Solar Power

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glalt
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Re: Solar Power

Post by glalt » March 31, 2018, 11:12 am

A 6,000 watt inverter is not small but is a much better idea than having one very large inverter. I am of the opinion that you are better off to have several smaller solar systems. If one system fails for some reason, you still have some power. Smaller components are much cheaper to maintain than larger ones. Building a new house is also an advantage because you can divide circuits depending on how much power they need and what is most important to to keep powered up, for example, refrigerators and lighting.

Small inverters are basically throw away units. I made a stupid mistake and destroyed a 1,000 watt inverter. Amorn wanted 5,000 baht to repair it. That was more than it cost to start with. I keep a spare inverter and a spare charge controller.



bluejets
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Re: Solar Power

Post by bluejets » March 31, 2018, 2:51 pm

I agree with the multi unit idea.
12kw seems way excessive though.
System I have in Aus is 5kw and on average pokes out 32kwh per day when my average use is 14kwh.
If you are running a lot of rac's perhaps the 12 would make sense. A lot of batteries to maintain though if off grid.
Of course no need to HAVE to have that many panels and still use your bargain inverters.

glalt
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Re: Solar Power

Post by glalt » April 1, 2018, 11:57 am

My new 1,500 watt 24 volt inverter was delivered. I had to hook my four 6 volt batteries in series to get the 24 volts. The MPPT charge controller automatically changes from 12 to 24 volts. The inverter ran fine for about 3 hours. I heard a pop, white smoke came out and it died. I am partial to GAIA inverters having two other ones that do a great job. I contacted GAIA and was told to remove the cover and take pictures. I was dreading sending it back for repair. I was told this was not a common problem for their inverters and to not worry about it. A large capacitor had failed. I asked them if I could change to a 12 volt unit and was told, no problem. They immediately shipped out a replacement. The new inverter is supposed to be delivered by the 6th. I was surprised that I didn't have to send the bad one back. I consider that great service.

It pays to keep a spare. I am using the spare now.

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rjj04
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Re: Solar Power

Post by rjj04 » April 1, 2018, 4:12 pm

fhorst wrote:
March 30, 2018, 7:36 pm
My inverter I bought at Aliexpress..

I am not easily impressed.. but this is really good.
I got 2 x 6000 watts for 600 us $ each, including transport .

12 KW should be enough for our new to build home :-)

Theise are really quality..
Did not expect..
Was it just me, or did the URL that "fhorst" post not get through for others?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/6000W-P ... sstype=600

He asked about DoHome return policy. Anybody know about that?

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fhorst
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Re: Solar Power

Post by fhorst » April 2, 2018, 12:38 pm

rjj04 wrote:
April 1, 2018, 4:12 pm
fhorst wrote:
March 30, 2018, 7:36 pm
My inverter I bought at Aliexpress..

I am not easily impressed.. but this is really good.
I got 2 x 6000 watts for 600 us $ each, including transport .

12 KW should be enough for our new to build home :-)

Theise are really quality..
Did not expect..
Was it just me, or did the URL that "fhorst" post not get through for others?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/6000W-P ... sstype=600

He asked about DoHome return policy. Anybody know about that?
Thank you for reposting the link .. I used the mapurl ...
Not the best choice.. as I to can't see the link :-)
If it can't be done, it never happened..

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fhorst
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Re: Solar Power

Post by fhorst » April 2, 2018, 12:46 pm

Do some of you know a good builder close to Phen? ( about 20 km towards the Laos border. Middle of nowhere)

I talked to some, seen some work, and had some work done for the father of my wife...

Crapo rice farmers...
It is not building something to last..a year...
With total no knowledge of the materials they use...

I hate to build a house by myself... takes long time..
But the crap I see mostly build, I am not going to waist my money on that!..

Alternatives are appreciated!!
If it can't be done, it never happened..

glalt
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Re: Solar Power

Post by glalt » April 5, 2018, 10:54 am

glalt wrote:
April 1, 2018, 11:57 am
My new 1,500 watt 24 volt inverter was delivered. I had to hook my four 6 volt batteries in series to get the 24 volts. The MPPT charge controller automatically changes from 12 to 24 volts. The inverter ran fine for about 3 hours. I heard a pop, white smoke came out and it died. I am partial to GAIA inverters having two other ones that do a great job. I contacted GAIA and was told to remove the cover and take pictures. I was dreading sending it back for repair. I was told this was not a common problem for their inverters and to not worry about it. A large capacitor had failed. I asked them if I could change to a 12 volt unit and was told, no problem. They immediately shipped out a replacement. The new inverter is supposed to be delivered by the 6th. I was surprised that I didn't have to send the bad one back. I consider that great service.

It pays to keep a spare. I am using the spare now.
My new replacement inverter came yesterday. It is connected and running exactly as it is supposed to. I was again surprised that they sent it UPS so it got here quickly.

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fhorst
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Re: Solar Power

Post by fhorst » April 7, 2018, 7:27 am

My new replacement inverter came yesterday. It is connected and running exactly as it is supposed to. I was again surprised that they sent it UPS so it got here quickly.
Longer then 3 hours this time =D>
(Joke)
If it can't be done, it never happened..

ytrewq
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Re: Solar Power

Post by ytrewq » April 9, 2018, 6:04 am

Regarding my wet dream a few posts back.

