Solar energy Incentive

[bumper]

Looks like the cat may be out of the bag, wonder what this will lead to, if anything

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... t-on-graft

[glalt]

Our small village installed a number of these solar powered street lights. I thought it was a great idea. They were working quite well. Last week thieves stole the deep cycle batteries out of the street lights. Will the batteries be replaced and the installation made more secure? That's the next question. Will they even try to catch the thieves?

[FrazeeDK]

you'll probably never see the batteries replaced since undoubtedly no spares were bought for such an eventuality.. Any needed replacements will have to be "ordered" from Bangkok and probably further back-ordered from overseas. As for the thieves, no doubt many folks in the village know exactly who they are but won't turn them in... TIT....

[rjj04]

When one thinks of "roof-top solar", one usually pictures a house with solar panels on the roof... well, TIT.
It seems that Global House will put solar panels on ten of their retail buildings. They will be taking advantage of the Thai government's solar "roof-top" program. Oh well, at least it is a start. Hopefully it will wake them up and Global House will start to sell solar grid-tie systems in their shops, possibly driving down prices. One can only hope.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazi ... iland.html


FYI I bought and installed the 1500W grid-tie system from Amorn. This month my monthly PEA meter reading should go backwards (the amount showing on the meter should be less than last month). I will give a report on my impressions of the system and how PEA handles the meter anomaly in a few weeks.

[rjj04]

After having a couple of experiences at Global House where the roof made ominous noises during wind storms, I hope they reinforce these buildings properly before installed

3100 * (50lbs + 5lbs ballast) = 170,500 lbs more on each roof

Siam Global House roof collapse...
http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/six-ki ... rainstorm/

[glalt]

I have never been fond of those MC4 connectors. A couple days ago one of my panels stopped working. Sure enough one of the connectors failed the continuity test. I cut both of those connectors out and wired them directly. No more of those connectors for me. I can't see much advantage of connectors anyways. On the rare occasion of having to work on something, it's pretty easy to splice wires together.

[rjj04]

Yeah, I know what you mean about the MC4 connectors. It seems that, even with a 4sqmm wire, they will pull off the wire easily. My dog yanked one off when I had the panels just sitting on some auto tires. They do seem to work very well with the 16sqmm Aluminum black insulated wire I have been using on my new setup. As far as decoupling between the two connectors, if you here them click when you connect them they will stay that way, but if you don't crimp them properly the connection won't be secure. At least that is what I have seen. I think the big benefit is that the MC4 connectors are water-tight, so when using Aluminum wire to connect with the panel wires (being Copper), you will get galvanic corrosion over time and you might unwittingly lose power for a few months before even realizing you have a problem. The MC4 connectors are also a bit expensive.

[glalt]

I like the brass connectors with the two little screws. That brass piece is encased in some sort of plastic. I buy them large enough that the insulated wire will fit through them. I slip the connector over the insulated portion of one wire, twist the copper strands together and slip the connector over the twisted together bare wires, tighten the screws and wrap it in electrical tape. If I happen to have a roll of self vulcanizing tape around, I use it then use electrical tape. It will be weather tight. Kind of ugly but it makes a secure connection.

[rjj04]

Self-amalgamating tape... good tip!! Where did you find that here? Global, Home Pro? Or did you order it online?

[glalt]

Self-amalgamating tape... good tip!! Where did you find that here? Global, Home Pro? Or did you order it online?

Most electrical shops will have it. On first look it looks like ordinary electrical tape so it is easy to miss it.

[glalt]

Now that we're having some bright sunny days, I have found my batteries charging quickly with my two panels. I had a double pole double throw switch and decided to use it to connect one panel. On a bright day I leave one panel charging the batteries and the other feeding my small grid tie inverter. With the double throw switch, I can quickly put it back to charging the batteries on a cloudy day. Today was the first day I used it and it appears to work great.

