Does a prepaid meter actually save money?

thestaggy

thestaggy

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We've only had a prepaid meter in our house for 4 months now and we are a household of 4 adults. We have noticed that the electricity usage is now reaching the levels of billed electricty. I'm aware of the sliding scale but heck, we are basically back to where we were before prepaid. As yet we have not even switched a single heater on and our pool pump is down to 4 hours a day. We use an energy saving lamp in the lounge instead of using the main lights in the evenings. We deduced that switching the geyser off-and-on really had negligible impact, so we stopped that and as surmised, the impact was hardly significant. We are at R200 per week now and at this rate we will soon be back at our pre-prepaid levels.

So really, does it actually save you money, or does it work on the idea that if you visibly see your electricity burning up, you become el cheapo?
 
2nd option is correct.
Prepaid electricity is currently more expensive per unit than postpaid as far as I know. What do you pay per kwh?
 
I think the idea is to save you money because you are more aware of the usage, like with prepaid cellphones.
 
Sinbad said:
2nd option is correct.
Prepaid electricity is currently more expensive per unit than postpaid as far as I know. What do you pay per kwh?
Click to expand...

Not 100% sure off-hand, will have to double-check that. It's definitely over R1. R200 buys us less than 190 units.
 
My postpay account is around 90c/kwh plus vat (plus R200ish per month service charge etc)... So below a certain usage threshold prepaid is cheaper, above it, it's more expensive.

A prepaid meter is never going to cause you to use less electricity. It may cause you to change your usage patterns somewhat, but your appliances and lights etc still use exactly the same power regardless of how it's paid for.
 
Fudzy said:
I think the idea is to save you money because you are more aware of the usage, like with prepaid cellphones.
Click to expand...

Yeah, have to agree there. With a prepaid phone you'll SMS if you can to save on phonecalls and with a prepaid meter, I dunno, two people use the same bath water? Eat sandwiches instead of cooked meals? 1 cup of tea/coffee a day?
 
thestaggy said:
Yeah, have to agree there. With a prepaid phone you'll SMS if you can to save on phonecalls and with a prepaid meter, I dunno, two people use the same bath water? Eat sandwiches instead of cooked meals? 1 cup of tea/coffee a day?
Click to expand...

Yell at people that share the house about turning off lights, at least that's what I get from my wife :D
 
Sinbad said:
My postpay account is around 90c/kwh plus vat (plus R200ish per month service charge etc)... So below a certain usage threshold prepaid is cheaper, above it, it's more expensive.

A prepaid meter is never going to cause you to use less electricity. It may cause you to change your usage patterns somewhat, but your appliances and lights etc still use exactly the same power regardless of how it's paid for.
Click to expand...

I know the power pulled by each appliance etc. will not change, but I figured you'd cut out any ''extras'' and at the least, the creative meter readings. While we are saving money - for now - it's hardly earth shattering.
 
thestaggy said:
I know the power pulled by each appliance etc. will not change, but I figured you'd cut out any ''extras'' and at the least, the creative meter readings. While we are saving money - for now - it's hardly earth shattering.
Click to expand...


Creative meter readings? Haven't had one of those since I moved into my house 6 years ago.
AFAIK the city is trying to nudge people towards prepaid, by increasing the cost of postpaid faster than prepaid. Makes sense for them since they're ****ing incapable of managing a debtors book.

Best thing for cutting my bill was a solar geyser.
2nd best thing has been an efergy meter.
 
Fudzy said:
Yell at people that share the house about turning off lights, at least that's what I get from my wife :D
Click to expand...

Haha. I walk around behind them doing that already and get told ''I was going back in there!''.
 
Sinbad said:
Creative meter readings? Haven't had one of those since I moved into my house 6 years ago.
AFAIK the city is trying to nudge people towards prepaid, by increasing the cost of postpaid faster than prepaid. Makes sense for them since they're ****ing incapable of managing a debtors book.

Best thing for cutting my bill was a solar geyser.
2nd best thing has been an efergy meter.
Click to expand...

Yeah, one of those when you know somebody was home on the day they were supposed to do the reading but nobody shows up yet you get your bill on time, like clockwork.

Could work double-fold if they push everyone on to the prepaid route. Less worries for their incompetent lot and less burden on Eskom as everybody goes el cheapo.

Seriously considering a solar geyser as well.

efergy meter?
 
thestaggy said:
Yeah, one of those when you know somebody was home on the day they were supposed to do the reading but nobody shows up yet you get your bill on time, like clockwork.

Could work double-fold. Less worries for their incompetent lot and less burden on Eskom as everybody goes el cheapo.

Seriously considering a solar geyser as well.

efergy meter?
Click to expand...

http://www.efergy.co.za/pages/86009315/shopping/product-details.asp?uID=2

Shows you realtime (updated every 6 seconds) what your power draw is. Very good for creating awareness etc, and for understanding the impact of appliances/heaters etc. It also gives you average consumption, monthly consumption etc as a sanity check for the bill...
 
thestaggy said:
Yeah, one of those when you know somebody was home on the day they were supposed to do the reading but nobody shows up yet you get your bill on time, like clockwork.

Could work double-fold. Less worries for their incompetent lot and less burden on Eskom as everybody goes el cheapo.

Seriously considering a solar geyser as well.

efergy meter?
Click to expand...

Yeah what's an efergy meter? It makes sense why munics want prepaid meters, they get their cash upfront rather than having to send a bill which gets paid (hopefully) 30 days later. They cost more than normal meters if the prices online are anything to go by.
 
thestaggy said:
We've only had a prepaid meter in our house for 4 months now and we are a household of 4 adults. We have noticed that the electricity usage is now reaching the levels of billed electricty. I'm aware of the sliding scale but heck, we are basically back to where we were before prepaid. As yet we have not even switched a single heater on and our pool pump is down to 4 hours a day. We use an energy saving lamp in the lounge instead of using the main lights in the evenings. We deduced that switching the geyser off-and-on really had negligible impact, so we stopped that and as surmised, the impact was hardly significant. We are at R200 per week now and at this rate we will soon be back at our pre-prepaid levels.

So really, does it actually save you money, or does it work on the idea that if you visibly see your electricity burning up, you become el cheapo?
Click to expand...

the rate per unit for prepaid is more then post paid, the savings that people see comes in as you mentioned they become el cheapo, you dont pay the meter reading fee and you actualy pay for what you use and not the guestimates that you normaly pay - most of the time the estimates are really high thats why people seem to save when moving to pre paid
 
isie said:
the rate per unit for prepaid is more then post paid, the savings that people see comes in as you mentioned they become el cheapo, you dont pay the meter reading fee and you actualy pay for what you use and not the guestimates that you normaly pay - most of the time the estimates are really high thats why people seem to save when moving to pre paid
Click to expand...

Very true.
 
thestaggy said:
Very true.
Click to expand...

But then when they finally read the meter, they recalculate everything and if your estimate is higher than your actual, you get a refund.
The times I've had an estimated reading it's been half of the real reading ...
 
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