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Bobster.

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Everything posted by Bobster.

  1. "Household means others unhave to loads." How many inverters have that?
  2. I'm an owner, not a seller. Are you saying that it is possible to parallel these units, or that it's possible after a certain revision?
  3. I agree with much of what you say here. I would make a noise about the capactity charge, even though I understand that it costs CP just as much to provide me a connection as it does my post-paying neighbour. But we pay more per unit, we pay up front, and, as you say, the City's risk is low, so what the heck is that other fee about? I hope that pre-paid clients will put that question to the City during the mandatory phase of discussion with the public. For my zone that discussion will be in Claremont, where most residents will be exempt from the flat fees and couldn't give a hoot about them. But we need to get out there in our numbers, or join on line sessions, and ask those questions.
  4. Most inverters will have some sort of safety code setting. Voltage must be higher than this, lower than that. There will similarly be a range of acceptable frequencies. SA is supposed to be 230V (give or take an allowed amount) at 50Hz (give or take an allowed, small amount). If your genny is labouring then it's output is probably not within those limits and so the inverter disconnects (as it would if your grid voltage drops too low). Your installer may be right. When the inverter drops the connection, the genny will stop labouring. The inverter will still be monitoring the genny output and will reconnect after a minute or so with the voltage and frequency within limits. At which point the load on the genny goes up and it starts labouring again. When was the generator last serviced? I'm no electrician, but @TaliaB's rule of thumb looks a good one to me. You have 16kW of inverter trying to charge 35kWh of batteries (they will take 700A if they can get it). A 7.5kW generator (assuming a good power factor) seems a bit underpowerered for this task.
  5. One can do the same for water as well. Though I read my own meters and keep a log, and so I am very sure that my water meter is being read, and read accurately, every month. But it's a nice tool to have in case you get a wierd reading on your account one month.
  6. This implies that you can by pass all the other valves and wotchamacallits to extra water directly from the JoJo. Also that if left in there long enough the water will go manky. This worries me because I will lose a bet with the wife.
  7. There's an interesting difference between "low" and "high" users on prepaid. I'd love this to be about your historic average use, but I think it's more about financial status. The steps of the tariff are pushed back out for "high" users. So it's now the first 500 units in the month that are cheaper rather than 350. The "low" users get 350 cheap units per month, but then it escalates more quickly. Over 500 units per month they are paying more. So they are saying that if you're indigent then you shouldn't be using a lot, or you need to control your consumption. I'd volunteer for that low tariff, but I suspect it's means tested.
  8. NERSA rates, plus you have to be a net consumer. That means they won't pay you for more than you buy from them. On a bad day I draw 4kWh from the grid, and on a bad month I'd draw 90. So on a bad month I could sell them 89. But you have to first go onto to the TOU tariff with it's even higher fixed fees, and then there's the special meter that is required. I wouldn't even break even. I'd rather give my surplus production away, just as long as it doesn't cost me anything.
  9. How does that work? You send them a photo that includes the serial number of the meter?
  10. Earlier you mentioned a fridge that had inverter technology. If you have amongst these fridges you are backing up any without an inverter then you need to be careful about the startup current. The motor will take a lot of current to start up - momentarily. But momentarily is enough to stress and possibly trip the inverter. A good tool for measuring these sorts of things is a Kill-A-Watt. You plug it into the socket, and the appliance gets plugged into the kill-a-watt. This is a very satisfying toy in my life. And I can tell you that a fridge we replaced last year used to draw 1.3kW on start up. It's replacement - with inverter driver for the motor - never drew more than 203.9W
  11. Proposed new tariffs, including tables that show the tariff steps are available at https://joburg.org.za/documents_/Documents/2024-25 PROPOSED TARIFFS.zip That's a zip archive that contains probably more than you want, but definitely includes details of all the electricity tariffs. You are still usefully better off on pre-paid.
