Government’s plan to remotely control your geyser

This makes no sense whatsoever. Smart meters are installed BEFORE your DB board, so how the hell is it going to be able to control the circuit breaker to your geyser? And what's stopping you from just bypassing it?
 
Not happening. ANC can't start a p!ssup in a brewery. No way they pull this off. Just leave them to have their meetings, see this disappear into the void in 3 months or so.

Or maybe give them more credit, they actually allow some cadres to eat a couple beelyohn here and there, with a commision of enquiry to figure out how it went wrong. That would be standard operating procedure :p
 
Feels like the geyser is a red herring example, the government is just referring to the lowest common denominator for the most demanding powered appliance in all households. If the meter is going to replace the publicly accessed meters, what they actually plan to do with the smart meter is to limit the amount of amps that goes through the meter and limit the whole house, of course this is probably going to cause all sorts of other problems.

Mike Hoxbig said:
Sure, the smart meter will just sommer know what's a geyser and what isn't...
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It will if they put it into the db directly and wire the geyser straight to it.
 
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Mystic Twilight said:
Feels like the geyser is a red herring example, the government is just referring to the lowest common denominator for the most demanding powered appliance in all households. If the meter is going replace the public meters, what they actually plan to do with the smart meter is to limit the amount of amps that goes through the meter, of course this is probably going to cause all sorts of other problems.



It will if they put it into the db directly and wire the geyser straight to it.
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How are they even going to control it remotely? Seems like they're suggesting using the internet but considering most households in South Africa have no internet connection that seems like a non-starter. Not to mention if you wanted to bypass it you could just simply block the smartmeter from connecting to your router.
 
deweyzeph said:
How are they even going to control it remotely? Seems like they're suggesting using the internet but considering most households in South Africa have no internet connection that seems like a non-starter. Not to mention if you wanted to bypass it you could just simply block the smartmeter from connecting to your router.
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They just piggy back the communication off the eskom wires, the whole substation becomes a central hub for the network.

deweyzeph said:
That would be against electricity safety regulations.
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No idea but they can always change it, since they are the ones that make the rules. Wouldn't be the first time the anc changed something to fit their convenience.
 
deweyzeph said:
How are they even going to control it remotely? Seems like they're suggesting using the internet but considering most households in South Africa have no internet connection that seems like a non-starter. Not to mention if you wanted to bypass it you could just simply block the smartmeter from connecting to your router.
Click to expand...
Nothing to do with internet. It's done over the grid.
 
Mystic Twilight said:
No idea but they can always change it, since they are the ones that make the rules. Wouldn't be the first time the anc changed something to fit their convenience.
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I can't see how they could do it without making the geyser bypass the earth leakage protection. And nobody should be using a geyser without earth leakage protection unless you have a death wish.
 
People seem to misunderstand how this will be implemented.
They aren't going to turn off your geyser directly, they will implement a maximum power draw allowed for the entire house from the smart meter.
If you do not adhere by turning things off such as the geyser then they will cut your power remotely.

This is pretty much exactly what City Power is planning to do with the smart meters, by limiting the maximum draw during specified times.

These smart meters support two-way communication, which empowers Eskom to limit the power supply to a home.

Because the power supply is limited, users will be forced to switch off appliances that draw a lot of electricity, like geysers or stoves.
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deweyzeph said:
I can't see how they could do it without making the geyser bypass the earth leakage protection. And nobody should be using a geyser without earth leakage protection unless you have a death wish.
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Yea so I was saying originally, the geyser is a red herring. But because of the 30% education and to avoid expected backlash, it's easier for the anc to say geyser for everyone to conceptually understand than to say your whole house.

Edit: it's also possibly a purposely mis-direction of what they intend to do so that it's easier to pass off to the public.
 
Intox said:
People seem to misunderstand how this will be implemented.
They aren't going to turn off your geyser directly, they will implement a maximum power draw allowed for the entire house from the smart meter.
If you do not adhere by turning things off such as the geyser then they will cut your power remotely.

This is pretty much exactly what City Power is planning to do with the smart meters, by limiting the maximum draw during specified times.
Click to expand...

That makes a whole lot more sense. However I can't see the municipalities supporting this. Imagine how much revenue they will lose if they cut people off even temporarily.
 
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