Electricity: The Cost And Reliability In My Place
Electricity: The Cost And Reliability In My Place
Since machines has taken our most of the things we do, power became very important as many of those gadgets needs to be powered or charged inorder to keep running.
My mobile phone has not only been a source of fun and communication alone for me but also a source of income, only God knows how it would have been if it was not there but as good as it is without power around to charge it, it will be of no use.
Is electricity reliable down here?
Well, the truth is the availability of consistent electrical power supply depends on the kind of environment one lives in. In my place, undeveloped places like villages with few population tend to enjoy stable supply of electric power compared to towns.
Many things can also affect the supply of power, during raining season, power is most likely to be faulty because of wind and you know since it's not a personal something, it often takes time to fix. Other times when pressure becomes much on the transformer it explodes itself and that can result in the absence of electricity for a long period of time.
I know of a community that stayed for over a year without electricity as a result of transformer's explosion, it was early this year they were helped by a politician to get a new one. That thing Is very expensive.
Now, if we will not consider any of those circumstances, I would say light is most reliable in villages than in towns like I said earlier on. I lived in the town before I moved down to a local community close by. In the town, the light is being rationed and they enjoy electricity only for eight hours per day, that is from from 8:00am -12pm then in the evening from 8:00pm to 12am, sometimes 11:pm -3/4 am.
But in the village were I live, not too far from the town though the light is 24hours, except if there is a general power problem. Like it happened few weeks ago. Though recently I heard that power is somewhat stable in the town, atleast the number of hours has been extended. That's a good news because I expect that electricity should be more stable there than in the village because of the level of activities there.
How expensive is electricity?
The charge of electricity depends on the level of consumption and also location. In places like Abuja and Lagos electricity is very expensive compared to small states like mine. Some years back electricity was not that expensive down here, sometimes it's comes for most house 4,500 naira ($5-6) but from ending last year the price hiked to 8,000 Naira ($10) depending on your consumption.
Ideally every house is supposed to have a meter to detect the amount of electricity consumed but most houses here don't and so they ends up paying electric bills that is more than what they consumed.
How can a house that has no refrigerator, no electric cooker, microwave and so on still be paying the same amount of money for electricity as those who have all these gadgets? Maybe it's something beyond what I know.
For where I live, the things I use is just my electric bulb, my fan and my phone's charger. my landlord is supposed to charge me atleast 2000 -3000 naira ($ 3/4) monthly but he doesn't charge me for electricity. I tried convincing him to take it but he said I don't use heavy gadgets so no need, considering our relationship too. LoL . Well the Main bill for the house is 8000($ 10) naira monthly but sometimes it increases to 8500 .
I wish they have a meter to check their consumption but they don't, well the thing is they have a lot of heavy gadgets, refrigerator, electric cooker, microwave, television, ceiling fans and the rest I can't tell if the price is fair or not.
Today I was able to ask few friends and they told me that their bills are also ranging from 8000 8500 naira too. But trust me most people are complaining because it's too high. Though the light is more stable than when it was cheap but the price is still too much.
How to reduce the bills
Since the bills here are not being checked from the meters most people don't bother with the issue of reducing the consumption of electricity except for house with prepared meters but I think the best way to reduce it is by turning off gadgets when not in use, especially refrigerators.
Turning of the bulbs during the day since the place would be bright enough for everyone to see. Another way is to use a light meter. Recently prepared meter has been brought, it can be turned off if there is nothing to use light for and turn on when there need and maybe left for the nights. This will help reduce the cost of electricity.
Thanks you so much @tergan for giving us this privilege, I am most happy to be part of those partaking in this week's prompt.
Yay! 🤗
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yes you are right but you see in the villages they use less gadget it very hard to see a house with electric cooker or refrigerator, even though you will see any you can count the house it will not rich 20% by that it reduces the rate of pressure in the transformer and for your landlord he is a kind man and the Lord open his door well and he shall move from grace to grace. Electricity is what we are complaining so much in Nigeria because we donate electricity to others country like could you imagine we take electricity to Ghana but they celebrated one year of not blinking there light rather the take off there light for a minute now what can we say concerning that should we say that Nigeria is more populated than Ghana is that should be the reason? but I just see corruption in Nigeria like the towns or city light is 24 hours but they can stay for one day without seeing light we just pray and hope that things will change and work out for good
The only thing we can do is pray over things like these. Corruption is everywhere but ours here seem to be too obvious. If things were to be done as it ought to be.. we are supposed to be enjoying electricity more than many countries because we have a very good and reliable source of power.. we pray we better days .
