What is our current electricity usage?

• We currently monitor our energy usage with the help of a cellphone based technology. This allows us to view live energy consumption data, as show below.

• This technology also allows us to isolate the areas consuming the most energy, thus giving us a starting point for energy reduction projects.
• It also allows us to compare current usage with historical usage in order to determine the impact of energy reduction projects.
• This live system has also enabled us to identify our peak periods and this allows us to re-arrange some of our operations in order to reduce these peaks.

                                                      Usage in the past 12 months

What initiatives have we put in place to reduce electricity usage?

• To date we have fitted Heat Pump units to all our water heating installations. Heat pumps are highly efficient in their use of energy.
• Energy saving shower heads have been installed in most of the showers.
• These shower heads restrict the water flow to 9 litres per minute versus standard shower heads which use anywhere between 15 and 20 litres per minute. This means that we use less hot water and as a result, we use less electricity for heating.
• We have also insulated most of the hot water piping in order to reduce heat loss.

How much have we reduced electricity usage through these initiatives?

·         We have seen an overall reduction of 23%, even in the face of large energy cost increases from the supplier.