Please may anyone be able to help me. I have just had a Sunsynk inverter installed, and now my prepaid meter is not displaying the correct kWh. For instance, the meter was stuck on 80kWh for a week, and I checked the inverter battery, which had gone from 99% the previous night to 36% the morning I checked it. The inverter also displayed that it was not pulling Eskom power, it turns out that my prepaid electricity had run down to 0kWh without me knowing, and I had to load more credits to the meter in order to charge up the batteries again. The problem is that the prepaid meter isn't displaying that the kWh are depleting therefore this will continue to happen.

Is there anyway to rectify this?

TIA

2 minutes ago, Jonathan85 said:

Please may anyone be able to help me. I have just had a Sunsynk inverter installed, and now my prepaid meter is not displaying the correct kWh. For instance, the meter was stuck on 80kWh for a week, and I checked the inverter battery, which had gone from 99% the previous night to 36% the morning I checked it. The inverter also displayed that it was not pulling Eskom power, it turns out that my prepaid electricity had run down to 0kWh without me knowing, and I had to load more credits to the meter in order to charge up the batteries again. The problem is that the prepaid meter isn't displaying that the kWh are depleting therefore this will continue to happen.

Is there anyway to rectify this?

TIA

Do you have a separate plug for your prepaid meter, ie from mains (before your inverter)?

The problem is that the Inverter interferes with communications between the keypad in your house and the pre-paid meter which is usually in the Eskom box on the street. 

Moving the keypad to a plug closer to your db board seems to work for most people and the keypad can speak to the meter in the street.

Otherwise you can get a plug installed on the Eskom side of your inverter, it will not however have earth leakage as it will be connected before your DB board and you should add a separate earth leakage for it. 

2 hours ago, Jonathan85 said:

Please may anyone be able to help me. I have just had a Sunsynk inverter installed, and now my prepaid meter is not displaying the correct kWh. For instance, the meter was stuck on 80kWh for a week, and I checked the inverter battery, which had gone from 99% the previous night to 36% the morning I checked it. The inverter also displayed that it was not pulling Eskom power, it turns out that my prepaid electricity had run down to 0kWh without me knowing, and I had to load more credits to the meter in order to charge up the batteries again. The problem is that the prepaid meter isn't displaying that the kWh are depleting therefore this will continue to happen.

Is there anyway to rectify this?

TIA

I have been called out on various occasions due to problems on pre- paid meters. Had quite a few Conlog meters not resetting after LS. Inverters, fluorescent lights and Dstv signals interfere with the signal from your keypad unit to the switching unit in your kiosk on the pavement. Like @Sc00bsmentioned you need to have a protected socket outlet before your inverter input as the dc signal is causing interference. Using a socket outlet closer to your db could work. You could also try the following reset codes:

On Conlog meters, type in the following code: 5649 3153 7254 5031 3471
For ALL other meter types, type in the  code: 0000 0000 0001 5099 7584. 

The meter should reset after a few seconds. 

Should the meter be of the type with a battery powered remote unit, the meter can still be 1.Tripped/ 2.Reset using the above codes, but it will not
switch on automatically after a few seconds. The code needs to be punched in a second time to switch the meter on again.
Make sure the batteries in the remote unit are good otherwise it won't reset.

46 minutes ago, TaliaB said:

Like @Sc00bsmentioned you need to have a protected socket outlet before your inverter input as the dc signal is causing interference.

Can this just be on the side of the DB that is not backed up? Or must it be between the main breaker and the clamp?

44 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

Can this just be on the side of the DB that is not backed up? Or must it be between the main breaker and the clamp?

As long as it is before the input to the inverter after the main isolator. 

1 hour ago, Bobster. said:

Can this just be on the side of the DB that is not backed up? Or must it be between the main breaker and the clamp?

Before getting an electrician to wire up a new earth leakage protected plug on the Eskom side of the inverter (probably at least R1k) I am suggesting that you try other plugs in your house closer to the inverter. I moved mine from my bedroom to  a plug in the garage next to my DB board and have not had any hassles since.  I have suggested this to a number of other people and it seems to solves the problem more often than not so is worth a try as it won't cost you anything. 

 

I had the same problem (Deye installed and could not load electricity). I solved my problem by switching off the inverter (from the switch Inverter/Eskom, not main DB) and switched off my house wifi. I have done this twice and it worked both times. I know it is not as ideal as having a dedicated plug or trying Sc00bs' procedure but it is another way of circumventing the problem.

Edited July 9, 20233 yr by FDF70AU

Have had the same problem for months
Plug for the CIU is on the non-essential side.
Tried just cutting mains to the inverter (switch) while checking and loading units. Seems to have worked magnificently.

On 2023/06/29 at 1:41 PM, TaliaB said:

I have been called out on various occasions due to problems on pre- paid meters. Had quite a few Conlog meters not resetting after LS. Inverters, fluorescent lights and Dstv signals interfere with the signal from your keypad unit to the switching unit in your kiosk on the pavement. Like @Sc00bsmentioned you need to have a protected socket outlet before your inverter input as the dc signal is causing interference. Using a socket outlet closer to your db could work. You could also try the following reset codes:

On Conlog meters, type in the following code: 5649 3153 7254 5031 3471
For ALL other meter types, type in the  code: 0000 0000 0001 5099 7584. 

The meter should reset after a few seconds. 

Should the meter be of the type with a battery powered remote unit, the meter can still be 1.Tripped/ 2.Reset using the above codes, but it will not
switch on automatically after a few seconds. The code needs to be punched in a second time to switch the meter on again.
Make sure the batteries in the remote unit are good otherwise it won't reset.

