Checking if your Umeme Yaka Customer interface Unit (CIU) is yours – #001#
You really don’t want to be paying someone else’s bill and as such, you have to make sure that the meter that has been installed at your premises is yours. We’ve heard of incidences where meters were accidentally swapped and an individual was paying an outrageous neighbours’ bill. Checking this is simple and you don’t have to do it manually. Your meter can help you do it automatically. switch on a bulb near your meter and press #001# > Your power will temporarily go off for a second and come back on. That is proof that the meter is yours. If it doesn’t go off then that meter isn’t yours.
Checking your Umeme Yaka Customer interface Unit (CIU) number – #100#
For whatever reason, you may have forgotten your meter number, there is a way to retrieve it from your meter without calling customer care. May be you want to buy more units but you didn’t write down your meter number or may be your lost your Yaka card that has the number written on it. All you have to do is press #100# and it will display the meter number
Time remaining before disconnection – #074#
This comes in handy when you are projecting and planning for your power. The Yaka meter can help you estimate the remaining time before disconnection so that you add more units before it automatically disconnects your power. To find out the time remaining before disconnection, press #074# and the meter will display the estimated time remaining before disconnection. This will help you know how soon you need to reload units.
Silencing the Umeme Yaka Buzzer – Press the Back Button
Whenever the units go below 15, the Yaka meter has an annoying beep that it sounds every so often and trust me that it can get really annoying. Worry not. Turning off the bepper is easy. Just press the back button with an arrow on it (Its located on the left hand lower corner of the meter) for about 5-8 seconds until it beeps. When it beeps release it and Voila! the beep will be off for the next twelve hours after which it will continue reminding you that your power has run low. The only way to permanently silence the buzzer is to always make sure you have more than 15 units
Reason for Last disconnect – #073#
You may be disconnected and you aren’t sure why you were disconnected. With the Yaka meter, you don’t have to call UMEME customer care all the time. Just press #073# and it will display the reason for the last disconnect. This important especially when you have shifted into a new house and you need to get some history about the former user so that you don’t inherit issues. or may be you want to know why power was disconnected a few days ago. The Yaka meter will be able to tell you that.
Calculating your Umeme Yaka power bill
Your meter reading is representative of your power bill. However, it only constitutes part of the bill. Umeme has other charges that it levies on top of your meter reading which you just simply see on the meter. Umeme charges the first 15 units that you consume UGX 150 per unit. The proceeding units are charged UGX 520.6 per unit.Then there’s a monthly service fee of UGX 3,360. Umeme then charges 18% on VAT on your total bill. How you can reconcile your own estimates and Umeme’s requires some intricate technical knowledge which thankfully we have published in this post. Have you found these tricks useful? If so please share with your colleagues too so that they can make the best of their YAKA. If you know any more tricks please share with us in the comments so we can update this list. Image: conlog.co.za
