This weeks posting on electricity has a lot more people writing than I expected so a BIG Thank you to all who participated.
Of course when writing you want to know who won the weekly prize!
@monica-ene and I looked at all the entries and didn't come up with the same first, second and third prize winners so I did what I always do.. I changed the prizes awarded. Instead of 3HBD, 2HBD, 1HBD...
I awarded 2 HBD to @jjmusa2004, @threedotz and @rare-gem
There just wasn't one clear winner.
However, there were a lot of very good entries so I awarded 1 HBD to everyone else. Sure some were stronger entries than others but I just loved how so many people made their first post to the community this week.
It was my way of saying THANK-YOU to everyone who participated.
Of course, I can't do this every week or I'll go broke but for today that's how I did it.
Overall I learned a lot of things.
In Nigeria there is a variety of prices paid depending on where you live. I saw numbers anywhere from 0.05HBD/kWh to 0.15HBD/kWh. Some people pay by a NEPA bill sent monthly. Others pay online by a prepaid meter.
Some people split the bill among all the people in the compound or house. Others pay their own bill. Still others get stuck paying the bill for someone who cheated the system and isn't even living in the house!
The actual bill paid can be very arbitrary. The NEPA bill may or may not be based on an actual meter reading. The actual meter may have been tampered with to get free electricity.
In the end some people decided to forget the power company as much as possible and went with Solar Power instead.
Here's a brief rundown of what I took home from individuals:
@threedotz -- she mentioned how theft of power is an issue. She also mentioned that with a new baby she needed reliable power and got a solar system for lights. Seems like she made a great choice!
@cheeamaka -- talked about how they had a prepaid meter but their prepaid load didn't last long at all. Seems they were paying for a previous tenants theft. After a little work they are now getting reliable inexpensive power.
@sammyhive -- told about how Nigeria has rich energy resources. However it seems that the distribution of those resources is based on a corrupt system so that not everyone benefits from the resources of the country. Also mentioned how bill collectors are "thugs" out to extort money from the average person who wants electricity.
@twicejoy -- talked about how the lack of electricity stunts business growth. He has chickens which need the light and aren't getting it because of power interruptions.
@jmis101 -- talks about how she shares her prepaid meter bill with others in her home. She uses very little power and in the end its included with her rent.
@leemah1 -- talked about how she has a prepaid meter but its not very useful because two weeks and no electricity! How annoying would it be to prepay for something only to be unable to use it!
@jjmusa2004 -- took lots of pictures. Loved the picture of the power bill so I could do some calculations on electricity rates. He also gave some background on how power is produced in the country. Why he went to a solar system (and how much it cost). He was my #1 choice but Monica had another person in mind....That's why things got split as they did. Sorry jjmusa.
@rare-gem -- Used to have a NEPA bill but went to Prepaid and that seems to be working better for them. Lots of great pictures and she told how reliability varies a lot from place to place.
@marynn -- Gave us a picture of the electric bill (thank you) but with all the outages and unreliable power ultimately they found that solar was a great alternative and better than generators other people use. She also gave some cost saving ideas ... not sure about the freezer idea but if it works for her than great!
@emreal -- He was the one who mentioned that the NEPA bill doesn't really reflect actual usage. He mentioned that he used very little power and still got a big bill. Even when he used little power or there was an extended blackout the bill still managed to come (even if the electricity didn't). He also mentioned that the meter was often not even checked, which seemed pretty odd to me.
Overall I was very pleased with this weeks topic. Of course if would be better if we could tempt some people from other countries to write but I'll take what I can get and want to take a moment to say:
!PIZZAA big thanks to @tergan for doing amazing job and congratulations to everyone of us.
Pizza! I love Pizza...even the virtual kind :)
Thank you.
You're welcome sir
Thanks so much, @tergan. You've made a great point, and I agree with you. Many people are adopting solar power as an alternative, reducing their dependency on power holding companies. The treatment from these companies is discouraging, with lots of corrupt practices.
Joining the two is a great idea; where one fails, the other serves. Thanks for the good work and the token reward as well. It's much appreciated.
Your very welcome.
Hope you join in this weeks post also....Transportation.
Sure I'd be excited to join.
I'll keep my eyes open for the post :)
This is wonderful, thanks, and congratulations to everyone
It has been an exciting one.
I guess everyone is able to speak their mind and relate with others.
Hopefully individuals are left to find solutions to their power problems. And thanks to the alternative solar system getting a wide spread... Sooner than later the power holding company will not be so much relevant when we all have alternatives.
Honestly. If solar becomes as widespread as I hope the power company will become a useful partner!
In Canada we have a program called "Net Metering". If I have solar power at my house I can connect to the power company. If I use more than I make I pay them...however, if I make more than I use the power company PAYS ME for the electricity that I make.
