What are you looking for today?
CapeInfo’s Smarter Living Project started off to determine what one really needs to go off the electrical grid — is it as expensive as people say or, if one adapts one’s lifestyle, is it affordable or… even cheaper. Off-the-grid in this case meant no external electric sources at all — no Eskom, no municipal connection. Continue reading
Hot water from the outset was an absolute necessity because I’m not good at cold showers. And seeing I hadn’t worked out all the options, I certainly didn’t have a long-term plan. So I wanted the cheapest, fastest solution which I wouldn’t have any hesitation in just throwing away or recycling after a month or two.
So here’s my R130 hot water system! Can that be beaten price-wise? It’s 100 metres of the cheapest 16mm irrigation pipe, coiled flat on the ground in a circle as tightly as I could. It has a diameter of 1.8 metres but could be a little less.
The hot water coil. It was neater before a storm and strong winds, so the hothouse cover is probably a necessity.
It needs to be tidied up again so that all the piping is fully exposed to the sun.
