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The term "sub-metering" stands for the general metering of any complex or property where there is one main meter, which is a municipal meter, also called bulk meter and thereafter other meters.
The meters that are installed after the primary municipal meter, whether that is bulk meter or not, it are called “sub-meters”.
What is a Prepaid Electricity Sub-meter?
Electricity sub-meters are most common in sectional title complexes and land where there are several buildings but only one municipal account.
In most complexes the developer at the beginning of the development brought services to the ERF in bulk. This is called a bulk meter which provides the future body corporate with only one account to deal with at the municipality.
After the bulk meter most developers of sectional title schemes install what is called “electricity sub-meters”. These often are post paid. But the same as the post paid there are also “prepaid sub-meters”. The only difference between the two is that the post paid meter requires the services of a meter reading company to read the meters and for “prepaid sub-meters” there are no requirements for services to read meters as these work on prepayment basis.
The most common electricity prepayment meters are STS sub-meters. These work with tokens. That said there are also AMI/AMR electricity sub-meters. These less are less common in sub-metering only due to their higher costs of devices and installation.
What is a Prepaid Water Sub-meter?
The "water sub-meters" are the same as electricity and you can find both post paid water meters and “prepaid water sub-meters”.
The only difference in the two is that the “water sub-meters” work on AMI/AMR technology. This means that there are no tokens involved and the meters payments are read via the AMI (automatic meter infrastructure). Due to the technology “AMI/AMR sub-meters” will be more expensive than STS meters.
Privately Owned, Privately Managed, Prepaid Metering Solution
Our prepaid metering system is a privately owned and privately manged solution that is ideally suited for use in sub-metering of utilities at rental properties , granny flats and out buildings , multiple tenant dwellings , body corporates , retail and office parks , property developments , staff accommodation , sporting facilities and hospitality accommodation . Our prepaid metering system is also an ideal solution for use by estate agents and managing agents that manage rentals on behalf of their clients.
The secondary or sub-metering market encompasses situations where a property has an existing primary meter device that was commissioned when the property was serviced at time of development. Secondary or sub-meters do not replace existing primary meters that are owned by the utility or municipality. They are installed secondary or after the primary meter and act in addition to the primary system.
Devices installed for the secondary market are privately owned and managed by the owner of the property or a company acting as an agent in the owners capacity. While primary meters are the property of the utility or the municipality and are therefore immovable, sub-meters are wholly owned and therefore can be considered as movable property if desired.
The important thing to remember with pre-paid sub-meters is that they do not replace the primary utility or municipality meter. Because of this the owner of the property will continue to receive monthly utility bills and remains liable for settlement thereof. However, because of the prepaid meters installed in the property, the owner or manager of the property has already received payment for the utilities consumed prior to receiving the utility bill. As a result the owner or property manager is able to immediately settle bills for utility upon receipt.
As a further consequence, it does not make sense for property owners that use a property as their primary dwelling to purchase a prepaid sub-metering system. This is because the primary utility or municipal meter is not replaced and hence the bill for that meter is still post paid. In this situation, the property owner that wants to switch to prepaid should contact their local municipality or utility provider and request transfer from their current check payment meter to a prepaid meter that is owned and managed by the municipality or utility.
If you are a homeowner and a municipal prepaid meter is not available, it is too costly or the waiting list too long, please check: Electricity Monitor also known as Energy Monitor for the OWL Home Energy Monitor as a solution to save on your electricity bills.
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