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All EDGE Certified SMARTHOMES have gone through a two-step certification process through the Green Building Council South Africa. Each home is verified by an EDGE Auditor who checks that the building meets the minimum EDGE Certification requirements. With EDGE Certification you can be sure that your clients will save a minimum of 20% on their water and electricity, as long as they use the features correctly. To find out more click here.
Awesome! Living in an EDGE Certified home is the smart choice! There are over 3500 Edge Certified homes in South Africa at the moment and more are being built all the time. You can use our search engine to look for EDGE Certified SMARTHOMES in your area.
That is fantastic to hear! At the Green Building Council we hope that all homes will follow your example in the coming years. Unfortunately we aren’t able to certify your home, as EDGE Certification is only available for new buildings at this point.
If you adjusted your behaviour to cut your bills, then I’d recommend you focus on your geyser. Between 40 and 60% of your electricity bill comes from using the geyser to heat water. The quickest way to cut your consumption it is reduce the temperature on your geyser to 55 degrees, install a geyser blanket so that it retains heat for longer and then install a timer on your geyser so it is only heating water when you need it. For more ideas on how to cut your electricity bill click here.
CFL stands for compact floursecent lightbulbs, while LED stands for light emitting diode. Although both are more energy efficient than a traditional incandescent lightbulb. CFLS use one-fifth to one-third of the electricity and last eight to fifteen times longer. Unfortunately because CFLS are a flourscent lamp they contain toxic mercury so you need to recycle them carefully. LEDs are the most energy efficient, they use more than 75% less energy and last 25 times longer than incandescent lighting and the components don’t contain products that are harmful to the environment. For ideas of how to cut your electricity bill read more here.
There are lots of ways to save electricity. Start off by reducing the temperature on your geyser to 55 degrees. If you have a pool pump reduce its running time to 4 hours. Wash all your clothes at 30 degrees and switch off lights and appliances when you aren’t using them. You can also consider some low cost investments like LED lightbulbs, geyser blankets and a geyser time. For more ideas visit this page.
You are correct that South Africa is becoming drier and drier and drought conditions are going to become a permanent feature in our lives in the future so investing in a rain water harvesting system is a great idea. Just 11 mm of rainfall produces 1000 litres of harvested rainwater for every 100 sq. metres of roof area so depending on the size of your home you can harvest a significant amount of water. Rainwater harvesting systems come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be installed by you or for more sophisticated systems you use a specialist. I’d recommend speaking to a specialist to understand how many tanks you need to serve your needs and what the payback period would be.
Most definitely! Even though there is the initial upfront cost of the new toilet and installation to consider, once fitted you will start saving on your water bill. Older toilets use between 9 and 13 litres of water per flush, while a dual flush toilet uses a maximum of 6 litres, or 3 for a half flush. For more information read more here.
There are a few things you can do to reduce your water bill. First start off by ditching the baths and also taking shorter showers. Then you can look into installing a low-flow shower head. They fit onto any shower, so you can take it with you when you leave, and because they reduce the flow of water your save on your bill. Don’t worry they are designed to use less water but still offer a great shower. You can also install tap aerators on all your taps, this also reduces the water flow and as a result the quantity of water. For more information read here.