  12. As I understand it, and not just for Knysna, the answer is "yes". The definitions do not vary much. The one given earlier in this thread is a good example "SMALL SCALE EMBEDDED GENERATION (SSEG) SSEG refers in this instance to consumers who wish to fit a Solar generation plant (PV plant) to supplement their energy consumption by harvesting solar energy for their own use. These systems are generally Grid Tied to the municipal network allowing the consumer to draw energy (electricity kWh or Units) from the municipal network when their PV plant does not produce enough energy for their use." So, if you are connected to the grid, and have some sort of system that will supplement your grid supply, then it should be registered. Really this means when you put panels up on your roof. At that point you have a second source of power. I agree, and have agreed many times on this forum, that the tariffs don't make feed in attractive for homeowners. For businesses maybe, because businesses can write off the whole system and it's running costs. BTW when I completed the paperwork for registration in Johannesburg, I indicated that I expected to export 0 kWh per month back to the grid. That didn't prompt them to say "oh well then, we need not go any further."
  13. Figures expressed like this EG water +11.7% (that's a thumbsuck figure, I have no idea what the actual % is) are really unhelpful and I wish parties and the City would not circulate them. The best I can think of is that they aim (in this case) to make 18.84% more from their base of pre-paid clients who do not qualify as indigent. But how? They are looking at some sort of average gain from their total base of clients, but how does that effect ME? It's unlikely to be an 18.84% on everything. It may include the flat fees, it may not. It may be achieved by (as they have done before) playing with the tariff steps. When I first converted to pre-paid, the first 500 units you bought in a calendar month were the cheapest. Then a few years back the steps on the tariff were reduced (so you hit the top tariff earlier) and also shifted so that the the first 350 units in the month were now cheap. If they did just those two things and didn't change the unit price, that would have bought more money in. The same applies now. Just doing those two things (and I don't know, but I will bet that the first step gets reduced again) would bring in part of that 18.84%. So please, opposition parties, if you have seen the new tariff tables, proposed or finalised, will you please share them? We are actually smart enough to read the tables, do some simple math, and calculate how much more pain we are going to be taking.
  14. I agree with @hilt_ctn. Eskom and several municipalities are going this route to get the firmware on their pre-paid meters up to date (if not updated, the meters will stop accepting vouchers sometime in November this year). You should enter the three numbers in the seququence in which they are provided. Two will update the firmware, the third will load the actual credit on your meter.
  15. I recently had my system registered with City Power in Gauteng. The process is mostly driven by SANS, so I don't think it will vary too much across suppliers. I used Pure Energy Solutions https://www.pureenergysolutions.co.za/products-services-pure-energy-solutions/ Part of the process (certainly for COJ and COCT) is that you must supply a schematic drawing prepared by an engineer. So you are going to pay engineer's rates for that. I opted to appoint Pure Energy to act as my proxy. So I didn't have to go to offices, stand in queues etc. Pure Energy did everything once I'd signed the proxy letter and paid the agreed fee. See here for details of the process from my POV (not the engineer's). I took advantage of a deal negotiated between my installer and Pure Energy, so I can't tell you how much it is likely to cost. Note that whatever they charge you is for their inspection, the drawing and all the admin. If they find any shortcomings on your system then they don't fix anything, they just let you know what needs addressing. In my case that was warning labels on the external box that holds the municipal meter and on the main and sub DBs. They provided those and charged me for them. My process concluded with an inspection by City Power (mostly to check that the system was as described and that safety regulations were met). They required a representative from the installer to be present.
  16. And here's what I got at the end of the day (names and numbers redacted). Final Approval Redacted.pdf
  17. I don't believe this is budget yet. I saw it released not on City stationary but that of an opposition party, by a provocative councilor. It's more likely a proposal, yet to be voted on and before the mandatory process of public consultation. Anyway, I am expecting a flat monthly fee. It's been on the books for years (the party that put this document out wants us to forget that they tried it first, then backed down). I suspect that the idea is to squeeze prepaid users now that there enough of them who cannot easily convert back to a conventional tariff, and it will work out more expensive but not quite as expensive as the alternative. So you sigh and live with it. Once they put the tariff charts showing the steps then we can each do our exercise and see how better off or not we'd be on another tariff. Eskom have also been talking about a fixed fee for prepaid, on the usual grounds: it costs just as much to provide the connection. What I don't like is TWO charges. The capacity charge is for providing a connection. The service charge is for meter reading and billing. They don't have to do that with prepaid customers, so there shouldn't be a service charge. The capacity charge I grumble but I see their point. The service fee makes no sense. What is overlooked is that prepaid users pay in advance. Duh! Of course! This is good for the City's cash flow (not the first time I've made that point) so I hope that during the consultation phase, lots of folks ask that question: why are you punishing people who are good for your cash flow? In the meantime folks who contemplating the switch should hold their horses until the new, approved tariff tables are made available.
