Prepaid meter in flatlet

[Owen]

Hi guys

Let's say you have a house with a prepaid meter before the DB.

That DB then also feeds a granny flat out in the yard/down side of house which has its own prepaid meter feeding its DB.

Will the flatlet consumption draw through the houses prepaid meter aswell?

IE if the flat uses say 12 units a day will the houses prepaid also lose 12 units due to granny flat usage?

If you turn all consumption in house OFF except breaker feeding flat will house meter stand still?
Technically it should hey?

Can anyone clear this up please

[MarcR]

The second meter usage for the flat is included in the "official" ESKOM or council meter. So you are correct, the usage on the second meter is included in the main meter. 12 units on the sub meter will show up as 12 units on the main meter.

If the main meter is pay as you go, and runs out, the granny flat will not have power until the main meter is topped up.

[JohanMaree]

Depending how it is wired. Where does the flatlet buy its units?

Should be as Marc mentions.

[Heinz Modricky]

You need to wire the flat's meter before the house's meter, so they are both independent. The main house meter can't make a differentiation on what is using electricity - whether it is from a kettle, stove or the flat's meter, it will clock the amps going through the meter. You'll be paying double.

But you can link the sub meter to the main meter and receive the credit. That's the same as if you have a normal supply on account, and you then fit a pre-paid meter in a flat. The pre-paid meter's money is credited to your account. From memory, I recall reading that there is a small difference in the actual and credited cost. I'm not sure how they will credit you on two prepaid meters.

[Peter1949]

I can answer this quickly and clearly.
We have our own residence and three rental units on our property.
Two of the three rentals have their own pre-paid meters for both water and power.
The single en suite room unit has power and water included in their rental.

The way it works in practice I(In our case) 0is:
ALL power (& water) used on the property as a whole is registered by the municipal meters and is payable by the landlord / owner of the property.
(Should I not make payment then none of the units would receive power should it be cut off due to that or any other reason.)
However the two units on sub-meters pay only for their own consumption which is credited to my account after deduction of the admin fees by the meter company.
This means that I received credit to my accounts equal to their payments (less the charges), effectively leaving me more or less paying for my own net usage including that of the one unmetered unit.

I have has no problems with this arrangement have been running like this for a few years now.
Hope this helps.

[JohanMaree]

You can also buy an independent meter for the flatlet and the tenant buy from you direct. That way you have some leverage on the rental to be paid.

The main muni supply is not involved as all go through your main meter.

I do that with all my tenants.

[hunter26]

I deal with this set up on the council. As some mentioned. There are two ways we install additional meters to a property.

Method 1...
Consumer pays munic for additional meter for eg flatlet (dam expensive). We install a 2 way kiosk/meter cabinet on boundary. We take house feeding cable and install this into kiosk as the main feed. House meter is remounted into kiosk as well as new additional meter for flat, 3 breakers are installed in kiosk ie 80amp as main and 2 x 40 Amp breakers for each meter. The consumer then runs flat cable to boundary kiosk. If house runs out of electricity, flat can still run on its own units. If property owner does not pay rates, all electric is switch off. This method is better but is a lot more expensive.

Method 2..
Property owner buys private meter from wholesaler who does all the registering of meter with private institute that runs this set up. Pvt contractor installs meter etc. Pvt meter supply is taken after municipality meter ie main meter feeds pvt meter, meaning owner pays for flat meter electricity. Flat consumer buys online from institute who sell elect minibus a percentage for admin ie 10% eg saying electricity per unit is R1 per kwh. Flat tenant buys for R100 but gets R90 aka 90kwh worth of electricity. Home owner will still get rebated R90 into their account from institute. This is a cheaper method as no additional long runs of cable to boundaries are needed.

Before you take advice here and go ahead, first chat to your local authorities to see if you can install additional meters etc.

[Owen]

Thanks for the replies guys.

How far does an elec contractors authority extend?
Is he allowed to move municipal meter from inside house to outside for example?
Assuming nothing is bypassed upon re-connection.

[Peter1949]

Thanks for the replies guys.

How far does an elec contractors authority extend?
Is he allowed to move municipal meter from inside house to outside for example?
Assuming nothing is bypassed upon re-connection.

Not totally sure but I don't think that would be permitted.
Maybe someone "in the know" could reply ?

[hunter26]

Thanks for the replies guys.

How far does an elec contractors authority extend?
Is he allowed to move municipal meter from inside house to outside for example?
Assuming nothing is bypassed upon re-connection.

Speak to your local authority first, each has their own bylaws.

[Wylie E]

We had a house where both paid us as owners of property. A dispute came up between house rental and flat rental. Got prepaid for water and electricity. Both directly from main meter. Now there is no dispute as to who uses how much. Was from a company that does prepaid called KK prepaid Terrace rd Edenvale. Nice part is if they reneg on rental you can have them put on prepaid and then they have to pay.

[1FRIK]

Hi guys

Let's say you have a house with a prepaid meter before the DB.

That DB then also feeds a granny flat out in the yard/down side of house which has its own prepaid meter feeding its DB.

Will the flatlet consumption draw through the houses prepaid meter aswell?

IE if the flat uses say 12 units a day will the houses prepaid also lose 12 units due to granny flat usage?

If you turn all consumption in house OFF except breaker feeding flat will house meter stand still?
Technically it should hey?

Can anyone clear this up please

I installed water and elec meters at my flat, take readings monthly, use a spreadsheet for the last 9 years. Tenant pay same kl or kw as what I pay