Buriram Expats
Buriram Province - General Category => Internet, computers, communication, technology in Isaan => Topic started by: Bandersnatch on October 26, 2021, 07:19:19 PM
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Day 1 on my Home Solar Upgrade adding 10 x 535 Watt solar panels to the roof of the third floor of my house.
https://youtu.be/_kg5wpByrgs
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Interesting. Thx, will be most certainly following your progress as I (a long time already) intend to get Solar also as I have lots of Roof Space (1x Garage approx 40sqm 1x my water storage "shed" (approx 100+ Sqm) and our house (approx 150+ Sqm).
Question please
Do you have a SMART PEA meter or are your producing Electric via Solar and the meter is running backwards?
TiA
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"meter is running backwards" - I have seen many times online comments like "I have a mate who has solar and he runs the meter backwards and PEA Nakon Nowhere are fine about it"
It is is true that many PEA offices are unsure about their own rules regarding solar, but you cannot run your meter backward - it is feeding power back into the grid. When PEA power down for repairs the line will still be live.
The "Rooftop Solar" feed-in program pays 2.2 Baht per kWh compared to 4 Baht that you buy power for. Why would PEA only pay 2.2 Baht per kWh for an approved scheme and yet allow people to run the meter backwards and get 4 Baht per kWh.
I did not go for The "Rooftop Solar" feed-in program as it has too many restrictions the main one being a 5kW cap for a single phase setup like mine.
I have a solar meter that cannot be turned backwards or accept power back into the grid.
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"meter is running backwards" - I have seen many times online comments like "I have a mate who has solar and he runs the meter backwards and PEA Nakon Nowhere are fine about it"
It is is true that many PEA offices are unsure about their own rules regarding solar, but you cannot run your meter backward - it is feeding power back into the grid. When PEA power down for repairs the line will still be live.
The "Rooftop Solar" feed-in program pays 2.2 Baht per kWh compared to 4 Baht that you buy power for. Why would PEA only pay 2.2 Baht per kWh for an approved scheme and yet allow people to run the meter backwards and get 4 Baht per kWh.
I did not go for The "Rooftop Solar" feed-in program as it has too many restrictions the main one being a 5kW cap for a single phase setup like mine.
I have a solar meter that cannot be turned backwards or accept power back into the grid.
Sorry for being thick but, are you saying that you cannot get money off your electricity bill unless you enrol in the "Rooftop solar" scheme? How about these guys that say their meter is going backwards. They must be watching it. Are you saying they are getting nothing for it?
You say that solar will send power back to the grid, the meter is running backwards but PEA are not paying anything. I am interested in solar power and kindly ask if you could simplify your explanation of what happens. Thanks for helping a novice in these matters.
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"meter is running backwards" - I have seen many times online comments like "I have a mate who has solar and he runs the meter backwards and PEA Nakon Nowhere are fine about it"
It is is true that many PEA offices are unsure about their own rules regarding solar, but you cannot run your meter backward - it is feeding power back into the grid. When PEA power down for repairs the line will still be live.
The "Rooftop Solar" feed-in program pays 2.2 Baht per kWh compared to 4 Baht that you buy power for. Why would PEA only pay 2.2 Baht per kWh for an approved scheme and yet allow people to run the meter backwards and get 4 Baht per kWh.
I did not go for The "Rooftop Solar" feed-in program as it has too many restrictions the main one being a 5kW cap for a single phase setup like mine.
I have a solar meter that cannot be turned backwards or accept power back into the grid.
Sorry that I asked!
I have no idea about this, I was just thinking of (MAYBE) going solar!
The only solar we have is for our Well pump and (maybe) thought of expanding that!
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@ChuckNorris
You cannot get paid for selling electricity back to PEA unless you are in the "Rooftop solar" scheme
Some people try to feed back their excess solar which for a normal meter will spin it backwards, which is both illegal and dangerous. PEA came to check my system to make sure I wasn't trying to spin my meter backwards.
