Good day,

I recently installed a solar system at my home and the only thing I regret is not doing it sooner! I've been monitoring it for a couple of months and realised that my batteries are slightly too small for my nightly use. I end up buying a small amount of electricity every morning. The thing is that I have excess energy in the afternoons that I want to push back into the grid to compensate for the electricity I have to buy.

However, I've heard that some electricty meters 'trip' when you feed electricty back into the grid and can only be reset by goverment technicians. I'm very tempted to see if my meter will trip but I also don't want to go through the trouble of getting a technician to reset my meter. My question: Does anybody know if the Landis+Gyr Type 5235A electricity meter (photo attached) allows for reverse/export energy, i.e., is it bi-directional? The meter is situated next to the road outside my property and is not prepaid.

I live in Pretoria (City of Tshwane) and am not sure what the regulations for export electricity are. Can I just start feeding electricity back into the grid or do I need to get approval first?

Not sure if this is relevant, but here are my system details:

• 12 x 455W JA Mono Solar Panels
• 8kW  Sunsynk Inverter
• 2 x Freedom Won 5kW eTower Batteries

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

2 hours ago, Peer said:

Good day,

I recently installed a solar system at my home and the only thing I regret is not doing it sooner! I've been monitoring it for a couple of months and realised that my batteries are slightly too small for my nightly use. I end up buying a small amount of electricity every morning. The thing is that I have excess energy in the afternoons that I want to push back into the grid to compensate for the electricity I have to buy.

However, I've heard that some electricty meters 'trip' when you feed electricty back into the grid and can only be reset by goverment technicians. I'm very tempted to see if my meter will trip but I also don't want to go through the trouble of getting a technician to reset my meter. My question: Does anybody know if the Landis+Gyr Type 5235A electricity meter (photo attached) allows for reverse/export energy, i.e., is it bi-directional? The meter is situated next to the road outside my property and is not prepaid.

I live in Pretoria (City of Tshwane) and am not sure what the regulations for export electricity are. Can I just start feeding electricity back into the grid or do I need to get approval first?

Not sure if this is relevant, but here are my system details:

• 12 x 455W JA Mono Solar Panels
• 8kW  Sunsynk Inverter
• 2 x Freedom Won 5kW eTower Batteries

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

 

L-and-G-5235-User-ManualBrochure-info.pdf

On 2022/06/10 at 3:45 PM, Leshen said:

 

L-and-G-5235-User-ManualBrochure-info.pdf 456.38 kB · 6 downloads

Thanks for sharing. I found something similar online, but it doesn't completely answer my question. Apparently there are three factory settings when it comes to export energy:

1. Forward and reverse energy stored in different registers (won't trip, but not ideal)
2. Warning message for reverse direction that will effectively 'trip' the meter (used to pick up fraud).
3. Unidirectional register

Unfortunately, I don't know what setting is active on my meter and I don't know how to find out (there are no 'r' or 't' characters on my display, as shown in the manual). Option 3 is what I want but I'm scared it might be Option 1 or, even worse, Option 2.

1 hour ago, Peer said:

Thanks for sharing. I found something similar online, but it doesn't completely answer my question. Apparently there are three factory settings when it comes to export energy:

1. Forward and reverse energy stored in different registers (won't trip, but not ideal)
2. Warning message for reverse direction that will effectively 'trip' the meter (used to pick up fraud).
3. Unidirectional register

Unfortunately, I don't know what setting is active on my meter and I don't know how to find out (there are no 'r' or 't' characters on my display, as shown in the manual). Option 3 is what I want but I'm scared it might be Option 1 or, even worse, Option 2.

Option 3 means you pay to export as if it was import.

There is no meter that can be configured for net metering that will be configured that way by default (in SA). They all either go into tamper or count up in both directions. The only meters that can net meter (in SA) is the spinning wheels without ratchets, but doing so is illegal. You might as well bypass it.

Edited June 13, 20224 yr by P1000

Be careful of exporting power back to the grid as most prepaid meters will count the export units as units used by the house, so you will be billed for the kwh that you export

On 2022/06/13 at 3:59 PM, P1000 said:

Option 3 means you pay to export as if it was import.

There is no meter that can be configured for net metering that will be configured that way by default (in SA). They all either go into tamper or count up in both directions. The only meters that can net meter (in SA) is the spinning wheels without ratchets, but doing so is illegal. You might as well bypass it.

Thanks for the information, much apprecieted. Bit of a bummer though...

We manufacture Pre-Paid Bi-Directional Electricity Meters that operate via IOT Sigfox LPWA system. These meters are SABS, ICASA, approved and are manufactured in SA. Plus are half the cost of the current STS split system supplied by the Municipalities in SA. They have built into the software of the meter to be able deduct, rent, levies, sewerage etc. The meter has an App on your phone which contains a wallet and your meter. You pay funds into your wallet via your Bank and then from your wallet you can transfer funds into your meter to recharge your meters. You can also transfer funds from your wallet back into your Bank account should need be. The meters gives you hourly consumption rates and send messages should there be an issue with the meter or you low on power. In other words, you are in control of your meter by means of seeing on the App what you are consuming hourly.

Hi Michael, who can I contact to get a quote on this bi-directional meter?

On 2022/06/10 at 1:38 PM, Peer said:

Good day,

I recently installed a solar system at my home and the only thing I regret is not doing it sooner! I've been monitoring it for a couple of months and realised that my batteries are slightly too small for my nightly use. I end up buying a small amount of electricity every morning. The thing is that I have excess energy in the afternoons that I want to push back into the grid to compensate for the electricity I have to buy.

However, I've heard that some electricty meters 'trip' when you feed electricty back into the grid and can only be reset by goverment technicians. I'm very tempted to see if my meter will trip but I also don't want to go through the trouble of getting a technician to reset my meter. My question: Does anybody know if the Landis+Gyr Type 5235A electricity meter (photo attached) allows for reverse/export energy, i.e., is it bi-directional? The meter is situated next to the road outside my property and is not prepaid.

I live in Pretoria (City of Tshwane) and am not sure what the regulations for export electricity are. Can I just start feeding electricity back into the grid or do I need to get approval first?

Not sure if this is relevant, but here are my system details:

• 12 x 455W JA Mono Solar Panels
• 8kW  Sunsynk Inverter
• 2 x Freedom Won 5kW eTower Batteries

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Ultimately it all boils down to how Tshwane detailed the specification to the manufacturer. In the City of Cape Town, all supplied prepayment meters are specified to be configured 'bi-directional, always positive' which means that whichever way the energy flows, it will be seen as a positive load by the meter and will decrement credit.

Are you not just better off getting another battery to absorb the extra pv and discharge at night to off set it? 

On 2024/03/04 at 9:25 AM, Jacques44 said:

Hi Michael, who can I contact to get a quote on this bi-directional meter?

Hi, did you come right? I am also looking for one.