Since the When the Meter Runs Out post, you (and I) know I am on a prepaid electricity plan. By that I mean I am to monitor my electric meter and when it starts getting low – say reflecting 100 units remaining. I’m supposed to let Sam know and he will call… somebody to replenish my electricity supply.
Whatever those units reflect – Yuan, watts, or simply ‘units’, I have no idea. Last time my meter was replenished (i.e. last time I ran out of electricity and had to spend the night in the cold), it reflected 999.99. I have been informed that 1,000Yuan are put toward my electric account, so I suspect that number reflects Yuan. However, for the sake of convenience I will describe that number henceforth simply as ‘units’.
To say that this plan is inconvenient is to understate the matter. My electric meter is outside, in the stairwell. I walk past it every time I leave the house and every time I come back home. Since my least desire is to run out of electricity I check it compulsively, both on the way out and on the way in. Maybe I need not be so compulsive about it.
As the number of units wind down to zero my meter reflects a blinking red light that flashes progressively faster the closer the number depletes to nothing. Thanks to that flashing light I get a quick visual of how close I am to needing a recharge without opening the meter cabinet and standing there, waiting for my meter to scroll through its 3 different readings. But, I don’t want to run out of electricity at an inopportune moment. So I keep a close eye on the meter.
It takes approximately 40 units of electricity to power an average day: run the heater for 12 hours, heat a tankful of water, turn on various lights and make use of cooking appliances, maybe watch a movie or spend some time on the computer. With 100 units left, I figure I have roughly 2 days leeway for that recharge on my meter, that way I won’t run out of electricity should someone drop the ball.
I thought that, once the meter reflected 100 units, it would be a simple matter to call Sam for a refill. That happened on Monday morning, when I got down to 110. He tried calling… whoever he was supposed to call, to no avail. He then sent a text message and we got on with our day.
Since Monday, being mindful of my nearly depleted supply of units I was extra careful with my electricity usage. I only ran the heater for 6 hours and did not get on the computer at all. No extra lights turned on and I even turned off the humidifier. It only took one night for me to know that I don’t want to spend another without bed heaters, and I certainly don’t want to wake up to the prospect of no way to heat water for a sponge bath or tea.
Now it is Tuesday morning and the meter reflects 43 units remaining. Just a little over one day’s worth of electricity units available to me. Now a little panicked I send Sam another text message. About an hour later he responds with: “Your meter has to go completely to zero before they’ll recharge it. Crap!”
What do you think my response to him was?
“I really, REALLY do not like this prepaid system!”
I was holding back.
I’m trying to think of a time or a situation where I was in a similar predicament. The closest I can come is back in the dim old days, when I lived in a trailer with no heat and had to use a kerosene space heater to warm the place up. When my five gallon jug of kerosene ran low, I refilled it. I did not let my heater, or my gas tank run completely out before a refill.
Nor would I let my car run out of gas and then call someone to bring me a gas can. Would you?
The only other comparable situation I can think of was when I was driving a forklift powered by an LP gas engine. Then we had to let the bottle of gas run out, leave the stalled forklift wherever it died, remove the empty bottle and trudge to the cage where the full bottles were stored. But even then we did not run out of full LP gas bottles before ordering a refill for our empty bottles.
Bottom line: this prepaid electricity system makes no sense to me. More specifically: it sets me up for at least a day of misery with no electricity until someone gets the message that I need a replenishment.
I’m not even sure how that works! Now that Sam has put in the replenish request and… whoever is aware that I will soon need more electricity, has the request cued up in some computer system, to happen automatically as my meter hits zero?
Or am I going to have to wait till the lights go out and the heater dies and then call Sam again, so that he can call… whoever for that recharge? And what if Sam is busy and doesn’t get that text message right away? And what if… whoever the person or entity is that recharges the meters does not get the message right away?
I end up cold and shivering in the dark, that’s what.
All I know is that, while I do not run the heater at night I do want and need my bed heaters. And, I do like to wash myself first thing in the morning and have at least one cup of hot tea. Conclusion: I do not want to be without electricity overnight. Ergo I must time my electricity depletion to happen sometime before noon so that… whoever has all afternoon to recharge the meter.
So here it is, Tuesday evening, 7PM. I have been out all day, trying to not use all my electricity. I planned that before I knew I HAD to use up all my electricity in order to get more. While riding home I calculated that I will have to run my meter down to approximately 15 units this evening. The bed heaters only use 1 unit, so I should wake up to 14 units on the meter – enough for about 1 hour of heat and water for washing and for tea.
Then I will find out if my meter will replenish because of the request Sam has already made or if I’m going to have to initiate the rounds of notification again. By tomorrow evening I should have a full meter.
This system is insane.
Now Wednesday, and with a completely depleted meter I can tell you how things work.
There is no ‘system’ in which a request for recharge is queued. A fellow comes by, whips a card out of his wallet, inserts it into a conveniently hidden slot on the meter face. The meter is then reset. It only takes a minute to do so. After the fact this ‘meter man’ instructed me to call Sam if I run out of electricity during this six-week holiday and he will be right here.
Sam assures me that this fellow is on the compound 24/7. If that is the case, why did I have to freeze my baguettes off that one night? Furthermore, do I want to take the chance that he will not be here within a 4 hour window for a recharge, should I need one?
I’m just going to have to be really careful with my electricity usage. That’s all there is to that.
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