Community Blog

Soapbox Community blog : Latest Posts

08 February 2010 09:02

Does switching off your geyser really save electricity?

Moneyweb Community member says it is a myth.

Admittedly, it's a popular myth that switching off your geyser saves electricity as Gareth Cotten discussed in How to save on your electricity bill and it's even propagated by government, but it's completely false and it's inexcusable that a reporter does not check his facts before claiming a cited obvious, but bogus method of saving electricity. The fact is that in a properly insulated geyser the heat energy is well contained and the only possible source off loss is the tiny amount that escapes the insulation during the day. While the geyser is on during the day and no water is consumed, a small amount of electricity is used to replace this heat loss - the thermostat typically switches on for ...

Read post

07 October 2009 15:32

Standard Bank's faux pas

It is so sad it is laughable.

We have an up-and-coming engineer in our company that is performing exceptionally and I believe that he has an excellent future. He banks with Standard Bank (JSE:SBK) and decided to buy a duplex. He asked Standard Bank to increase his transfer amount to enable him to transfer the deposit. Standard Bank stated that they would not increase his transfer limit until the amount was in his account. Although frustrated because he did not understand the motivation behind this, he accepted this. When the money was in his account, he went to bank and asked that they increase the transfer limit only to be told that his account was under investigation because such a large amo...

Read post

27 August 2009 07:59

What flying taught me about business (part 2)

Using your passion to advance your career and life.

This is the second article in a series of two into what flying can teach you about business

Over the years many authors and business commentators have sought to find principles and rules from nature and other areas of life to gain a better understanding of business. Alternatively people have tried to compare business with many other things in life.

I have had a career in business and also fairly late in life qualified and worked as a commercial helicopter pilot. In my time as a successful helicopter pilot I have learnt many valuable lessons which can be applied in business and life in general. Here's what flying taught me about business:

Helicopter controls
There are four controls which all impact on one another and that may be why people some...

Read post