[bumper]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/new ... d-for-time

Thought this was interesting a lot of projects have not broken ground yet

[FrazeeDK]

there are what seem to be commercial solar farms on the road between Nong Kkai and Udon.. There are some others on the KK-Udon road.. I've never seen any news on these fairly large solar farms... They appear to be well maintained. I wonder what their output might be..?

[udonmac]

Hy guys

We stay in a farm outside udon with no electric power.
Now i want to buy a small solar-System for:

- 1 waterpump (we pump the water from the deep ground to a big tank)
- 1 Refrigerator
- 1-2 TV's (evening for 4-6 hours)
- 2-3 fans (no Airconditioning)
- about 6 normal lights (evening for 4-6 hours)
- Charge 2 smartphones/day

Need your help because i don't know what i need; what kind of Watt-System.
500 Watt / 1000 Watt or more ? What Kind of Panels ?
How much in THB will the System cost about (inkl. batteries and all other things we need) ?


Maybe i can buy the stuff at Amorn in Big C ?
can someone help us ?

thank you very much
udonmac

[glalt]

Where do you get your power from now? If you have a submersible water pump, that would be a big user. You need to determine how many watts you need. Old TV's use a lot more power than newer ones such as LCD or better yet, LED models. Modern refrigerators are also more efficient than old models.

[udonmac]

Till now we had the power from a near temple (300m), but this temple will be closed end this year.
Not possible to get the power in the future from there.

[glalt]

I can tell you that my wife and I were planning on building a new home on a small farm that was not on the electric grid. I calculated a 3,200 watt off grid system for the house. The total cost for the solar system would have been about 250,000 baht. It still required a 5,000 watt generator to run a submersible water pump to top off the water storage tanks. The supply pump for the house would have been a standard pump and solar powered.

To my great relief, we decided to add on and remodel our existing home. I am still a fan of solar power and have two small systems, one at the house and another at that farm. At the house, the solar system runs my computer room and at the very small week end house at the farm, it runs a TV, satellite dish, DVD player, lights and a small water pump. Both my small systems have been trouble free and I am pleased with them. I designed and built both systems myself.

[maaka]

Well done matey...I am in the middle of putting in two solar systems at mo, one in NZ in my new barn / mancave, and one in our new Thai house when the time is right..

for the barn which I will live in, I bought a new 120w monocrystal panel..somehow I have ended up with two, because I double clicked on the auction...nevermind, can never have enough solar panels.. they are massive in size..1200mm x 700mm..I also purchased a reel of house wiring, a 135ah deep cycle battery, a C30a Tracer Controller Mppt, a 12v Flojet water pump, and all the light / wall sockets..all for less than 25,000baht..I got an old house switchboard / fuseboard, and now it just a matter of connecting it altogether...

some of these mobile home/ RV distributors sell alot of handy 12v stuff, which can be used in a system like mine, and these modern yachts are coming up with some nice 12v stuff also..so if you cant find a solar shop, check online for one of the above

[glalt]

At the house I have two panels, a 310 watt and a 275 watt. They go through an MPPT 30 amp controller and charge four 65 AH sealed batteries. Since the batteries are in a closed room, I chose the AGM sealed batteries. The batteries feed a 600 watt pure sine wave inverter. My computer is normally running about 12 hours a day. The two panels charge the batteries quickly on a sunny day so I have a double throw switch to feed one panel through a grid tie inverter. Not much wasted energy that way.

At the farm I have two 275 watt panels, a 20 amp MPPT controller feeding two flooded cell 125 AH batteries and an 800 watt pure sine wave inverter.

I have a spare 40 amp MPPT controller and an extra 2500 watt inverter.

[qon]

Hi
Here is a challenge! how to design a 3 ways backup system: Solar, grid eletricity, diesel. Interruption and switch over system is not a problem, design for a stand alone cool room system. The challenge is in the fool proofed 3 way switch system. All systems are calibrated to power requirements.