The legal way is to produce some of your own power from solar and so reduce the amount you have to buy from PEA.
The cheapest entry into solar would be a system with no batteries that covers say 80% of daytime usage with solar panels. 1 unit of electricity (1 kilowatt hour) costs 4 Baht. If you installed 1kW of solar panels and the sun shines for 8 hours a day that would save you 32 Baht per day. So for every kW of solar you have you are saving 1,000 Baht per month of your PEA bill
Solar panels cost about 10 Baht per watt. Inverters cost about 10,000 Baht per kilowatt - hope that is clear enough
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@iammike I am happy to answer questions about solar. If I am not making it clear enough, please feel free to seek further clarification.
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@ChuckNorris
You cannot get paid for selling electricity back to PEA unless you are in the "Rooftop solar" scheme
Some people try to feed back their excess solar which for a normal meter will spin it backwards, which is both illegal and dangerous. PEA came to check my system to make sure I wasn't trying to spin my meter backwards.
The legal way is to produce some of your own power from solar and so reduce the amount you have to buy from PEA.
The cheapest entry into solar would be a system with no batteries that covers say 80% of daytime usage with solar panels. 1 unit of electricity (1 kilowatt hour) costs 4 Baht. If you installed 1kW of solar panels and the sun shines for 8 hours a day that would save you 32 Baht per day. So for every kW of solar you have you are saving 1,000 Baht per month of your PEA bill
Solar panels cost about 10 Baht per watt. Inverters cost about 10,000 Baht per kilowatt - hope that is clear enough
Thanks. I'm getting there. thumbup
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@Bandersnatch PEA Korat where meant to come yesterday to do our "Rooftop Solar Scheme" Inspection but never showed. Has been 10 months now waiting for the "Smart Meter"!!! You mention a 5 kw cap restriction put you off joining the scheme. I have not heard of that restriction and I'm sure PEA know our system is 10Kw??
In event of a blackout or grey-out inverters are designed to shut down automatically and stop power export to the grid so as you do not electrocute the sparky working on the power lines downstream.
Hopefully on the 7th of next month I will have 15kwh of batteries and a "Back up Box" (separate fuse board for essential appliances) installed. In this case the Inverter will still continue to power the essential appliances and charge the batteries but not export back to the power grid.
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@fishy
I would not claim to be an expert of the "Rooftop Solar" program - I investigated it 3 years ago and I am sure it have changed since then. At the time the feed in tariff was 1.68 Baht/KWh but as so few people had signed up for it (They had targets to meet) they raised it to 2.2 Baht.
The solar team from PEA Korat are definitely the experts in the region and were streets ahead of PEA Surin. They did a site visit and signed off my system as safe.
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Home Solar Upgrade Day 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbIctjHk4A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbIctjHk4A)
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Love your work... Keep it up
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Home Solar Upgrade Day 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp5Zv3uaWI4
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It's up and running now. Some final configuration still to do, so will post a final video in a few days.
(https://i.imgur.com/xcUn4rv.jpg)
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Very Nice.... Looks like every inverter has a its own "Dongle" to communicate between each other via WIFI rather than through cable.
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Very Nice.... Looks like every inverter has a its own "Dongle" to communicate between each other via WIFI rather than through cable.
The inverters and batteries communicate with each other via LAN cable. The WiFi dongles on the inverter are to communicate with the app on my phone
Each Inverter and it's battery has its own data on the app
(https://i.imgur.com/hDCMs6m.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/6zH9l1U.jpg)
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When I see a set up like that it makes me realise how much more I need to learn. A whole lot more.
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May I ask about the ROI of a system like this?
