View of tablemountain from da heim Guesthouse Cape Town

Environmental Protection at the Heim Guesthouse

If you are a frequent traveller, you will come some time or other across the topic of environmental concern. South Africa, especially Cape Town, has become one of the most popular travel and tourism destinations in the world. As a guest we would like to emphasize the importance of environmental protection and encourage you to adapt to the local needs and circumstances. We as a 4-star guesthouse would also like to do our part namely: power supply from renewable resources, recycling and most importantly using water wisely.

 

Sustainable Electricity Produced From Solar Power at the Heim Guesthouse


With 3,700 hours of sunshine a year, Cape Town doesn’t just offer the ideal holiday weather but also the best conditions for solar power production. The solar panels on the roof can supply the whole guesthouse with electricity. Two further solar thermal systems are used to produce the hot water in the guesthouse and to heat the swimming pool.

 

Unfortunately South Africa has experienced an ongoing energy crisis since 2007 because our national electricity demand exceeds our supply. For that reason we at da Heim Guesthouse have upgraded our systems and are now almost entirely independent of our national supplier of electricity (ESKOM) power supply as we generate almost all our own electricity using solar.

 

Additionally to the solar system supplying warm water and electricity we have installed a battery back-up system. We thus guarantee the availability of electricity during your stay even if the country again gets affected by phases of “Load shedding” then essentials like Wi-Fi , lights, washing machine and certain plug points will not be affected and you will be able to use this throughout. The remote garage is on the back-up system as well and you will be able to access it.

 

“Load shedding” is when power companies (ESKOM) reduce electricity consumption by switching off the power supply to groups of customers because the entire system is at risk. This could be because there is a shortage of electricity supply, or to prevent transmission and distribution lines from becoming overloaded.

 

You can read more about load shedding here: What is load shedding?

 

In 2018 we installed a wellpoint which supplies the whole house with natural water. Please inquire at the office if the water currently is drinkable.

 

Recycling at the Heim Guesthouse

A responsible waste management system is equally important to maintain sustainable tourism. Recycling in Cape Town is not yet getting quite as much attention as it should be. We need to conserve our resources and thus we make a point of it to recycle at home. Raw materials such as paper, plastic and glass bottles are separated and disposed of individually and can thus once again become part of the resource cycle.

Saving Water at da Heim

In da Heim Guesthouse we now use a water saving supply system. We use wellpoint water as our basic supply. This water is then filtered through a specialized filtration system where water quality and environmental protection are taken into consideration. Drinkable filtered water is available at a cost on request.

 

How Can Our Guests Contribute to the Environment?

As so often: the individual makes the difference. Thus we encourage our guests to consciously be aware of their water usage.

  • Take shorter showers.
  • Do not let the taps run while brushing your teeth.
  • Only wash clothes and use the dishwasher when they are full.

We greatly appreciate your help.  

Your da Heim team.

Please contact us via telephone or e-mail:

+27 (21) 555 18 20

info@daheimguesthouse.de

Info folder

You will also find all information on our apartments in our info folder:

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