# Interest group forums > Electrical Contracting Industry Forum >  Private Prepaid Electrical Meters good or bad

## TJFASA

Hi installed a Private Prepaid Electrical Meter into my Granny Flat. Now my tenants have to pay in advance before consuming electricity. Once I receive payment from my tenant i send them via SMS or Email a unique recharge token number. All they have to do is punch the number into their meter and they have electricity. I think it's an excellent way of preventing tenants from abusing electricity and not paying final bills when they vacate premises.

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## Dave A

Now that sounds like a really fine idea!

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## duncan drennan

Our house has a prepaid meter and it is really great Ã¢â¬â no worrying about the municipality billing the incorrect amount, etc. Definitely what I would want if I was renting out (especially for a granny flat on my property!)

I'm not sure about the contents of your lease, but you could probably make it even simpler (for yourself) by just letting them buy their own electricity. I normally use EasyPay to buy electricity, but it can also be purchased from shop tills and so on (can't remember all the places off the top of my head).

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## Dave A

> I'm not sure about the contents of your lease, but you could probably make it even simpler (for yourself) by just letting them buy their own electricity.


That works if the electrical supply authority will provide a seperate supply. But there are times when they don't. Also, some metros are holding the owner responsible for unpaid electrical bills run up by tenants.

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## TJFASA

The best thing to do is to install a private prepaid meter after the municple meter. Transfer the municple account from the tenant to the landlord. Then the tenant has to pay the landlord for all electricity consumed. The landlord inturn pays the munciplality and there is never any outstanding electrical bills.

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## duncan drennan

> The best thing to do is to install a private prepaid meter after the municple meter. Transfer the municple account from the tenant to the landlord. Then the tenant has to pay the landlord for all electricity consumed. The landlord inturn pays the munciplality and there is never any outstanding electrical bills.


Okay, I misunderstood. So you actually have a normal municipal account and the prepaid meter piggy backs onto that? How does that work exactly?

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## TJFASA

You cant remove the munciple meter but you can turn the premises into your own private prepaid system if the premises is being rented. This means that the landlord has the munic account in his name and the tenant has to pay the landlord in advance for electricity.

The landlord installs a prepaid meter after the munic meter and issues the tenant with unique recharge tokens. Tokens are programed to that meter only and are only obtainable from the landlord.

If the landlord lives in a different location, once payment is received he can SMS, Email or fax the token to his tenant. 

The Tenant punches the number on the token into the keypad of the meter and energizes the meter for the value of the token. Tokens are sold in differnt amounts such as R50.00 , R100.00 etc.

A third party can also collect revenue from tenants and issue the tokens on behalf of a Landlord- Revenue Management.

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## duncan drennan

Where exactly do you (the landlord) get the tokens from?

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## TJFASA

We supply the meter and sell the tokens to the landlord for R2.00 each. The landlord nominates the values he wants on his tokens. Usually they buy 100 tokens at a time which lasts that meter several months. When the tenant buys electricity from the landlord say for a value of R 100.00 he will also be charged R2.00 for the cost of the token.

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## TJFASA

We supply the meter and the tokens to the landlord. When the tokens run out only the landlord can purchase them from us.

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## duncan drennan

TJ, I think that is a really cool system. When we were considering renting out out granny flat, I found out about putting in a prepaid meter there, but *shucks*, it would have be _really_ expensive (new cables, municipality, bla-de-bla). Your solution would be *perfect*.

I think it is a really useful service to offer to landlords who don't want to go through the schlep of installing a whole new cable for a granny flat. I'm not sure how difficult it is to have a prepaid meter installed into a house and connected to the municipality's system, so there may even be scope for landlord's renting out whole houses?

Do you have a website?

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## entoserv

This is very nice but I see a problem here. What stops people from bypassing the meter.

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## TJFASA

You cant bypass the meter without physically cutting into the live wires and going around the meter. The problem is the landlord will detect a drop in consumption and may come and investigate. 

The meters themselves are sealed and once opened cannot be resealed without showing evidence of tampering. 

