Buy Smart, Buy Berkeley with our energy and cost saving features: We have teamed up with leading suppliers to ensure you have all the modern convenience, quality and style in your new home with the added advantage of SAVING YOU MONEY and saving our planet. Now that’s a smart investment!

Benefits of Energy Saving

• Save on Electricity bills
• Protection from future tariff increases, two more confirmed increases due 2011 and 2012 ** Eskom is asking for another 25% in 2013 and 2014**
• Eskom needs to reduce the demand for electricity due to limited generation capacity
• Be less affected by power cuts and load shedding
• Save water and therefore reduce further the cost of heating water
• Reduce your carbon footprint, fossil fuels such as coal and oil are burned to generate power, CO2 is formed which is released in the atmosphere causes global warming and poisons our planet
• Natural resources will not last forever, commit to global energy saving by using renewable and sustainable resources such as wood and solar energy

SOLAR GEYSERS – SAVE 40 %

In a country like South Africa it makes sense to use our most renewable resource, the sun, to provide our water heating requirements which can be anything from 30 – 40 % but even up to as much as 50 % of an electricity bill. By using solar energy not only are you saving substantial amounts of money, you are also investing in the future of our planet! A typical solar geyser water system can comfortably provide all of a family’s hot water needs, while others may go without.

• Immediate saving on electricity, as electric geysers consume the most energy in your home.
• A Geyser element = 3000 Watt, a light bulb = 60 Watt (50 times more energy consumption per hour)
• Protection from future prescribed consumption laws or quotas
• A solar geyser pays for itself after 3 years

WATER SAVING – SAVE 30 % to 60%

Two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with water BUT less than 3% is fresh water and ONLY 0.6% is drinkable.

• 1% of drinkable water disappears down showers and toilets.
• Water is a valuable and expensive commodity and the cost of heating water is becoming increasingly expensive.
• Water saving shower heads and taps restrict the flow of water from 13 litres per minute to 9 litres per minute, which saves precious water & saves on your electricity cost.

LED LIGHTING – SAVE 80 %

Energy saving light bulbs have always been a bright idea - for your pocket and the environment. They use up to 80 per cent less electricity than a standard bulb, but produce the same amount of light.  They also last much longer - up to 50 000 hours – that’s all day, every day for 5 and a half years.  Replacing incandescent lights with LED ones has an average pay back period of 1 year.

In other words, they can help you to save both energy and money.

They're just as bright as normal bulbs, but better for you and the environment...

Simple fact: energy saving lightbulbs use less electricity than standard bulbs to do the same job. In turn, using less energy like electricity means that our homes produce less carbon dioxide: one of the main causes of climate change.

LED LIGHTING – Better for your Health

DID YOU KNOW?

• LED Lights create little to no flickering - Typical ailments associated with exposure to long term flickering lights can include headaches, eye strain and general discomfort.
• LED Lights don’t contain any mercury.
• LED Lights don’t give off Ultra Violet (UV) Radiation - There have been a fair amount of studies that have concluded that CFLs can cause premature aging and skin cancer from prolonged exposure because they emit UV radiation.
• LED Lights generate no heat - incandescent lights that get extremely hot – and that is hot enough to burn fingers, heat up a room or become a potential fire hazard.
• LED Lights don’t make any noise - Unlike fluorescents that are well known for their constant and irritating hummmmmingsound, LED lights provide their lighting in total silence. Studies have indicated that this kind of noise pollution can foster irritability, fatigue and attention deficits in those exposed to it over time.

CLOSED SYSTEM FIREPLACE

Closed system fireplaces are the most effective way to heat your home as they only allow enough air into the fireplace to fuel the fire, thus creating an 80% heat retention in your home, versus a traditional open fireplace that has an 80% to 90% heat loss through the chimney.

 

 

Closed System Fireplaces have many advantages:

• Far more heat is radiated into your home as the flow of hot air up the chimney is very low and the need to suck cold air in from outside, to replace the escaped hot air, is negated.
• Most slow burners use very little wood and can keep burning on one or two pieces of wood per hour, so your cost for wood is very little.
• You will not have the smell of smoke in your home.
• Most units only have to be cleaned once a week if used every day.
• With your controls set correctly and after placing a number of logs into the unit late in the evening the stove will continue to give heat for up to 8 hours which means your home stays warm during the night
• Most slow combustion stoves have a very long lifespan, normally in excess of 25 years if not abused.