Tips and Tricks to survive Load Shedding

Load shedding is about Eskom balancing the power scales; it needs to be able to supply enough electricity to meet the country’s demands. When supply matches demand, everything is fine. But when the country needs more power than Eskom can generate, either because of an increase in demand or a drop in supply, then we’re in trouble.

Here are some useful tips on how to survive a power outage.

1. Go Solar. … Install a solar geyser, get solar lamps to put outside in the garden and take inside when the lights are out. There is also a solar cellphone charger available. You can put it on your dash board while driving and if you get home and there’s no electricity, you can still charge your phone.
2. Get gas. …Gas stoves are becoming a popular choice for people who are building a new home or re-doing their kitchen. There’s also the portable option: you can buy a camping gas stove. This way you can cook food or boil the kettle even if there’s no electricity.
3. Use empy plastic cool drink bottles and fill them with water and place in your deep freeze. … If the power is out for a long time, you can take them out and put them in your fridge to keep food cold until the power comes back on. It also will create extra freezing in the deep freeze to keep your meats from thawing.
4. Battery operated lights. …You can get laterns, torches and other battery operated lights to keep around the house when the power goes off. It’s less dangerous than using just candles.
5. Get a head torch or cap. …Many of these are available at your local hardware store. You can strap the head torch around your head or get a cap with a fitted light so that you can walk around the house easily, without trying to make your way in the dark.
6. Get a generator. …Often this is the more expensive option, but depending on your needs and your budget, getting a generator may be a good idea. You can get ones that will keep the entire house powered or smaller ones to just 
7. Make sure you have car chargers for your cell phone and iPad.This way you can always make sure your phone is charged while driving before you get to your destination and there’s no electricity.
8. Put the proposed load shedding times on your fridge so that your family will have enough time to prepare for the power outage.
9. Use LED globes with a rechargeable battery backup, so when the power outage occurs, you just need to connect the rechargeable battery to the LED globe to produce light.
10. Alarm systems, garage doors and electric gates generally rely on electricity so make sure that these items all have good back-up batteries. If your alarm system does not have a back-up battery, be cautious during a power outage. It is worthwhile to purchase a mobile panic button which runs off batteries and which is linked to a reputable emergency response company.
11. Fill a thermos flask with boiling water before the blackout for a warm cup of tea or coffee during the blackout.