Where the money actually goes

In most homes and small shops the routine is the same: light goes, generator comes on, and someone walks outside every so often to check the street. When light finally returns during a busy hour, or at night while everyone is asleep, the generator keeps drinking fuel for as long as it takes for someone to look.

• A 2.5kVA generator burns about one litre an hour.
• Two missed restorations a day at 40 minutes each is roughly 1.3 litres.
• Over a month that is close to 40 litres — for power you were already receiving.

What a NEPA light tracker does

A small plug sits in any wall socket in your house. It watches that socket and nothing else. The second grid power goes off or comes back, it reports the change over its own SIM card and you get a text, a WhatsApp message or a phone alert — even if your wifi is down and even if you are not at home.

Because the alert arrives in seconds, the generator goes off in seconds. That is the whole saving.

Three ways households use it

• Stop the generator early. The person nearest the generator gets the alert and switches off, instead of waiting for someone to notice the neighbour's bulb.
• Do not start it at all. If you can see light is expected back shortly, you wait instead of pouring in another litre.
• Check your bill against reality. LightDey counts your hours of light by day, week and month in Lagos time, so you know exactly how much supply you received before you argue about an estimated bill.

A quick way to work out your own saving

Take the number of times light returns each day, multiply by the minutes it usually takes your household to notice, and divide by 60. That is the hours of fuel you are burning for nothing. Multiply by your generator's litres per hour, then by the price you pay per litre.

For most homes the number lands somewhere between one and three full jerrycans a month.

Common questions