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@iammike
"May I ask about the ROI of a system like this? "
I discussed some of this in my reply to ChuckNorris
"The cheapest entry into solar would be a system with no batteries that covers say 80% of daytime usage with solar panels. 1 unit of electricity (1 kilowatt hour) costs 4 Baht. If you installed 1kW of solar panels and the sun shines for 8 hours a day that would save you 32 Baht per day. So for every kW of solar you have you are saving 1,000 Baht per month of your PEA bill
Solar panels cost about 10 Baht per watt. Inverters cost about 10,000 Baht per kilowatt "
So if your reason for buying solar is purely the maximum financial bang for your buck you would never buy more solar panel kWs that than you can consume. So for instance a 3 kW system without batteries would probably have a 2-3 year payback.
My approach is different - I have money sitting in the bank earning 0.5% interest - I don't ever want to have a power cut (quite common where I live) - I want to produce power for my car.
I am probably looking at a 5-6 year payback but I am off-grid and that costs a premium.
Even if it was a 10 year payback that would be a 10% return on my investment far better than the 0.5% I currently getting.
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Thx for the explanation.
I have the same issue as you, I have an amount in my Bank Account because of a land deal that didn't go through (was trying to expand our plot from 3,5 to 7,5 Rai) but I am a bit torn between the inclu Battery option or not.
Most of our electricity usage is either early morning or early evening and at night.
Early morning (between 6 and 7:30) and early evening (between 5pm and 6:30pm) it is watering the wife's extensive garden and filling up the Tanks (also for her garden) and at night it's aircon!
So Solar Panels won't be much help, but I could go for the scheme with the smart meter that will offset our electricity usage a bit. (or for the back spinning meter :biggrin: 555555555555
Also one more issue (I think) with batteries is that there is a EOL after so many charge cycles and what I have seen batteries (for solar) are not the cheapest. (also not the safest unfortunately)
Maybe I am talking BS here because I do not hardly know enough to make an informed decision (yet)
But very interesting thread and very interesting setup.
TiA
Ps: We also have a lot of Power Cuts (that's why I have a separate UPS for all my major appliances. (But the power cuts here are not as bad as in the old house,
normal occurrence there was 1-2 hours a day and even worse in the weekends (up to 18 hours one time)
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Hi @iammike - I would not recommend a system like mine for most people. Going completely off-grid is expensive (if you want to be comfortable) or you have to live a very simple life.
Regarding battery cycle life - In one of the videos I explained that my lithium iron phosphate batteries have a 6,000+ cycle life based on a recommended depth of discharge of 80% which is over 16 years. I am currently running my batteries down by only 25% so this would put less stress on the batteries and give them a longer life.
I don't know if you have read my Blog but there are sections on it that may be of interest to you. I have 3 solar well pumps and drip feed irrigation system.
https://ecohousethailand.com/water/ (https://ecohousethailand.com/water/)
https://ecohousethailand.com/food-farm/ (https://ecohousethailand.com/food-farm/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnrGsZY53P4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnrGsZY53P4)
(https://ecohousethailand.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/20190705_025114755_ios.jpg)
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Thanks
I see in here https://ecohousethailand.com/food-farm/ that you use a 500 Watt Pump for the Garden. May I ask how SQM meters (in total) it covers?
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Thanks
I see in here https://ecohousethailand.com/food-farm/ that you use a 500 Watt Pump for the Garden. May I ask how SQM meters (in total) it covers?
400m (not square m) of drip irrigation line with a drip point every meter
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"The legal way is to produce some of your own power from solar and so reduce the amount you have to buy from PEA.
The cheapest entry into solar would be a system with no batteries that covers say 80% of daytime usage with solar panels.
1 unit of electricity (1 kilowatt hour) costs 4 Baht. If you installed 1kW of solar panels and the sun shines for 8 hours a day
that would save you 32 Baht per day. So for every kW of solar you have you are saving 1,000 Baht per month of your PEA bill"
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This makes sense to me and sounds like a great place to start. Appreciate you information!
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GROWATT SPF 5000 ES Inverter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vtDPisp0pU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vtDPisp0pU)
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Added a few more solar panels
https://youtu.be/L_dpqTP99P8