Thanks for stopping by .. please you can check the contest out too.. its still on going tell us about electricity in your place.. let me know if you are interested in the contest so i can guide you
when they are talking about good power supply Nigeria is one them but now reverse is the case
Things will be better I believe.. it's just the matter of time.. i hope to see your take on the topic too.. like i said, if you are interested, let me know so taht i can give you more light
okay go on I need more light and thank you for the care
Okay I have already dropped you details on discord
You mean Nigeria exports electricity to Ghana when they can't even keep the lights on themselves? Seems silly to me.
Ghana celebrated that they did not blink there light like this could you imagine
Sorry. I understand the words but not the meaning. 😕
You have no idea how much I envy you only paying $3 or $4 per month in electricity. My house is a total energy pig and I try to decrease where possible but I have too many people in the house so $200 is more common per month.
What?? $200, that is too big.. electricity is really very expensive over there then. 200 dollars is someone's two months salary 😁🤣
That's $200 CAD not USD but it would still be 115,000 Naira. Yes, expensive.
With electricity being available all day and all night everyday everyone in the house uses it all the time without thought.
My son will fall asleep with his gaming computer on. Leaves the house with his air conditioner on. My parents-in-law leave their TV on all day to have noise in the background. My son's room mates will do a load of laundry when they only have a small amount of clothes to wash.
Overall it makes me very unhappy because I get the bill. Which is why I look so hard for ways to save on electricity.
Now... when I got a water bill of 700,000 Naira that REALLY made me unhappy! But that's a story for another day 😉
This is sad,you get the bills and cannot control the use of power. This is unfair. I often tell my siblings that they will never understand how to manage things until they become the managers someday and begin to foot their individual bills.
It's not fair for sure. Then again life isn't fair and I never expect it to be. I just feel I have to set the best example I can. Educate my sons where I can. Grumble about my parents-in-law because they are old and believe they should be supported by their children--even if they have more income than I do.
But supporting parents is a topic for another day I think ;)
Sure can't wait till we get to the supporting parent part.
Won't ever happen for me.
Canadian children typically don't support their parents when they get old. The most support I can expect is for them to put me in a care home when I get old to be forgotten and ignored. My parents-in-law are Filipino and have very different expectations.
Mixed marriages carry expectations I never knew when I signed up :)
Well a local saying here says, good soup na money kill am direct interpretation is a good soup is prepared with good money.
Since the light is stable and serves the purpose for which is was paid for, then I think it's a kind of fair yet to me that's super expensive 🤣🤣🤣
I almost screamed when I saw that 700,000 for water, is it monthly or yearly? The cost of living is really high down there....
I am really sorry for late reply, please forgive me🙏🙏
The 700,000 was for two months water. The next bill was about 500,000. It seems that the people renting our downstairs suite didn't inform me that their toilet was malfunctioning so the water just kept running and running without shutting off. After the first bill I called in a plumber to fix the problem (300,000 Naira). Then when I got the next bill that was almost as large I was horrified! I asked the city to check the water lines and checked all my utilities. Then when I talked to the renter they told me their second washroom was also leaking but only a small leak. Again I had to pay the plumber another 300,000 Naira ... if they just told me in advance I would have saved so much money!
Sometimes I hate being a landlord, especially when people think I'm greedy and just using people to make cash. Nope. Things need to be maintained and fixed, owning a property isn't free--at least not in Canada ;)
As for late reply.... Just be forgiving when I don't get back quickly, ok? 😉
There's a lot with being a landlord, heheh 😁😁 but seriously you have really spent a lot over those repairs. If it were in Nigeria here, that money is enough for someone to start up a very nice business 🤣
I'm hoping to save up about 8M Naira and then setup something in Nigeria. Chances I save up that much are pretty small....but I'll going to try. 😉
Heheh.. if you can dream it, you can achieve it sir, there is a saying that says, little drop of water makes an ocean.. it is achievable sir, though it might take a little longer than you may want it to be
I've had lots of dreams in my days. Many of them have faded to nothing. Many of them are proving to be useful for making posts on Hive. None of them included Nigeria. But where God opens a door I'll follow and if that means my dreams move location to Africa so be it. I'll just keep following the path and see where God leads me.
.... and pray every step along the way 😉
Smile.. I have faith in you sir, like you said, let God take the lead...
I totally agree with you that some rural areas enjoy more power supply than township because of over congestion but nevertheless there can be better ways to distribute power supply and bills .
Goodluck in the contest.
Awnn thanks so much for the kind wishes and for stopping by