Tshwane prepaid meter help / guide

[Mzezman]

Recieved a conlog prepaid meter about two months ago, and our electricity bill is twice what is was in the past, asked the municipality to either replace or test the device but it's like talking to brick wall.

On your statement - did they do an estimate reading for you? I manually captured a reading of R0.00 for this month and for the month we got the prepaid i captured the last spinning meter reading. So they couldn't double charge us

 

[Mobus]

Recieved a conlog prepaid meter about two months ago, and our electricity bill is twice what is was in the past, asked the municipality to either replace or test the device but it's like talking to brick wall.

I received the following msg from a ward cllr:

Dear residents

I have had a few complaints of new prepaid meters (my own included) which when installed push up power consumption/ costs, drastically.
Eg looking at previous monthly metering the average is about 40kw used per day , which suddenly jumps to 60 and 90 kw a day, thus doubling cost of electricity per month.
If you are finding your power usage/costs jumping drastically , please keep a record for a week of daily consumption. Compare it to consumption for previous months, keeping the cold weather in mind as you do use more power the colder it gets.
If you see a drastic increase in power consumption, please email Phillip Sivhada on PhillipS#TSHWANE.GOV.ZA with your account number, the new meter number, your address, name and contact details, explaining the difference in your monthly cost since having the prepaid meter installed.
PLEASE ONLY USE THIS AVENUE IF YOU HAVE DONE THE MATHS AND THERE IS CLEARLY A PROBLEM.
The matter will be investigated if it is clear that there is a possible problem with the meter. If needed the meter will be replaced.

Antispam measure: Replace hash with at sign.

 

[pieter0]

Thank you for these instructions. Was able to re-load power by following your critical steps.

Unbelievable how this is not in the manuals or on the website.

 

[CraftyChops]

Hi. We just moved into a rental house. There's a Hexing meter here. It was showing green, but then I bought R20 to test and typed in the code received. Now it shows red / low.
Any ideas?

 

[Methuselah]

Greeting folk. Question about billing.
Month 3 of new forced smartmeter. Bought power many times already, seemingly increase in monthly cost.

The Tshwane bill shows 0.00 for reading dates and 0.00 for the old meter.
Yet for December bill I have "Energy charge domestic" at R1591.27.
In November it was R2732.78


Is this theft or what is the problem, am I paying this arbitrary amount for connection fee ?

I have no idea who to turn to for assistance.

 

[Mobus]

Hi. We just moved into a rental house. There's a Hexing meter here. It was showing green, but then I bought R20 to test and typed in the code received. Now it shows red / low.
Any ideas?

Hi Ngiri, better late than never, did you ever solve this issue? Assuming you did, please give feedback here so others may learn from your experience with the Hexing meters.

 

[CraftyChops]

Hi Ngiri, better late than never, did you ever solve this issue? Assuming you did, please give feedback here so others may learn from your experience with the Hexing meters.

Hi. So I googled Hexing meters and found a load of codes to type in.
I did solve the problem by buying a lot more units. It seems that it only updates to the true reading if you buy units or type in 801. There seems to be a delay in changing the ready on the display.

 

[Mobus]

Greeting folk. Question about billing.
Month 3 of new forced smartmeter. Bought power many times already, seemingly increase in monthly cost.

The Tshwane bill shows 0.00 for reading dates and 0.00 for the old meter.
Yet I have "Energy charge domestic" at R1591.27.

Is this theft or what is the problem, am I paying this arbitrary amount for connection fee ?

I have no idea who to turn to for assistance.

After they forcibly replaced my meter with prepaid, it took a good 18 months to get Tshwane to remove my old meter from my account. They kept on billing me estimates for the old meter. So I had to pay double to avoid being cut, then got a massive credit when they eventually took it off my bill.

Currently I only have erf rates, rubbish removal, water and sanitation sections on my bill. No energy charge.

Best route to follow is to try and connect with Tshwane via zoom support. See https://www.tshwane.gov.za/Lists/CurrentNewsHome/CustomDispForm.aspx?ID=570

(Note the unusual operating hours).

 

[Mzezman]

Greeting folk. Question about billing.
Month 3 of new forced smartmeter. Bought power many times already, seemingly increase in monthly cost.

The Tshwane bill shows 0.00 for reading dates and 0.00 for the old meter.
Yet for December bill I have "Energy charge domestic" at R1591.27.
In November it was R2732.78


Is this theft or what is the problem, am I paying this arbitrary amount for connection fee ?

I have no idea who to turn to for assistance.

are you manually submitting readings to CoT? I do this even though i am on prepaid because if i dont they will estimate my usage and charge me for that month - its bizarre.

 

[Mattanau]

My PCMA electricity meter says “error” & “null” when I check balance and when I want to load token

 

[henkc]

I've just had my prepaid meter - a Hexing - stop communicating. A neighbour who installs meters was able to establish that the problem lies in the meter and not the keypad and that Tshwane needs to come and replace the meter.

Contacted Tshwane and they are responsive and will, at some point, come out and sort the problem out.

Now, my remaining problem is that I discovered the fault when I tried to load electricity. So I have a voucher ready for the old meter, which is soon to be replaced. Will I be able to load the power into a new meter?

 

[Mobus]

I've just had my prepaid meter - a Hexing - stop communicating. A neighbour who installs meters was able to establish that the problem lies in the meter and not the keypad and that Tshwane needs to come and replace the meter.

Contacted Tshwane and they are responsive and will, at some point, come out and sort the problem out.

Now, my remaining problem is that I discovered the fault when I tried to load electricity. So I have a voucher ready for the old meter, which is soon to be replaced. Will I be able to load the power into a new meter?

I hope Tshwane has come out to you by now...

The STS code is meter specific, so you can't use it on a different / new meter. If Tshwane replaces your meter, they can phone in and supply you with a new code with equivalent value to what still exists on the old meter + whatever units you've bought but havent used yet. You might have to show them the proof of purchase.

I've heard the hexing meters (like the pcma meters) can sometimes lock-up or go into tamper mode after loadshedding. Tshwane will have to come and provide a reset code, or worse replace the meter.

 

[Mobus]

My PCMA electricity meter says “error” & “null” when I check balance and when I want to load token

Sorry mattanau i didnt see your message. I hope you got sorted by now! Hopefully they replaced your PCMA meter with a Conlog. Much more stable.

 

[Mobus]

I've just had my prepaid meter - a Hexing - stop communicating. A neighbour who installs meters was able to establish that the problem lies in the meter and not the keypad and that Tshwane needs to come and replace the meter.

Contacted Tshwane and they are responsive and will, at some point, come out and sort the problem out.

Now, my remaining problem is that I discovered the fault when I tried to load electricity. So I have a voucher ready for the old meter, which is soon to be replaced. Will I be able to load the power into a new meter?

Oh btw, supposedly with the Hexing meters, it does help to plug the keypad CIU in at your nearest neighbour, then enter the new code from there (or at least wake-up & charge the meter there, then quickly go back to your house, plug it in and enter your new code). As with the PCMA meter advice on page 1 of this thread, make sure there is a uninterrupted powerline between your hexing keypad and meter (plugged in, wall switch on, DB circuitbreakers on, generators off/change over switch on mains).

Other things to try on hexing:
- entering 008
- try code 806 for "contactor operation reason" and 807 for "meter status"
- 811 for "emergency credit", then enter your bought unit code directly after
- like 811, this token code might give you ~1min of power: 0000-0000-0001-5099-7584, make sure to enter your bought code quickly there after