With the cost of living rising globally, basic necessities such as food and bills are the most affected, and households and small and medium businesses in particular are feeling the crunch. As an important amount of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa relies on fuel generators, this can be extremely taxing. Indeed with the grid frequently going down in Nigeria and regular power cuts in Côte d’Ivoire, certain people have no choice but to see their wallets take a hit. Rest assured, there are ways to save on bills and make cash go further.
1- Switching from generators to Lumos
In Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, households use generators to meet their electricity requirements. In Nigeria alone, over 40% of these households have a generator, spending an overall $14 billion annually on fuel for them. At the same time, the cost of fuel is increasing globally, with diesel in Nigeria jumping by 28.1% in January 2022, and prices for importing fuel going up by more than 100% since March 2022.
By switching to Lumos, purchasing fuel for generators becomes an element of the past. The Lumos Yellow Box runs on solar power and provides reliable energy at a lower cost.
2- Turning appliances off when they're not in use
Leaving the room? TV a distant background noise? No one sitting in front of the fan? A simple way to reduce energy consumption is to switch off and unplug appliances when they’re not in use. While leaving appliances plugged in means the power supply is still open, unplugging them or switching off the socket cuts off the power.
3- Unplugging devices when they've finished charging
Even though it’s easy to plug in a mobile phone and/or laptop and leave them to charge overnight, this also means that more energy is being consumed. Additionally, a full charge can be around 3 hours when the device is not being used. Therefore, leaving devices to charge without using them too much during this time and keeping an eye out for them to finish charging means less power is needed.
4- Using natural light during the day
With long daylight hours and bright sunshine, natural light during the daytime is often free flowing. As a result, not all indoor lights need to be switched on, meaning that less energy is being used.
5- Using energy-efficient appliances
While non-energy-efficient bulbs are cheaper to buy, they’re more expensive to run on the long term as they consume a lot more power than energy-saving light bulbs. Indeed, an ordinary bulb tends to need around ten times the amount of power compared to an energy-saving one. Lumos includes energy-efficient light bulbs as part of its Solar Home System.
Saving on bills everyday
With Lumos, customers are able to enjoy reliable electricity daily and depending on the plan they choose, Lumos is up to 80% cheaper than running a generator. Therefore, customers can spend wisely, reduce their monthly power expenses, save more, and don’t have to be concerned about whether or not the grid is functioning properly.