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Unable to credit Eskom Meter unless I turn off my 5kva x2 inverter any work around or permanent solution


Newbie

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Hi All,

I have a situation whereby every time I want to load credit into my Eskom (utility meter ). The Meter doesn't communicate with the remote end until I completely cut off/ turn off my inverter before the meter is able to communicate with the remote device. Am currently running grid tie setup. I will appreciate if anyone has experienced it before with possible solution instead of my work around/ temp solution.

Many Thanks in Advance,

Newbie :)

 

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36 minutes ago, Newbie said:

I have a situation whereby every time I want to load credit into my Eskom (utility meter )

It's a Landis meter that uses power line communications between the keypad and the actual unit, right?

The good news is that you are not alone. Even people without inverters have trouble with these. Some people can only load credit if they switch off everything in the house. Usually the solution is to install a dedicated plug for the keypad, nothing on it, as close to the DB as possible, and hope for the best.

In your case, I suspect the solution is to buy in larger chunks (to lower the frequency) and then switch the inverters off or at least disconnect them when you load the credit. Ideally, if you could in software tell them to go into passthru that would have been better, but I don't know if you can do that.

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1 hour ago, Newbie said:

Hi All,

I have a situation whereby every time I want to load credit into my Eskom (utility meter ). The Meter doesn't communicate with the remote end until I completely cut off/ turn off my inverter before the meter is able to communicate with the remote device. Am currently running grid tie setup. I will appreciate if anyone has experienced it before with possible solution instead of my work around/ temp solution.

Many Thanks in Advance,

Newbie :)

 

I don't have the same meter, but what I found is that mine does not work on all the plug circuits anymore like before I had my inverter.
Maybe you can try different plug circuits.

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@Newbie The one thing that I have seen with power line / prepaid ( as @plonkster noted) is that TV's and them dont mix well on the same line also the signal goes quite bad once it has gone through the earth leakage. I ended up having a dedicated plug right after the main bracer. Technically not correct but it works well.   

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Grid-tied inverters sometimes inject a tiny bit of noise/disturbance deliberately to see if if is absorbed. Many Switch Mode PSUs also has a tendency to create some noise and it seems to be exactly those devices that causes problems with PLC. If these things aren't resistant to SMPSes, they won't be to grid-tied inverters.

See for example this ABB in action:

 

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