regular basis.
  • Choose the correct UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for your load. 
  • Choose the correct solar regulator.
  • Ensure that you are not running applications when you don’t need to. A TV left on can consume a lot of power.
  • Look into having a battery balancing unit.

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Image Credit: Pixabay

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