No, I am not thinking self-affirming thoughts. Or thoughts about the new GNU cabinet. I’ve been thinking about electrical power.
Technology is power hungry. A study by the Amsterdam School of Business and Economics warns that AI applications could use as much power as a small country by 2027. Add the demands of cryptocurrency mines, and the picture is alarming.
Thoughts about EVs
I love the idea of eco-friendly electric vehicles, although I’ve never driven one. I do wonder how feasible they are in SA. Would you rely on Eskom to get you where you are going?
Audi plans to invest in more EV charging stations here. Apparently a 150kW ultra-fast charger can charge your car battery in about 30 minutes. Impatient SA drivers regularly go through red lights, rather than wait less than 60 seconds for the lights to change. Will these drivers wait 30 minutes to continue their journey?
I was half-way through a movie on my tablet when it flashed a warning about low battery. The battery icon read 10%. As I plugged in the charger, it died.
The same thing happened to Lewis with his phone a few days ago. We’ve all had this problem, especially with older devices. The icon goes from 20% or 10% to 0% almost instantly. Imagine if your car battery did this to you!
Thoughts about Eskom
This week we heard that there will be no load-shedding. There will, however, be load-reduction. I don’t think the change in terminology has made us happier.
Most of us have learned to think about the power we use. You have to, if you have solar or a power backup. Too many devices at the same time will trip the inverter.
About 10 years ago, we changed most of our lights to LEDs. My parents’ lounge, built 24 years ago, had 8 downlighters and 2 chandeliers. They never used it at night, so we didn’t replace them. When we switched on all the lights recently, we realised it was almost 1KW of energy!
Thoughts about education
My domestic worker recently moved to a new rented place. It is safer, but it comes at an unexpected price. She now has to pay for electricity. Apparently the previous landlord was “bridging” (aka stealing electricity).
I discovered that she used a hot plate to boil water. A hot plate and a kettle use about the same power, but a hot plate takes much longer. I gave her a lesson, a kettle and a flask to keep the water hot.
Then I discovered that she fries frozen fish fingers for about 40 minutes. The instructions specify 5 minutes. (The gardener likes the fish fingers to be hard.) So I gave her another lesson about stove plates.
I don’t know what life orientation studies at school level cover. But I think this is something that should be included.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.