5.5 Energy consumption patterns
5.5.2 Energy usage within residences’ shared spaces
100 | P a g e average more likely to use electricity on ICT devices. This data explains why the majority of the students in the study, 44%, were not satisfied with internet access (see Figure 5.1) as they use their laptops and computers extensively. Thus, students are more likely to use and charge their ICT devices namely cell-phones, laptops and iPads which access wireless internet connections.
Challenges in connecting to the internet are mostly likely to have a negative impact on students’
satisfaction. As shown in Table 5.6, room it is not surprise that fridges are connected to electricity points throughout the day and night in rooms belonging to both male and female students.
The least reported electrical appliance used by students accounting for about 8 minutes on average per day is the hairdo-machine. Interestingly, male students are almost twice as likely as female students to connect hairdo machines to electrical points on a daily basis. One of the male students reported that other students borrowed his hair-machine almost on a daily basis. This finding from the study supports the literature that South African males are culturally systematic hair clippers.
According to Khumalo et al (2007), African men prefer to have a clean shave and their hair is commonly cut or clipped with electrical clippers. Therefore, the finding confirms the fact that African males are constantly cutting their hair albeit this practice has implications on the electricity consumption within the residences, although these appliances do not consume large amounts of electricity as shown by the time it takes to charge them each day. Electrical fans have a significant average timeframe of 7 hours and 45 minutes per day mostly because the study was conducted in summer hence students tend to use their fans frequently. However, as the data shows not many students use fans in their rooms. Table 5.6 is important in illustrating the duration in terms of hours on a daily basis that students used their gadgets or appliances whilst they are plugged-in to electrical sockets.
102 | P a g e their rooms with radios and computers. The 5 washing machines and the 5 dryers utilize a lot of energy (RA3, October 30, 2015).
In residences all life depends on electricity because you cannot do much without electricity. The lights are always on 24/7, we have stoves that are almost always on because some people cook during the day and others at night. Some people just leave stoves on after they have done their cooking (RA1, November 1, 2015).
We have microwaves which some students just leave running even after warming-up their food. We also have washing machines and dryers that work 24 hours a day and these they consume a lot of electricity (RA5, October 29, 2015).
It is clear that the participants in the study acknowledged that most of the appliances in the residences consumed a lot of energy. For instance, the fridges (225 Kwh), stoves (3000 Kwh) and lights (CFL 20 kWh) (Energy-use, 2015). The laundry machines are major contributors to energy consumption and they are used almost all the time. The tumble dryer consumed 3 000 watts and took 50 minutes per load, likewise the washing machine consumed 3 000 watts but took 75 minutes to wash a single load (Energy-use, 2015).
The most interesting aspect in Figure 5.9 above is the television room that showed a somehow balance regarding the way the televisions were operated. Most students in the study, 68%, stated that televisions were frequently used, while 28% said that the televisions were switched-on all the time and 24% argued that the televisions were rarely used. Strikingly, a television consumes 300 watts of energy per hour hence if it is switched on for a longtime it will consume a considerable amount of energy as well (Energy-use, 2015). Televisions were most likely to be switched on as indicated by the students because they were a form of entertainment to students residing in the residences. Female students mostly used them in the evening to watch local TV soaps such as Muvhango, Generations and Skeem Sam whilst the male students mostly watched sports, particularly football. The interviews with RAs also showed that televisions were constantly switched on even if no one was inside the TV-room.
For instance, when they are watching TV they leave it on afterwards even if there is nobody watching it and as a RA, I have to switch it off whenever I find out that it is not attended to. Some students just leave their computers on even if they are not there.
103 | P a g e They also have phone charges that are constantly plugged in which also uses a lot of energy as well (RA3, October 30, 2015).
This section has shown that students’ rooms and the residences’ shared spaces were equipped with different electrical appliances that consumed a lot of energy. This assertion was also highlighted by Jiang et al (2013), who found that over 95% of energy consumption within a university is consumed within buildings. Residential halls contribute a significant percentage to that energy budget of 95%. Therefore, energy reduction efforts have to be directed towards the alteration of student’s practices and behaviours so that they use their electrical appliances in a pro- environmental manner.