Good day,

I have a conlog prepaid meter and have noticed that the meter does not display anything below 120w. So, if I have anything connected and its only drawing less than 120w, say 40w, it shows 120w. When I go above 120w, it shows correctly. Can these meters only register 120w w even if the load is less? After a few months this can add up and I am paying for it.

When everything is off in my house, it shows 0w and when I plug in a laptop which draws 40w, the meter shows 120w

Am I missing something?

Please help. I do not want to give eskom anything more which I am bullied into giving them.

Get some data to guide you

1) you can buy (or borrow) a device like a kill-a-watt, plug the laptop to into that and compare what the kill-a-watt shows to what the meter shows. Make sure that the laptop is the only device that could be drawing power. No TVs turned off but not plugged in. No WiFi. No fridges. Just the laptop.

2) my prepaid meter can give me all sorts of data, including consumption for the day, consumption last 24 hours, consumption for the current month. Check those figures and see if they are more plausible. It may round up the instaneous figure (or may not refresh that very often) but be more exact on accumulated figures.

There will always be room for contention with meter readings. I'm a City Power customer. One can ask them to test a meter. They do this. There is a charge, and there is a tolerance. If they test my meter and it's within tolerance then I pay for the test. This is why actual numbers are good. It tells you if the discrepancy is small or large. If it's small then is it worth your while to get the meter tested?

Edited February 4Feb 4 by Bobster.
Typos

57 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

It may round up the instaneous figure (or may not refresh that very often) but be more exact on accumulated figures.

Some googling suggests that most modern meters sample at 1000Hz, which gives a pretty good approximation of actual consumption, but refresh the display every 5 or 6 seconds - so that is not such a reliable figure, and could be seconds away from what is being drawn right now at this very instant.

Edited February 4Feb 4 by Bobster.
Got the refresh rate wrong.

5 hours ago, Warlok said:

Good day,

I have a conlog prepaid meter and have noticed that the meter does not display anything below 120w. So, if I have anything connected and its only drawing less than 120w, say 40w, it shows 120w. When I go above 120w, it shows correctly. Can these meters only register 120w w even if the load is less? After a few months this can add up and I am paying for it.

When everything is off in my house, it shows 0w and when I plug in a laptop which draws 40w, the meter shows 120w

Am I missing something?

Please help. I do not want to give eskom anything more which I am bullied into giving them.

Rather use a fixed load for enough power used like 0.2kWh from 40-100W and monitor the units reduced.

Compare it to a car speedo that might not show below 10km/h but the distance still moves on as it should.

1 hour ago, Scorp007 said:

Rather use a fixed load for enough power used like 0.2kWh from 40-100W and monitor the units reduced.

Compare it to a car speedo that might not show below 10km/h but the distance still moves on as it should.

Thank you. Makes sense. Just feels like eskom is stealing more from me than they should.

@Warlok ,

Couple of things I would check:

1) Is your CT coil installed in the correct location? Should be before your non-essentials on the incoming side. You can test this on a sunny day by switching on a non-essential load (eg geyser/stove, if you have non-essentials), and observe that PV generation should rise with a significant amount (e.g.1.8 kW for stove or 3-4kW for geyser - element depending)

2) Is your CT coil installed the right way round. Check you flow diagram on the inverter screen. There should not be a negative value against the CT consumption.

3) Is you timer function active and have you adjusted the SOC % to suit your requirements?

4) Remember your inverter consumes approx. 80W, so it makes sense to me that your laptop consumes 40 + 80 = 120W. But then I would expect that consumption to actually come from the PV (day time) or Batteries (night time), depending on settings.

In 53 months after I installed my setup, I've consumed 1351 units, so 25 units ave per month. Most days it is Zero.

10 hours ago, Warlok said:

Good day,

I have a conlog prepaid meter and have noticed that the meter does not display anything below 120w. So, if I have anything connected and its only drawing less than 120w, say 40w, it shows 120w. When I go above 120w, it shows correctly. Can these meters only register 120w w even if the load is less? After a few months this can add up and I am paying for it.

When everything is off in my house, it shows 0w and when I plug in a laptop which draws 40w, the meter shows 120w

Am I missing something?

Please help. I do not want to give eskom anything more which I am bullied into giving them.

If the meter actually billed 120 W whenever you used a 40 W device then Eskom would be illegally overcharging. The meter would fail verification and certification and there would be thousands of formal complaints and recalls.

The billing register (kWh) uses proper current sampling and time integration not the crude display rounding you’re seeing.

Do this test:

Plug in your 40 W laptop leave it on for 5 hours. Expected energy useage. 40 W × 5 h = 0.2 kWh then check your prepaid balance drop, if the meter were charging 120 W, you’d see 0.6 kWh used.

14 hours ago, TaliaB said:

If the meter actually billed 120 W whenever you used a 40 W device then Eskom would be illegally overcharging. The meter would fail verification and certification and there would be thousands of formal complaints and recalls.

The billing register (kWh) uses proper current sampling and time integration not the crude display rounding you’re seeing.

Do this test:

Plug in your 40 W laptop leave it on for 5 hours. Expected energy useage. 40 W × 5 h = 0.2 kWh then check your prepaid balance drop, if the meter were charging 120 W, you’d see 0.6 kWh used.

Thanks. But not to far in the future I'll be 100% off-grid. Even if I have to suffer a bit.

Thank you for all the advice.