Concrete

Hi @Kilowatt Power thanks for your post, I will contact you mid month when I’m back from holiday.

@system32 Thank you very much for the useful tips, the warning about scams and the picture to show the plug on the feed side, much appreciated. And thanks again to everyone else for your contributions.

Eish, I wonder how many people with solar PV systems and prepaid meters have had the same experience as you and how many will have this audit going forward. In your case I guess that you have to weigh up the additional fixed charges, in excess of the current R887 p.m. as I understand, with the cost of taking your system completely off grid. I will have to monitor these developments, thanks for the warning.

@CliveSA Excellent points regarding understanding my use and reducing my use before sizing a solar system thank you, I only vaguely knew about these type of monitors and didn't know that they could be installed so easily. I see that the Efergy Engage Hub Kit is often sold second hand for around R1000 in the Classifieds section of the forum after a solar install, when the inverter would take over the monitoring after the install. Making a power monitoring device as you described is probably beyond me at this stage but I will revisit your post when I know more. For now the suggestion of the Efergy sounds like exactly what I need for now in order to better understand my use and to reduce it, thank you.

@Bobster. Thanks, I will plan for the impact that you described on my cashflow and will also plan for the extra costs that will be incurred. I did a 12 month simulation based on my historical consumption based on the 2022/23 tarifs for prepaid and post-paid. Prepaid beats post-paid by a margin of R7,100 per year without factoring in the usual increases that will come in July 2023, so it looks like as was the case with your conversion, I will also pay off the costs of the conversion in a few months. I wish that I had done this earlier. The next step will be to implement some power saving strategies to get the usage down from the current 1200kWh per month and to install a solar system with a battery that will get the usage down by 850kWh per month to a level of 350kWh per month, the cheapest tier on prepaid which is currently R2.10 per kWh.

@Bobster. Thanks for your comments and advice, I appreciate it. If someone else on the forum knows how this workaround is set up to be able to load prepaid credit easily when you ran out of prepaid units, it would be useful to know. Even with careful monitoring, it is bound to happen at some stage.

@AlexTZAThank you very much for your reply. This is exactly the info that I need to get the project going, I will PM you. Regarding your comment about the power line communication meters and with my limited understanding at this stage, this sounds like the best option to me at this stage: "...or you need to have a non-essential/grid-connected plug for the meter that is electrically compliantly wired permanently into Eskom..." I have done nothing yet on splitting my DB board in anticipation of a solar installation, going to prepaid will be my very first step on this journey.

Hello everyone, I'm intending to install a solar PV system at my property, I started educating myself reading through the forum and learning about volts and amps. It is really a fantastic way to learn and I have already learnt a lot thanks to all the experts and those that recently went through the whole process. I intend asking a lot of dumb questions as I go along in planning my system. My first question is around prepaid seeing as it seems to offer the highest return on investment. I currently pay R886.98 per month in fixed service & network charges for single phase with an 80A breaker. My monthly use of electricity is around 1200 kWh per month. My current use since June op to October when the latest CoJ tarifs kicked in, works out to R2.95 per kWh and I worked out that had I been on prepaid, based on the CoJ published rates, that I would have paid R2.52 per kWh and that I would have saved R2,650 in the last 5 months that could have gone towards paying for equipment. My questions are: 1. Does CoJ allow you to switch to prepaid when you already have a system with panels on the roof that they will see when they come to do an inspection? 2. I based my calculation on the rates below +15% VAT = R2.10 for the first 350 kWh then R2.41 for the next 150 kWh and then R 2.74 above 500 kWh. My question is, is this what you end up paying when you switch to prepaid or do you have to buy electricity through an intermediary ending up more expensive? 3. Is it possible to top up prepaid electricity remotely when you are not at the property or do you physically need to punch in a code on your prepaid meter? 4. Is it possible to see how much prepaid electricity you have left remotely? 5. Can one kickstart the process to switch by email or do you need to physically apply for the switch at their offices. 6. Is the 80 Amp breaker an issue to switch to prepaid? Those who have been through this process with CoJ, please assist me with my questions to understand this process better.