Some meters also have tamper latches built into them. If the meter is opened it senses this and shuts down electricity. The landlord then has to recode the meter in order for it to operate again.

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## DPA

Manage an office block which has several rented units. There is only a bulk meter coming into the building. I devide the electricity according to office space. Some Tenants use minimal electricity whilst others use plenty. Would this prepaid metering system work in an office block?

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## Dave A

If you don't have a problem collecting the money we've installed meters in complexes and buildings in a similar situation. From there you'd need to read the meters and bill accordingly.

To my mind, the advantage of the prepaid meter is you don't have to go through meter readings and collecting on bills, but it also removes the opportunity to look for tampering.

There's nothing stopping you from setting up your own meter room other than the capital outlay. If it involves splitting circuits the costs could mount up. I know there's a handy meter available that goes into the db much like a circuit breaker. So if each unit is on its own db, that would be a viable option too.

I'll check with my sparkies when I see them next, get a bit more detail about the metering equipment options and post some feedback here. From there, all you'd need to do is contact a local reliable electrician to work out how much work (and cost) it would involve.

TJFASA, maybe you'd like to give an idea on your equipment costs in the meantime - I'll be passing it on to my teams to present to clients as a possible option too.

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## TJFASA

A Single Phase Prepaid meters costs R 6.99 Each

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## Dave A

^-^ Wow!! Outright purchase? That's incredibly cheap.

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## DPA

How much is the installation??

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## duncan drennan

TJ, maybe it is worth giving Dave and DPA your contact details (through a private message, or email) so that they can contact you. They seem to want your solution, but this slow backwards and forwards seems like it is dragging things out.

Or, post a website address, or contact number here (don't post an email address, you'll probably get spammed).

Obviously posting *all* the details would also help, like,

cost of meter (R6.99 seems a little odd...)installation costsany other upfront costsany monthly costshow purchasing tokens works (phone?, internet?)anything else that you can think of that potential clients may want to know (I'm sure you've been asked all these things many times before).

Your solution sounds good, getting all the info out will help you to close sales.

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## TJFASA

The meter costs R 699.00 each not R6.99

Electricians charge their own rates for each installation. On average about R 250.00

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## seanwhe

Interesting thread. To answer those looking for prepaid sub-meters take a look at http://www.prepaidmeters.co.za

The basic unit is R600.00. Certified Electrician installation would cost around R450.00 - R500.00 depending on electrician.

Hope this helps

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## MMX

Why don't you go for the other option of not having to supply vouchers to your tenant at all ungodly hours?Put them on the Unipin system and they buy all overtown but you still have controll over the vending. Check out www.prepaidman.co.za only pretoria area and outlying though...

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## Justloadit

or..

Register with my platform and purchase anytime 24/7
dial *120*72735#

The first time you dial the number it will ask you for a PIN - which is your security pin. Once registered deposit money into our FNB or ABSA account 24/7, while you have a float you can purchase any prepaid voucher. We are linked to a number of municipalities as well.

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## Phil Cooper

I heard of a system that has a remote control that "trips" the earth leakage.

If you have a difficult tenant all you have to do is drive past and press a remote control button and VOILA - the power is gone...

Tenant somewhat inconvenienced - eventually becomes more amenable.

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## China lucy

Hi,good news,we are a supplier of prepaid meter in china.prepaid meter is popular in Africa.this is a good way to prevent not paying the final bills.our meters like this,one meter one card.you can used a computer to control it.your customer should pay fist.if he buy 1 USD electricity.you can record in the computer with the vending machine.then he get the card to usd electricity.when the electricy is nealy to be used up.the meter will Alarm.so the customer will know he need to pay fees again.if they not pay,you can cut down the electricity by computer.any one interested in it.pls contact me

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## AndyD

> I heard of a system that has a remote control that "trips" the earth leakage.
> 
> If you have a difficult tenant all you have to do is drive past and press a remote control button and VOILA - the power is gone...
> 
> Tenant somewhat inconvenienced - eventually becomes more amenable.