Your Future Home Might Be Powered By Car Batteries
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... might-work

I'll be an old geezer and likely won't care much by then, but I'm sure at least one of my kids will take our house and do this. I designed and oriented our home with solar panel roof shingles in mind before Tesla invented their product. It just seemed to make sense these things will eventually happen.

Dedicated car battery charging outlet already in place. Just waiting for electric car prices to come WAY down and Thailand to catch up.

:lol:

bluejets
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Re: Solar Power

Post by bluejets » April 10, 2018, 5:25 am

No mention of what they intend to do with all those used up car batteries after maybe 7to 10 years.

ytrewq
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Re: Solar Power

Post by ytrewq » April 10, 2018, 7:09 am

Tesla recycles all batteries. Very old news.

bluejets
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Re: Solar Power

Post by bluejets » April 10, 2018, 10:14 am

Agreed, but at what cost?
Also as more suppliers come to the market, one would have to have their head in the sand not to expect a cheaper range to flood the market.
Therein lies the problem.

glalt
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Re: Solar Power

Post by glalt » April 10, 2018, 11:04 am

I was looking for suitable home sized solar lithium battery banks. I discovered that there are now ten major suppliers. Some of them are using recycled electric car batteries, whatever recycled means. Unfortunately I found no bargains. Still way too expensive.

bluejets
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Re: Solar Power

Post by bluejets » April 10, 2018, 4:39 pm

Speaking from experience here....couple of years back, took so called recyclable parts back to wholesaler.
Was promptly told cost was prohibitive and parts chucked in the nearest rubbish bin.

ytrewq
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Re: Solar Power

Post by ytrewq » April 10, 2018, 11:01 pm

Google still works:

Recycle Tesla batteries

ytrewq
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Re: Solar Power

Post by ytrewq » April 25, 2018, 7:08 pm

\:D/

FLASH! Just received first full billing cycle PEA bill since they switched us to the digital meter.

45 baht!!!

Service charge fee only. Confirmed the dates and all. I'm dancing a jig!

Looking forward to next bill to double-confirm. Woot-Woot!

\:D/

I'll worry about what might have happened to any overage some other time. Today is a happy day!

ytrewq
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Re: Solar Power

Post by ytrewq » April 26, 2018, 9:19 am

So, I am thinking: If the electric bill is correct, then obviously the understanding provided by the group of PEA folks when they installed it was not correct. On whose end is irrelevant.

As the new meter is a "smart" meter, I am thinking it aggregates the flows and reports a net usage to the person who manually reads the meter (the wife confirmed she saw him standing on his motorbike reading the meter and engaged him in conversation). I further postulate the person then manually plugs the net usage into their billing system. That would guarantee no negative numbers, and thus financial liability, for the duration of this "pilot program". Excess production goes *poof* into a spreadsheet (or whatever) for consumption by the higher-ups as they grapple with how best to keep the graft going and coffers full when rooftop solar goes mainstream and everyone is producing excess capacity.

Devil's Advocate hat on: Methinks massive overproduction is a real threat and concern. We, for example, could install solar systems on all our family's shacks and whatnot - guaranteeing significant monthly overproduction for each. The applications would be in their names while the bank accounts would be effectively or actually ours. That would be a nice monthly income stream, to say the least.

ytrewq
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Re: Solar Power

Post by ytrewq » April 30, 2018, 8:21 am

Holy, Trump is a wonderful idiot! \:D/

The 330 wp panels we bought last year are ~25% cheaper right now. Just 5k baht per panel!

http://kjsolars.com/product-th-1007172- ... odule.html

I am looking to maybe buy another 8 for the sunrise side of the garage pending verification of what this smart meter is doing to eliminate our bill. More clouds during rainy season, so laying low for a bit.

glalt
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Re: Solar Power

Post by glalt » April 30, 2018, 8:59 am

Cheaper solar panels are fine. They are the most robust and longest lasting components. The main effort should be in developing cheaper longer lasting ways to store the power. The most common batteries are using technology that is 150 years old. Certainly we can do better than that. Battery technology has come a long ways but the main effort is to make them more powerful and more importantly lighter. For solar and home use, we really don't care about the weight of the batteries. It should be apparent that grid tie systems are not the answer. The goal should be to totally escape the grid.

bluejets
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Re: Solar Power

Post by bluejets » May 1, 2018, 5:38 am

ytrewq wrote:
April 26, 2018, 9:19 am
So, I am thinking: If the electric bill is correct,

As the new meter is a "smart" meter, I am thinking it aggregates the flows and reports a net usage to the person who manually reads the meter (the wife confirmed she saw him standing on his motorbike reading the meter
Seems strange as the meters normally have the ability to be read from a distance with the appropriate gear. You quoted earlier that reading the meter is done by a different PEA employee so I assume this would be the case.

Smart meters tally all the details with any differing tariffs and any feedback being listed as a separate item.(in Aus I have 4 different tallies)

If the index button is active on the meter, you should be able to scan through the menu yourself providing you have the necessary ladder.

As it is a pilot program with no feedback being credited at this stage as you quoted earlier, either you didn't use any power ( doubtful) or the bloke read it wrong (possible but unlikely, basic decimal number) or the staff at PEA did a wrong maths calculation between last reading and this (possible) or the bloke who installed it didn't connect the lines and load appropriately (highly possible as connections differ)

I'd say nothing, maybe you are on a roll for free power. 8)

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