Hi All

My installer appears to be ghosting me, he is not answering phonecalls or whatsapps.

My setup was installed 120 days ago and is working well, it just has not been registered or certified.  I am not sure what needs to happen.  Can anyone recommend someone that can assist me with this last part.

30 minutes ago, KeithP said:

Hi All

My installer appears to be ghosting me, he is not answering phonecalls or whatsapps.

My setup was installed 120 days ago and is working well, it just has not been registered or certified.  I am not sure what needs to happen.  Can anyone recommend someone that can assist me with this last part.

Why do you need/want to 'register' your installation?

1 hour ago, KeithP said:

Hi All

My installer appears to be ghosting me, he is not answering phonecalls or whatsapps.

My setup was installed 120 days ago and is working well, it just has not been registered or certified.  I am not sure what needs to happen.  Can anyone recommend someone that can assist me with this last part.

Most municipalities are useless at this, unless you live in City Of Cape town then getting a sign off is doable i have been told.

I thought registering was required.  I am in Cape Town.

Just now, KeithP said:

I thought registering was required.  I am in Cape Town.

I believe COCT requires it. If you're in Cape Town and on Eksom, I believe it's also required. But apparently COCT are flying drones over the areas they service to identify installs and then come knocking at your door. Not sure if Eskom are flying drones - hoping not.

16 hours ago, KeithP said:

Hi All

My installer appears to be ghosting me, he is not answering phonecalls or whatsapps.

My setup was installed 120 days ago and is working well, it just has not been registered or certified.  I am not sure what needs to happen.  Can anyone recommend someone that can assist me with this last part.

You also need to get the COC updated and then give a copy to your insurer. Otherwise if the worse comes to the worse, Mr Loss Adjuster will come along, find all this wiring that's not mentioned on the COC they have (or the last COC issued) and then you have not described the property accurately and then their obligation to you vanishes.

44 minutes ago, JoeyhZA said:

I believe COCT requires it. If you're in Cape Town and on Eksom, I believe it's also required. But apparently COCT are flying drones over the areas they service to identify installs and then come knocking at your door. Not sure if Eskom are flying drones - hoping not.

Shoot the drones down, this is and invasion of privacy.🤔

@KeithP, I am in Cape Town and can assist with advice on what to do, are you being supplied by CoCT or Eskom ?

I am supplied by Eskom

49 minutes ago, TimCam said:

Shoot the drones down, this is and invasion of privacy.🤔

I just had a look at that. Before the rinderpest, owners of a property owned all the air above it and all the ground beneath it (they could sell or lease those rights, but the rights were theirs to lease or sell). But all over the world that made commercial air travel a difficult proposition, so laws have been changed or, if you prefer, rights have been eroded.

One revision was made in 2018 specifically to deal with drones. Drones, with permission from the relevant authority, may overfly your property at a "reasonable" altitude. We don't know what "reasonable" is, but there is another law that basically says that 50m is trespassing (theoretically this may make it impossible for your neighbour to fly his drone in his property as he has to keep it 50 m away from your property). Presumably you can permit the drone operator to operate within that 50m limit, but again this is your gift.

Checking for solar panels can be done at a greater height than 50m. You can see mine on Google Maps, and they didn't have a drone snooping around my property with me trying to bring the varmint down with the pool net. 

Current laws also rule out shooting down a drone (a net may still be an option) or anything else. If you discharge a firearm in a residential area that is an immediate offence. Obviously if you have a good reason then you will escape a penalty. If you shoot some guy coming at you with a chain saw then you'll be OK, if you shoot into the sky because you're vrot and you want to show your new toy to your buddies then you will be in trouble. Shooting down a drown (even within the 50 meter limit) is a no-no.

That all said, we should be concerned about encroachment of our privacy by municipalities. Though read your property deeds carefully and note how many organisations have servitude rights*. Note how often the word "reasonable" crops up.