As a result the more people who have solar power the more reliable the grid is for everyone. Those who make the power make income and those who use it pay them. The power company acts as a middleman who does the collection and maintenance of the system.
In Canada, well, my province British Columbia, the power company charges 14c/kWh and pays people 6c/kWh with the difference being used to maintain the system and pay employees.
Wow, this is an awesome idea.
I think so. If it really gets going neighbors aren't going to tolerate electricity theft. Instead of stealing from a big corporation your stealing from your neighbor with the solar panels...no decent person likes stealing from their neighbor.
....Or maybe its just me :)
This is an exciting week, with an interesting topic.
We are growing.
Thank you very much for the reward.
I sure need to secure a good solar for my use.
If you were closer I'd give you my old solar system to use. Unfortunately its too expensive to ship (sigh, sorry). Good luck on finding something but if you do get something send me the details first....I'd love to give feedback before you spend anything!
Alright dear.
Thank you very much.
You are really doing well sir, we appreciate your effort. I am also very excited to see a lot of people participating on this contest, I hope to see more people next time.
Hehehe.... are you sure you just don't want to see me go broke trying to bribe so many new people 🤣
Honestly though, I love seeing the interest. I don't expect this community to ever get large but if I get a small group of good people I'm very happy with that. Glad you are part of the community for sure.
Hahahaha.. you won't go broke sir, the Lord is your strength... Just put it at the back of your mind that if what the community is doing is good, you can't escape having more people
I'm married.
I can only spend the money that I make playing coin hunt world on my phone. I've saved up $1200 to fund the community but want to make that $10,000 HBD. I won't go broke but if I spend too much I also won't get the #Frugal community where I want to get it.
Then again if I don't spend anything I won't have a community so I have to pray and see how things go :)
The Lord will see you through sir.. i believe that whatever is being tabled to the Lord before execution will never go without His blessings.. I pray you open doors sir
Thank you so so much.
Without bias, we appreciate your rare interest in the affairs of our dear nation, it gladdens me as an individual that we are cared for. I appreciate your views on subject matters as it relates to your environ, giving us a picture (even though it looks different from that which we know) of life over there and this makes us pray and hope to have a system that works in Nigeria.
Also, thank you for the kind gestures to us all. We deeply appreciate and pray you never go broke.
As earlier stated, you starting a community is a big leap and for what the community stands for, it gladdens my heart that there's value appreciated in gaining extra knowledge of how life can be lived in a frugal but not stingy manner.
Also, you have our support whenever the need arises for thoughts and ideas. It'll be an honour to extend a hand of fellowship to a friend well deserving.
Once again, Thank you
Wow..
I wish I could say that I just cared about Nigeria.... However, the world is a big place. I'd love to hear from everyone. Ghana, Venezuela, Philippines and more. People are people no matter where they are from. I'm just glad the Nigerian community has adopted me.
For that, thank you guys!
And yes.... You'll keep getting my view as a Canadian because...well, it might be odd but at least it shows you how things differ from place to place!
Congratulations to us all. Thanks to @tergan and @monica-ene for organizing the contest. This topic was well researched and touching. See you next time.
Looking forward to hearing from you. The next topic is transportation costs. I'll be introducing it tonight after work.....all going well :)
Thanks for participating!
Thank you sir
$PIZZA slices delivered:
(1/5) @twicejoy tipped @tergan
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what is the topic for this week sir I will like to join your community to start posting my own contribution I loves your topics they are very vital to topic that work with the human behavior and life some times when there is not light for a specific day some will not even eat food self because they only have electric cooker and they think light is stable and there gas us finish and they are putting there trust on light or NEPA so light is very vital to human life despite is not natural but one can not do without light although there some in the village that stays with out light but if they ask them they dont find it easy due to some if the accessories they brought phones, chargeable lamb and so on
https://peakd.com/hive-192111/@terganftp/weekly-post-contest-transportation
Transportation.
How expensive is it to get where you need to go? How easy is it to get where you need to go? What options are available. Stuff like that.
Happy to have you join!
As for electricity and lights. I'm a firm believer that if it is something you absolutely need you should be able to produce it yourself. Electricity, food, water, etc. Sure its nice when the community has it available and especially if it is reliable and cheap. However being self reliant is an awesome feeling.
Side note though... I'm an informal kind of guy. Feel free to call me Tergan (Hive name) or Jason (real name)
Congratulations to the winners, what could be this week topic?
https://peakd.com/hive-192111/@terganftp/weekly-post-contest-transportation
Transportation.
How expensive is it to get where you need to go? How easy is it to get where you need to go? What options are available. Stuff like that.
Happy to have you join!