  18. Indeed. And that fee gets hiked all the time. Of course the honest people who pay their accounts just take the pain and get on with it. I'm having an interesting time working through old accounts this morning to see how we got to our current state. Back in 2013 the fixed monthly fee was 367.52 before VAT. You'd think that's already pushing it a bit. By 2016 it was 415.46. Now it's 825.38 for a 60A, single phase connection. All figures are before VAT. So it is a good question. And it's not like our electricity unit cost is notably lower.
  19. Those are called "estimated readings" in Johannesburg. I note from all by browsing through saved statements that we used to get that for water too, but not any more. Or not my meter - which is read every month. Well, I once didn't pay my municipal bill. It was completely my error, and the next month when I got a notice to say that I was in arrears I must have said "system error, and they will correct it", or, more likely, "idiots" and for two more months I paid just the current month's consumption, rates etc. Then the empire struck back. Their first blow was to choke my water supply. The City cannot disconnect you completely, but they can make sure that you don't have a shower and it will take hours to fill a bath. At this point I dug out all my statements and receipts to take as evidence and noticed that, in fact, I hadn't paid the month in question. I went up to the municipal offices, confessed my error, paid the outstanding amount and the penalties, and the next day they restored the water supply to normal. The reason I explain all that is that there is a process they have to go through to give you a chance to recover from a simple error (my case) or some sort of financial disaster. But there should be a limit to this. I know that City Power are always out on a "disconnection drive" in some part of the City. And they don't play. They have cut off whole shopping malls. They have cut off Telkom sites. But there seems to be a recurring sequence of events. 1) City Power sends pre-disconnection notice (they are bound to do this by law) 2) Owner does nothing 3) City Power turn up to disconnect. 4) Owner says "we can work something out", signs an admission of debt, promises to pay off the arrears at so much per month as well as pay for the current usage every month. 5) Owner does no such thing. 6) Go back to (1) So they do this dance a few times and then City Power decides to stop asking nicely. Even when they disconnect there is a sequence that they must go through. First they break the seal on the meter, turn it off and reseal. You can imagine the usual response to this. Then a few months later they remove the meter. Again you can imagine the response. Then another few months later they remove the cable between the substation and the property. So they are cutting off, but they have to respect the laws as well. The law always takes time. I do wonder though how the amounts get so high. Sometimes it is millions in debt that they are talking about. But I suppose if you can afford lawyers you can slow things down. And sometimes poverty is no excuse. When Herman Mashaba was mayor of Johannesburg he wrote an open letter to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of SA, telling them that they were not training people properly. To back this up he pointed out that there were a number of JSE listed companies with head offices in Sandton, who published audited statements each year, but the auditors had not noticed that the City of Johannesburg was not being paid. I don't know if this brought forth embarrassment and repentance and a settling of accounts, but it caused a stir at the time.
  20. If I look at my bill, some of it is billed upfront. Rates are billed up front for EG. Everything that is a fixed charge is billed up front. But anything where usage varies and has to be metered is billed in arrears. Unless people are on pre-paid and buy a certain amount of credit and manage that, it can't be any other way.
  21. Apologies. I've just been working through my browser history for Thursday, and I went off half-cocked and didn't read a document properly. That fee I refer to is indeed a "network access charge" for water provision. This doesn't reduce the amount by which COJ residents are getting spanked. I am paying R600 a month for a sewer connection. This is fixed. It is calculated according to stand size, not to the amount of water that is consumed. OK... so I had to check my historic accounts to be sure of this. Electricity seems to get their data in more quickly than water (which still relies on people visiting every house and reading a meter). But as far as I can tell, March's electricity will be included in the bill that one would pay end April. So this is my point: We pay for electricity 30 (end March) to 60 (beginning March) days after use. Pre-paid users are paying before use. So pre-paid users deserve consideration because they improve the City's cash flow (and because nobody needs to read their meters, correct for estimated billings etc).
  22. Hmmm.... that inverter will try to service a demand of 8kW. The battery can only handle 5kW. Not a good mismatch to have, but if all the big loads are eliminated from the backed up loads on the DB then we can just call it "room for expansion". But try to figure out what loads you have running when. I have 10kWh of battery and usually have just over 50% left in the early morning. Which means that on 5kWh I'd be very close to running the battery down. If the grid were up the system would start drawing from grid to protect the battery, but if the grid is down I might flatten the battery. The battery may not be the problem.