I've never seen this type of arrangement. It doesn't sound practical to me, the tennant would just bypass it after the first time it was used. Surely making the tennants food go vrot is just going to make matters worse, I don't see him/her being more amenable, that's for sure.

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## Justloadit

> I've never seen this type of arrangement. It doesn't sound practical to me, the tennant would just bypass it after the first time it was used. Surely making the tennants food go vrot is just going to make matters worse, I don't see him/her being more amenable, that's for sure.


Hi Andy,

When it can take up to a year following the legal route to get rid of a non paying tenant, excluding the legal costs, believe me, you really do not give a rats ass about his vrot food.

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## Dave A

Gives a whole new meaning to nuisance tripping  :Stick Out Tongue:

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## BlueArc

Hi all
After reading all the posts I thought I might add my 5cents worth.
There are two types of systems available to the consumer. 
1. A sub-meter
This system is for landlords who are renting out flats/offices etc. What happens here is that the landlord gets any registered electrician to install a pre-paid meter (know as a sub meter) which piggy backs off the munc. meter. The landloard registers with a vending company. Once this has been done the tennant can go to pretty much any shop that sells electricity and buy their own. At the end of the month the landlord will still get an electricity bill for the TOTAL consumed electricity BUT the vending company that he registered with will pay money into his account which they collected from the shops, banks, websites etc. They can do this because everytime the tennant buys electricity they have to enter their meter number which then goes onto the vendors data base and is logged there. Now the landlord uses this money to pay the bill.
I am yet to receive any complaints from the landlords about not getting their money from the vendors so it seems like the system is working quite well.

2. The second option is the retrofit system
This would be for a private home owner who does not want to get a monthly bill. 
This is how it works...in Cape Town...atleast. The home owner contacts a registered electrician who is also is also an approved installer from the municipality. He, the electrician then applies for a retrofit and change of electricty service at the local offices this can take a while so be reading for a bit of a wait. The price for the meter in Cape Town is standard which is R1654.00. He installs the meter and activates it and thats about it. Just be aware that you will still get ONE more bill from the munic. because they had to take the last reading before the electrician installed the meter. Make sure as the home owner to only pay the electrician AFTER he has completed the whole job as there have been too many "con" tractors doing half the job and the end result is that the munic. shuts off the power indefinitely which is a VERY lengthy proccess to get back on. Basically get a proper electrician to do it!!!! 
Again I have done a few of these recently and to be very honest the munic. has be pretty jacked up....I know very shocking news haha.

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## DaBruce

Here is my experiance aswell, I had a prepaid meter installed, (for free) by COJ because they could not find my meter for readings which is on the pavement in their box :Rofl: 
Then I went and bought the recharge voucher only to find out that the meter was not registered yet on their system.
Then they also kept on charging me the estimated amount of R1500 per month when my usage was around R600 per month on the prepaid system.
They kept on doing this for 10 months, and in this time I got one reference number ontop of the other reference number.
I finally had to take the jobcard to them to prove that the meter was installed by them :Rofl: 
And tha saga continues...

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## TravisZA

Hi,

About to become a homeowner so I'm reopening this thread.

I would like to get a prepaid meter installed so that I don't have to worry about strange readings every month from the municipality (City of Joburg)

Some questions:
1. Do I have to go to Municipal offices and pay deposit for change in owner? (I think the answer is yes)
2. Is the next step to get an approved electrician to install the prepaid meter?
3. Is there a list of such approved electricians / can anyone recommend someone in the Randburg area (I looked on Eskom site and couldnt see anything)
4. Is there anything else I have to do that I'm missing?

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## Justloadit

If I am not mistaken, you have to contact COJ to apply for a prepaid meter, pay up front and wait for them to send an approved installer to do the installation. You can not do it yourself.

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## Showplace

Are you an Eskom direct customer or a City of Joburg customer? If you get your electricity direct from Eskom you can get a prepaid meter installed by them for about R3000. I don't know what the situation for City of Joburg customers.

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