Installing a plug socket before the DB - Compliant?

[recre8]

Hi Guys
Eskom has converted my house to a split prepaid meter recently with the actual meter being installed in a kiosk in the street and me receiving a keypad. It is one of the newer prepaid meters that use the power lines (PLC = Power Line Communication) to communicate between the keypad and the meter (Shenzhen Star Instruments G3-PLC). My problem is that my Sunsynk grid-tie inverter causes issues with the communication between the keypad and the meter. Turning off the MCB that connects the inverter to the DB board fixes the issue and then the keypad works from any socket. With the MCB on, none of the sockets allow the keypad to work. I even tried hooking up the keypad to the geyser and even to the live and neutral of the incoming mains. Nothing works with the inverter powered and connected. From what I understand, the EMI filtering in the inverter also filters out the communication of the G3-PLC protocol (15khz to 100khz signal)

What did work, was when I hooked up the keypad to a electrical kiosk about 50m away containing a breaker from my house using the common neutral and the Live feeding into the breaker for my house. So distance away from the inverter definitely plays a role.

So my question is now, if I were to add another plug socket tapped from the junction box on my garage wall where the mains enter the house just so that the keypad can communicate.... what would be the SANS compliant way to do it? A small DB with a 16A MCB and a dedicated (red) socket and a sticker saying "No Earth Leakage Protection"?. My issue is that this violates the rule that there should be one mains breaker that disconnects the entire installation.

[Derlyn]

Interesting. Nothing stops you from taking the main supply through an isolator in the small proposed DB outside and making that the main DB. The DB in your house then becomes a Sub DB.

[recre8]

Ah I'm with you. Basically install a new main-db and make the existing one a sub-db. Out of interest, how are prepaid meters (the all-in-one kind that sits inline with your mains before the DB) regulated by the SANS standard? They don't count as appliances really and switching off the Mains breaker doesn't turn off the prepaid meter since it is installed before the DB. Just wondering if maybe I can use that loophole to install the keypad.

[Derlyn]

The municipal meter is not regulated by SANS 10142. Sub meters downstream of the main isolator are.

Installing a dedicated plug on the supply cable in your case cannot be seen as meter tampering by the municipality because it is on the load side of the meter, however, being on your erf, it needs to conform to SANS 10142.

In my opinion, the only way to legally do it is as I have suggested above.

Maybe some of the other toppies have an easier plan, however I doubt it.