  23. So the journey is completed. And the engineer who represented me works on public holidays. I received the letter today. It tells me "Your installation has been approved based on your compliance to regulatory standards and Municipality Electricity supply By-Laws, as stipulated in your completed application form." It ties my inverter to a specific meter and a specific stand. It tells me that "City Power appreciates your efforts on ‘Going Green’ and being energy wise." It's a form letter. It has some wording about being switched to a TOU tariff, but it's ambiguous and the way I read it, it only applies to post-paid accounts. I've asked for clarification. We'll soon see, because they will need to reprogram my meter if it's not to be used for pre-paid.
  24. I don't! That's part of why I switched. COJ has very high "admin" fees on electricity accounts. In Johannesburg it's the reason you make the change. You pay more per unit, but this is more than offset by not having the service charges. But there's a little part of me that can see that there is still a cost of providing a reliable connection to my house. This is partly offset (In Johannesburg) by the higher unit fee. And, as I always say, pre-paid users are paying in advance instead of (by the time you make the payment) 60 to 90 days. Any sensible business would give you a consideration for that. Well they're going down the same route, I think. Because there is no apparent rhyme or reason behind cell tariffs. Last time my contract with Vodacom ran down I told them I wanted to close my account. My intention was to move to Telkom, who are cheaper and will port your old number onto their network. Then I got a call from Vodacom's retentions department. They offered me a spectacularly good deal rather than lose my business. It was very hard to say no, but I did ask why the heck I've been paying so much all these years when they could have offered me this deal years ago. Other Vodacom users on this forum please note: You may be subsidising me. I'm not a shill for City Power, but there is a key difference between the two situations you are comparing: City Power have to maintain a physical connection to my home. So although I fight that fixed charge, and although it will hurt my wallet, I can still see a bit of a point to this. I do think that COJ's fixed fees for post-paid accounts (the default tariff) are daylight robbery. No other metro has such high fees. I just checked the Tshwane tariffs. R154.80 network charge. Add VAT and you're at R178 and some change. Ekuruleni charges R62.95 (VAT exclusive) a month for post-paid users. Joburg is nearly a grand now. How come it costs COJ so much more to provide a connection and get a meter read? The answer, of course, is that it doesn't. We're just being put over a barrel and spanked. And, of course, there should be an implied contract between the City and residents. We pay rates and we pay for services, and they, in turn, give us good services, good roads, street lights etc. That pact is well and truly broken where I live. Street lights have been out for years. Water bursts are nearly daily, certainly more than one a week. This leads to roads being dug up but never resurfaced. And when they fix one burst by removing a length of rusty old pipe, the consequence is usually that 20 meters further along another bit of rusty old pipe bursts. There's no maintenance being done. If the CIty are bringing their side, then folks will grumble a bit about increases, but won't get too irate. When everything is breaking down all around us then the increases breed resentment. In COJ it depends why the meter is replaced. Mine recently was. Because it failed. There was no charge for the replacement. Provision for this should be built into the tariffs - you know some are going to fail each year. If you decide that you want to go pre-paid and a meter replacement or reconfiguration is required, then you have to bear the cost of that. But that's not something that happened to you, it's something you decided you wanted done. This seems fair enough.
  25. Well there's a big hole in the City's finances. One driver of this is poor collection on municipal accounts. City Power have been very active in going after serial defaulters and also illegal disconnections. But the latter are difficult: City Power come out with JPMD for protection. Disconnect. Take the cable away. Usually the connections are back within a day. But looking back through the years, the City has slowly and consistently been reducing the benefit of being on pre-paid, probably because it's hurting their revenues - somebody gets the exact same service from the City but pays less! How's that a good thing from their POV? BUT on the consumer's side, they are paying in advance. That's worth something to the City because it's good for their cash flow. My neighbour on the one side is on the default post-paid tariff. He is paying for electricity 30 to 60 days after he uses it. My neighbour on the other side is on pre-paid. He is paying for electricity BEFORE he uses it. The second neighbour should be getting something from the City because they don't have any expense of running his account, making sure his payments are up to date etc and more so because he is paying them cash in advance.
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