Personally I'm in favour of a reasonable (haha) amount of this. None of us live on an island. ADSL got a very bad rep in my neighbourhood, but the problem was that some people had very overgrown gardens and trees that were fouling Telkom's cables. The cables are Telkoms, they have servitude rights, but the owner says "my property, I say who can come in and who can't." Telkom's offer in my area was that they would visit properties known to be problems or even just carry out an inspection if you wanted one - at their cost, at a mutually agreed time, with minimal trimming of branches that were actually fouling lines (not felling of trees). One of my neighbours said "no" and called the police and ADT. The result was that the rest of the street had slow, unreliable ADSL connections, because of one unreasonable person. City Power in Johannesburg have had trouble with trees planted on private properties but which then are not kept in check and foul power lines. They come to lop of the branch and next thing you know some property owner is threatening them with his dogs, his lawyer and the Constitution. So whilst I think that we need to be wary of the state/city's inclination to take liberties, we need to see the big picture as well.

* a while back I wanted to improve the storm water drainage in my driveway. If I did it by the book  I had to get permission from nine separate organisations, all of whom may have had cables or pipes across my driveway or some other reason for having servitude. All an oke wants to do is dig a trench across his driveway to divert rain water, but it's not that simple. I notice that other people in my area have not done things by the book and made simple concrete structures which just divert the rain water onto their neighbour's drive way. That doesn't seem like a better scenario to me.

A reccomended course of action is to not shoot, not to resort to the courts, but to file a complain with the Civil Aviation Authority. Apparently they have real teeth and in the last couple of years have hit several indiscrete drone operators with 50 grand fines.

@KeithP, my experience is with CoCT, but you are welcome to message me and I shall do the best I can to assist.

8 hours ago, Bobster said:

I just had a look at that. Before the rinderpest, owners of a property owned all the air above it and all the ground beneath it (they could sell or lease those rights, but the rights were theirs to lease or sell). But all over the world that made commercial air travel a difficult proposition, so laws have been changed or, if you prefer, rights have been eroded.

One revision was made in 2018 specifically to deal with drones. Drones, with permission from the relevant authority, may overfly your property at a "reasonable" altitude. We don't know what "reasonable" is, but there is another law that basically says that 50m is trespassing (theoretically this may make it impossible for your neighbour to fly his drone in his property as he has to keep it 50 m away from your property). Presumably you can permit the drone operator to operate within that 50m limit, but again this is your gift.

Checking for solar panels can be done at a greater height than 50m. You can see mine on Google Maps, and they didn't have a drone snooping around my property with me trying to bring the varmint down with the pool net. 

Current laws also rule out shooting down a drone (a net may still be an option) or anything else. If you discharge a firearm in a residential area that is an immediate offence. Obviously if you have a good reason then you will escape a penalty. If you shoot some guy coming at you with a chain saw then you'll be OK, if you shoot into the sky because you're vrot and you want to show your new toy to your buddies then you will be in trouble. Shooting down a drown (even within the 50 meter limit) is a no-no.

That all said, we should be concerned about encroachment of our privacy by municipalities. Though read your property deeds carefully and note how many organisations have servitude rights*. Note how often the word "reasonable" crops up.

Personally I'm in favour of a reasonable (haha) amount of this. None of us live on an island. ADSL got a very bad rep in my neighbourhood, but the problem was that some people had very overgrown gardens and trees that were fouling Telkom's cables. The cables are Telkoms, they have servitude rights, but the owner says "my property, I say who can come in and who can't." Telkom's offer in my area was that they would visit properties known to be problems or even just carry out an inspection if you wanted one - at their cost, at a mutually agreed time, with minimal trimming of branches that were actually fouling lines (not felling of trees). One of my neighbours said "no" and called the police and ADT. The result was that the rest of the street had slow, unreliable ADSL connections, because of one unreasonable person. City Power in Johannesburg have had trouble with trees planted on private properties but which then are not kept in check and foul power lines. They come to lop of the branch and next thing you know some property owner is threatening them with his dogs, his lawyer and the Constitution. So whilst I think that we need to be wary of the state/city's inclination to take liberties, we need to see the big picture as well.

* a while back I wanted to improve the storm water drainage in my driveway. If I did it by the book  I had to get permission from nine separate organisations, all of whom may have had cables or pipes across my driveway or some other reason for having servitude. All an oke wants to do is dig a trench across his driveway to divert rain water, but it's not that simple. I notice that other people in my area have not done things by the book and made simple concrete structures which just divert the rain water onto their neighbour's drive way. That doesn't seem like a better scenario to me.

