Programme terms

1. Who this is between

These terms are between you, the account holder for the electricity supply at the property where the controller is fitted, and Energy Lens (Pty) Ltd, trading as PowerSync. Where the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 applies to this agreement, nothing in it is intended to limit a right that Act gives you, and any term that would do so does not apply to the extent of the conflict.

If you rent the property, you need the owner’s permission before electrical work is done in the distribution board. We will ask you to confirm you have it.

2. What we provide

• A controller, fitted in your distribution board, which remains our property.
• Installation by a registered person, with a certificate of compliance for the work.
• Access to the resident app for as long as you are in the programme.
• Removal or permanent disabling of the controller when you leave.

All of it at no charge to you. There is no payment step in this programme. Nobody acting for us will ever ask you for money, for card details, for banking details, for a password or for a one-time PIN, and if someone does, they are not acting for us.

3. What we may do with your water heating

We may open the circuit that feeds your geyser, so that it does not heat, during:

• a peak window published by your municipality; and
• a grid event, meaning a period in which the network operator has asked for demand to be reduced.

Subject always to the following, which are limits on us, not preferences:

• Your hot-water floor. You set a level below which your hot water should not fall. When the controller’s estimate of your tank approaches it, the controller heats, whatever window is running.
• Your boost. A boost starts immediately, except during a live grid event, when it is queued and starts as the event ends. The app shows the time it will start.
• Loss of contact. If the controller has not heard from us for longer than the validity period of its current instruction, it returns to ordinary heating.
• Loss of power. If supply fails, the geyser is off for that reason alone, and heating resumes with supply.

4. What we do not do

• We do not change your thermostat setting, and we do not touch your geyser, element or plumbing.
• We do not measure the temperature of your water. Every hot-water figure in the app is an estimate, and is shown as one.
• We do not detect leaks, and we make no claim to.
• We do not disconnect your supply, and we have no ability to.
• We do not charge you, and we do not pass your household’s identifiable data to your municipality.

5. Installation

We will contact you to agree a time. Somebody over eighteen must be present. The installer will carry identification and show it; you may verify them on the installer page before letting them in, and a genuine installer will wait while you do.

The installer will isolate the board, fit the controller, clip a sensor around the main incomer, restore supply, test, and issue a certificate of compliance under SANS 10142-1 for the work done. It usually takes twenty to thirty minutes. If your board is not safe to work in, or there is no room on the rail, the installer will stop and tell you why, and we will not proceed.

We do not undertake to repair pre-existing defects in your installation, and finding one is not a reason to blame the controller. If a defect is found that makes the work unsafe, you will be told in writing what it is.

6. Your side of it

• Give us accurate details, and tell us if your contact details change.
• Give safe access at the time agreed.
• Do not tamper with the controller, remove it, or have it worked on by anyone other than a person we appoint.
• Tell us if you have a separate geyser timer or a device that switches the same circuit, so it can be dealt with.
• Tell us if you sell or leave the property, so the controller can be removed or transferred.

7. Changing your mind, and leaving

Within 7 days of enrolling on our website. Because you enrolled on this website, you may cancel within seven days of enrolling, without giving a reason and without penalty. This is your right under section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

Within 5 business days if you signed up at your door. If you enrolled at your door rather than on this website, you may cancel within five business days of enrolling, without giving a reason and without penalty. This is a separate right under section 16 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and it applies to direct marketing rather than to online enrolment.

At any time afterwards. Withdraw in the app, under settings. No reason is required, no notice period applies and there is no charge. From the moment you withdraw we stop controlling your geyser. We will arrange to remove the controller or permanently disable it, and we will need access to do so; until then your geyser heats normally.

We may end your participation on thirty days’ written notice, or immediately if the installation becomes unsafe, if the controller is tampered with, or if the programme ends in your municipality. If we end it, we remove the controller at our cost and restore the circuit to its condition before we touched it.

8. If something goes wrong

Tell us. We would rather look at what the controller actually did than debate what it should have done. Where the fault is ours we fix it at our cost, including replacing the controller.

We are responsible for loss that we cause you and that is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of our breach, including damage to your property caused by work we did. We are not responsible for the consequences of supply interruptions we did not cause, for pre-existing defects in your installation, or for a failure of your geyser, element or thermostat that was not caused by the controller.

Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited — including your rights under the Consumer Protection Act.

9. Your information

What we collect, why, for how long, who else sees it and what rights you have is set out in the privacy notice, which forms part of this agreement. In short: we collect what the programme needs, your municipality gets aggregated results rather than your household’s data, and we do not sell anything to anyone.

10. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. Where a change is material we will tell you through the app and by email at least thirty days before it takes effect, and we will say what changed. If you do not want the change, leaving the programme is free and immediate. We will not apply a change retrospectively, and we will not treat silence as agreement to a change we failed to tell you about.

11. Law, and where a dispute is heard

South African law governs this agreement. You may bring a dispute in any court having jurisdiction, and we consent to the jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court for your area even where the amount would allow a higher court, because it is cheaper and closer for you. You may also refer a dispute to the National Consumer Commission or to an ombud with jurisdiction. Nothing in this clause requires you to arbitrate, and nothing in it prevents you from complaining to a regulator.

12. Contact

info@powersync.co.za. The full particulars of the company, including the address for service of legal documents, are on the company disclosures page.