South Africans(Tasbet Park) pull out smart meters due to higher bills in protest - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2025, 03:07:11 pm
content: https://www.citizen.co.za/witbank-news/news-headlines/2025/03/27/after-weeks-of-frustration-residents-revolt-and-remove-smart-meters/Quote*So meters measuring power in power cuts. I didn't know they had batteries inside to operate them apart from one that does the clock and settings.Not very good if that is happening.One thing they don't do is saywhich tariff they were on, whether they'd been moved onto another tariff andwhat meter manufacturer and model the issue is appearing from.I see in the picture two of what looks like them remaining in the upper right and lower left but low resolution picture to identify them and I just did a reverse lookup to find no other size.There seems to be a correlation to high bills. I suspect there was over measurement before according to some article in 2016 I think from a lab in Amsterdam testing a variety of them due to a number of complaints of high bills. I read something a few years ago that in Ireland on one occasion it turned out the customers were moved to this "Smart tariff" as to why their bills went up where they ended up paying more than previous one and not because of the meters.What do you think?

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2025, 04:40:33 pm
content: They are a Conlog smart meter, designed and manufactured in South Africa. Might be theiDM.APEXseries. Might have a quality or superstition issue.8 time of use tariff tables, security SIM card, indoor use only etc. - they seem out to lunch on the requirements.Plastic DIN Rail? Cell modem? They are basically huge and overboard.

author: Andy Chee
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2025, 06:57:17 pm
content: In believe meter bypassing is extremely common in South Africa. So it shouldn’t be any surprise that Saffas would treat smart meters as such.

author: MrMobodies
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2025, 08:25:00 pm
content: I see, so they are worried that they may not be able to do it without being as un-noticed as before.

author: darkspr1te
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2025, 08:14:38 am
content: The initial big push against smart meters was just that, Bypass a old school meter and someone will have to physically go there and check the meter and the site owner would remove the bypass before the engineer was allowed access. With the new conlog (ex-alarm manufacturer ) they are sim based and feed back all the data they get including erroneous data.We have seen motors spinning down causing meters to show large loads even though it's a power cut(something regular here in africa)We have also seen units operating without power on the line, where this low ac voltage is coming from no one know yet.I have asked a tech to get me two of these meters to inspect as i suspect they may have another issue which my power meter also suffers from, if i pull a large load on 1 phase then the next phase also shows a larger load but final phase does not, to get around this i redistributed all my pumps to separate phases and put the largest one on the L3 phase as L1/2 both show higher readings for the same pump. To clarify, if I load phase 1 or 2 then the next phase will show roughly half the amount of the prior phase except phase 3 which only show real load.I have complained to our power supplier (known locally as Zesco or more commonly 'Palibwe Zesco' which 'means no power here') about this and even proved it by adding my own single and 3 phase power meters to the system. My 3 phase one shows clear difference real time to the Zesco supplied meter.truth be told is no one smart meters because they have major issues and we pay for them, just look at push back UK users are giving, andythegabbycabby channel talks about them failing all the time.darkspr1te

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2025, 09:11:41 am
content: Conlog or Schumberer are the proffered meter suppliers, though by me in dirtbin the metro does not actually have stock of either electric or water meters, smart or not smart. So when one pops it clogs you get the simple thing of a bypass, and estimated readings till they get a round tuit to replace it, which can take up to 2 years now. So now you find that rental units will get third party meters installed, because that way they have some control over usage, and can compare the billed amount to the tokens bought, which does help. the third party meters do not have the GSM connection, but do have an account that will flag the owner that units used are out of the normal pattern, as the monthly use almost always is close to constant.The prepayment meters have the same tariff as the postpaid meters, but the buying of tokens in that municipality means that you have to pay a part of the monthly fixed charge before you actually get tokens that will work, so you will always, till you have paid the monthly charge, will get very few units of power. By me the meters have no fixed charge for residential (unlike commercial, where both electricity and water have a fixed charge based on capacity) so your units are based entirely on usage, making topping up easy. Yes meter bypassing is common, no matter where you live guaranteed there is at least a few meters within 100m of you that are bypassed, irrespective of you living in an informal settlement, or in a luxury estate where the monthly levies are close to the cost of a new vehicle per month.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2025, 10:29:11 am
content: I like my smart meter. I get dirt cheap electricity most of the day because of it. Each to their own...