Lovely long post, I understand what your saying. I'm just sick and tired of the "authorities" always misusing their powers to "our" detriment. They are supposed to our public servants, but by their arrogance and abuse of power, you wouldn't think so. They should run lean, non profitable organizations, but we are burdened with bloated inefficient Municipalities and organizations all the way up to parliament. Most authoritarian laws are NOT there for our benefit, but for theirs.

On a side note, maybe a slingshot is acceptable to bring a drone down.😆

Dont worry if your unregistered installation kills some poor Eskom dude working on the lines down the road.

There is a reason for registering; and usually done before the installation and usually before final commissioning - just saying.

29 minutes ago, Pumba said:

Dont worry if your unregistered installation kills some poor Eskom dude working on the lines down the road.

There is a reason for registering; and usually done before the installation and usually before final commissioning - just saying.

That argument is irrelevant for majority of the use cases in this country. Isolated installs for backup purposes with zero export in to the grid, actually with zero export capability at all, really shouldn't warrant arbitrary folks knocking on your door to make more money from taxpayers trying to save a dime and only compensating for already present inadequacy in government.

On 2021/09/23 at 7:12 PM, TimCam said:

Lovely long post, I understand what your saying. I'm just sick and tired of the "authorities" always misusing their powers to "our" detriment. They are supposed to our public servants, but by their arrogance and abuse of power, you wouldn't think so. They should run lean, non profitable organizations, but we are burdened with bloated inefficient Municipalities and organizations all the way up to parliament. Most authoritarian laws are NOT there for our benefit, but for theirs.

On a side note, maybe a slingshot is acceptable to bring a drone down.😆

Power suppliers (Eskom or municipalities) have a legitimate interest in what is connected to the grid, so in principle I don't mind them have mechanisms in place to find out who has something connected to the grid and whether or not it's properly connected. I know of people who have built their own solar systems. It's easy and cheap! That's what the tell you. It might be dangerous to them - which is one thing - but it might also be dangerous to a sparkie who believes the juice to be off. Same as people with generators. Sure they should be allowed to run a genny, but they shouldn't be allowed to connect it to their house any old how they please. There has to be some regulations (for the safety of the grid and of people) and some enforcement of those regulations.

But that's what it should be about: good operation of the infrastructure and protecting the public. 

2 hours ago, Bobster said:

Power suppliers (Eskom or municipalities) have a legitimate interest in what is connected to the grid, so in principle I don't mind them have mechanisms in place to find out who has something connected to the grid and whether or not it's properly connected. I know of people who have built their own solar systems. It's easy and cheap! That's what the tell you. It might be dangerous to them - which is one thing - but it might also be dangerous to a sparkie who believes the juice to be off. Same as people with generators. Sure they should be allowed to run a genny, but they shouldn't be allowed to connect it to their house any old how they please. There has to be some regulations (for the safety of the grid and of people) and some enforcement of those regulations.

But that's what it should be about: good operation of the infrastructure and protecting the public. 

In principle, this is the rite way of doing things. In reality, with all the red tape, corruption and general bad service that goes with everything municipal related. I do not see how anyone will want to register their system. why make life difficult for yourself by having to go the municipal office, fill up forms, cue the whole day, pay and then be told you need to get a engineer to certify your installation like that is free. this is just an example, not saying that is how it is done but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm spot on 

19 hours ago, hoohloc said:

In principle, this is the rite way of doing things. In reality, with all the red tape, corruption and general bad service that goes with everything municipal related. I do not see how anyone will want to register their system. why make life difficult for yourself by having to go the municipal office, fill up forms, cue the whole day, pay and then be told you need to get a engineer to certify your installation like that is free. this is just an example, not saying that is how it is done but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm spot on 

There is that, but that doesn't cancel out the municipality's or eskom's interest in what is being connected to the grid. Their interest is legitimate and so their inspections are justified. What we should want is the rigour, with the necessary paperwork, but with clean finances. Which is what we up here on the highveld are told happens in Cape Town, but I hear lots of complaints from that part of the world about the municipality overstepping the mark.

There's a middle ground somewhere.