About The Bill Detective

Kagiso Mahlangu is the pen name of this site's editorial team. We use one name and one consistent voice so the site reads like it comes from one place, but there's no single person called Kagiso, and we won't pretend otherwise.

Our guides are researched from published sources: tariff schedules, regulator decisions, municipal notices, manufacturer data and installers' published price lists, plus readers' real experiences when they share them with us. We link every source and give the date we checked it. When we use a scenario to show how the numbers work, we say clearly that it's an example, not a real customer.

What we cover

Solar, batteries and inverters, electricity tariffs and municipal charges, and water backup (tanks, boreholes and restrictions) for South African homes. We're starting with Pretoria and the City of Tshwane, and adding other metros as we go.

How we approach it

• Numbers first. We show the sum, the source and the assumptions so you can redo it with your own bill.
• Sceptical of sales talk. If a claim can't be backed by a published figure, we don't repeat it.
• Honest about the downsides. Some of our guides conclude that solar isn't worth it for some homes. That's the point.

How the site is paid for

The guides are free. If you ask for installer quotes through our free quotes page, we may be paid a referral fee by the installer we match you with, at no cost to you. That never changes what our guides say. We may also earn a commission from some links in future; if we do, we'll say so on the page.

Corrections

Tariffs and prices change, and we make mistakes. If you spot something wrong or out of date, please tell us and we'll fix it and note the change.