Is there a bright side to this ?

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5 Units of electricity in the past week.

If this were an energy saving or energy efficiency blog we'd be rockstars !!

Later on, I think Mr and Mrs Okada will begin to work harder on minimizing our electricity consumption (yes we do have energy efficient light bulbs and some other gizmos).

But for now we're worried that things are drifting along at the level referred to in our May 16th posting that for the sensibilities of our readers will be referred to as U.C.(and no it is not 'uber cool)

We also know its probably treasonable to call for the President's head on a spike so we don't want to be doing that in a few months time !!

5 units of electricity a week is well below U.C. !!

In fact over a 3 month period its about 60 units

For those of you contemplating a transfer to the tropics your quarterly electricity bill will be $3.40. Meanwhile the generator bill will probably be about $400 for the same period if you'd like just lights, fans and fridge through the night
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If you're wondering - yes we did visit a solar shop on Saturday.

Some signs of encouragement - they do have all the necessary gear (panels, inverters, batteries, charge controllers) and they've been doing a steady stream
of business for companies to install in remote places.

However they failed Mr Okada's first test

Mr Okada: So have you installed anything at home ?

Manager: Nope

Mr O: Why not ?

Manager: Too expensive...

And in his defence its kinda true. The upfront costs are a pretty heavy hit. A little system that will do lights, fans, tv (not fridge or AC) might be possible for N400,000 to N700,000 depending on how you set up. Thats $2,700 to $4,700 range.

With generator bills of $1,600 or more per year you can see how this could pay for itself in a very reasonable time, but this is not a place where finance over time, cheap loans, etc etc are an easy find.

The maths is pretty clear.

It makes sense for us to get off this grid but there'll have to be a bit of serious saving of cash first


To close today's post.......

A couple of little pieces of solar inspiration and optimism from other places with a power crisis

[while typing today's post NEPA electricity has come on and off 4 times and delivered a spectacular total of about 10 minutes of electricity ]