Private Prepaid Electrical Meters good or bad

[seanwhe]

Interesting thread. To answer those looking for prepaid sub-meters take a look at http://www.prepaidmeters.co.za

The basic unit is R600.00. Certified Electrician installation would cost around R450.00 - R500.00 depending on electrician.

Hope this helps

[MMX]

Why don't you go for the other option of not having to supply vouchers to your tenant at all ungodly hours?Put them on the Unipin system and they buy all overtown but you still have controll over the vending. Check out www.prepaidman.co.za only pretoria area and outlying though...

[Justloadit]

or..

Register with my platform and purchase anytime 24/7
dial *120*72735#

The first time you dial the number it will ask you for a PIN - which is your security pin. Once registered deposit money into our FNB or ABSA account 24/7, while you have a float you can purchase any prepaid voucher. We are linked to a number of municipalities as well.

[Phil Cooper]

I heard of a system that has a remote control that "trips" the earth leakage.

If you have a difficult tenant all you have to do is drive past and press a remote control button and VOILA - the power is gone...

Tenant somewhat inconvenienced - eventually becomes more amenable.

[China lucy]

Hi,good news,we are a supplier of prepaid meter in china.prepaid meter is popular in Africa.this is a good way to prevent not paying the final bills.our meters like this,one meter one card.you can used a computer to control it.your customer should pay fist.if he buy 1 USD electricity.you can record in the computer with the vending machine.then he get the card to usd electricity.when the electricy is nealy to be used up.the meter will Alarm.so the customer will know he need to pay fees again.if they not pay,you can cut down the electricity by computer.any one interested in it.pls contact me

[AndyD]

I heard of a system that has a remote control that "trips" the earth leakage.

If you have a difficult tenant all you have to do is drive past and press a remote control button and VOILA - the power is gone...

Tenant somewhat inconvenienced - eventually becomes more amenable.

I've never seen this type of arrangement. It doesn't sound practical to me, the tennant would just bypass it after the first time it was used. Surely making the tennants food go vrot is just going to make matters worse, I don't see him/her being more amenable, that's for sure.

[Justloadit]

I've never seen this type of arrangement. It doesn't sound practical to me, the tennant would just bypass it after the first time it was used. Surely making the tennants food go vrot is just going to make matters worse, I don't see him/her being more amenable, that's for sure.

Hi Andy,

When it can take up to a year following the legal route to get rid of a non paying tenant, excluding the legal costs, believe me, you really do not give a rats ass about his vrot food.

[Dave A]

Gives a whole new meaning to nuisance tripping

[BlueArc]

Hi all
After reading all the posts I thought I might add my 5cents worth.
There are two types of systems available to the consumer.
1. A sub-meter
This system is for landlords who are renting out flats/offices etc. What happens here is that the landlord gets any registered electrician to install a pre-paid meter (know as a sub meter) which piggy backs off the munc. meter. The landloard registers with a vending company. Once this has been done the tennant can go to pretty much any shop that sells electricity and buy their own. At the end of the month the landlord will still get an electricity bill for the TOTAL consumed electricity BUT the vending company that he registered with will pay money into his account which they collected from the shops, banks, websites etc. They can do this because everytime the tennant buys electricity they have to enter their meter number which then goes onto the vendors data base and is logged there. Now the landlord uses this money to pay the bill.
I am yet to receive any complaints from the landlords about not getting their money from the vendors so it seems like the system is working quite well.

2. The second option is the retrofit system
This would be for a private home owner who does not want to get a monthly bill.
This is how it works...in Cape Town...atleast. The home owner contacts a registered electrician who is also is also an approved installer from the municipality. He, the electrician then applies for a retrofit and change of electricty service at the local offices this can take a while so be reading for a bit of a wait. The price for the meter in Cape Town is standard which is R1654.00. He installs the meter and activates it and thats about it. Just be aware that you will still get ONE more bill from the munic. because they had to take the last reading before the electrician installed the meter. Make sure as the home owner to only pay the electrician AFTER he has completed the whole job as there have been too many "con" tractors doing half the job and the end result is that the munic. shuts off the power indefinitely which is a VERY lengthy proccess to get back on. Basically get a proper electrician to do it!!!!
Again I have done a few of these recently and to be very honest the munic. has be pretty jacked up....I know very shocking news haha.

[DaBruce]

Here is my experiance aswell, I had a prepaid meter installed, (for free) by COJ because they could not find my meter for readings which is on the pavement in their box
Then I went and bought the recharge voucher only to find out that the meter was not registered yet on their system.
Then they also kept on charging me the estimated amount of R1500 per month when my usage was around R600 per month on the prepaid system.
They kept on doing this for 10 months, and in this time I got one reference number ontop of the other reference number.
I finally had to take the jobcard to them to prove that the meter was installed by them
And tha saga continues...