Pre-winter shopping trends on bidorbuy show that gas and solar powered devices are gaining in popularity

Aren’t you happy that electricity prices will be going up by about 8% a year over the next five years? You should be, because that’s half of what Eskom had asked for.

The above feeble attempt at consolation notwithstanding, the painful truth is that the electricity price increases are placing an immense pressure on South Africans.

How are consumers responding?

On bidorbuy, they seem to be turning to devices that use alternative sources of energy.

Recently, the sales of gas-powered household appliances, like stoves and even fridges, have overtaken the sale of similar items that run on electricity. In the past, people found gas expensive because electricity was cheap. Now that electricity prices are on the rise, shoppers seem to be re-considering their options.

During the past few weeks, shoppers on bidorbuy bought 10 gas stoves and only one electrical stove, plus 11 gas hobs and only one electrical.

Surprisingly, on bidorbuy, the sales of electrical heaters are still ahead of their gas counterparts, even though electrical heaters are one of the biggest electricity guzzlers. This could be due to the fact that gas heaters are as a rule much bigger and more cumbersome than many of the electrical heaters.

Together with an increase in popularity of the gas-powered appliances, anything with the attribute solar seem to be attracting attention of the buyers on bidorbuy.

True, powerful solar panels, for example those that are capable of keeping the water inside a geyser hot, are still too expensive and too big. However, people are buying smaller solar panels, which can be used to power lights, small TVs, electric fans, laptops, stereos, or to charge cell phone batteries.

So, not all is bleak. It could even be argued that expensive electricity is making green shoppers out of us all… Yes, you’ve guessed right, this is just another feeble attempt at consolation…