ExpatOilWorker

You already had the diesel generator and wiring up comes as second nature to you, but isn't the generator pretty much redundant? It will have to be a long night, with ur 95 kWh totally drained and the grid down before you really need it. DEFCON 1 or you have a box of candles for the very end?

They burn through 6.5 million baht/month, but at least we have a 30,000 litre diesel carbon footprint 👣 every day.

Good suggestions, but no and it is complicated. The generators work great and have good voltage, most of the time, but they each have about 50,000 running hours and we have had a few unscheduled shutdowns. PEA is the only alternative, but they are not interested is selling more power. PEA run their own generators, but since they by law has to sell at the government rate, they are making a loss on every kWh they produce. On top of that, my impedance is 1.25 ohms, which shave off another 5-10 V depending on load. Solar 🌞 it is.

Currently 167 V, but can at times drop below 160 V. I already have the AVR, so my only worry is if there is any possibility the AVR and inverter will "fight" each other, possibly cause damage to either unit. It is reassuring that the inverter simply just disconnect below 180 V and jumps to battery, but that creates a new problem. If the battery runs out, the inverter will switch to grid, potentially damaging pumps and other household equipment with low voltage.

There is an alternative solution, but it involves Putin in a grave.

@Crossy, should a AVR be installed before a hybrid inverter if grid voltage is somewhat on the low side? If yes, does it make a difference if the AVR is of the relay, servo or thyristor type?

Nah, I will let Somchai do all the mistakes. I hope to sit down with the vendor later this week. Target for installation is July this year. It will be a system very similar in size to yours. What brand do you have for inverter and panels?

Solar was in its infancy and prohibitively expensive when the generators were installed 15 years ago. They have done well and been a reliable source of power, but lately time, weather and geckos are starting to play tricks on various control boards. Thanks to the price drop in solar, it is time to move on. By the way, PEA is still running the rest of the island on 8 huge generators and are bringing in tons of diesel ⛽️ every second night.

From a reliability point of view would it make sense to have 2 x 5 kW inverters rather than a single 10 kW inverter? I am remote, so help is far away.

Thanks for the offer, much appreciated, but I am on one of the islands far from Isaan. I will visit thaisolarsystems shop in Bangkok and see what they suggest.

Have the price really fallen that much since you bought in August last year? What is the difference between the SG03 and SG05?

That is a big system. What size of array and what brand of panels do you have?

Weight might be the limiting factor for my choice of battery. 130 kg up my 120 step narrow staircase just isn't possible.

5 panels less, so pretty much identical to the CBC price, but I certainly like the Deye battery pricing. 15 kWh for 64,500 baht is just eye-watering. I might go for 30 kWh. Sorry, just realized it is not a Deye brand battery. Google works in strange ways.

Thanks for your reply. Contract installed. I got a 200,000 baht quote from CBC for the following, but if Deye is a better brand and you know a contractor, please share. 5 kW inverter 5 kWh battery (extra batteries are 40k) 14 x 540 kW panels

Norway 🇳🇴 did the same tax "mistake".

20 kWh/day should cover 90% of my usage, which is almost all AC usage: 2,000 W aircon (2 × 9,0000 BTU) 500 W pool pump (4 hours/day) 50 W TV 150 W fridge 150 W LED lights + fan + wifi 200 W water pump (1/2 hour/day) Very intermittent low usage: 1,800 W vacuum cleaner 600 W toaster 800 W nespresso Is it straight forward and trouble free to add an extra inverter and battery on an existing system? If yes, then I could start out with: 5 kW inverter 20 kWh (4 × 5 kWh) battery 12,800 W panels What do you think? Last, but an important question. We do have the occasional power cut for an hour or two. Is it possible to set the inverter never to go below 20% battery, so as to keep the last 20% as an UPS function?

We are a group of 19 villas that run on a communal generator. The generator is way oversized, 60 kVA, and burns through 3,600 l of diesel ⛽️ every month.

American 🇺🇸 got a new president, according to Swedish TV.

Now that we have established that Vinny and this Oily fellow is the gold standard of EV knowledge, I want to come clean and confess I am in the process of installing solar power. I know it is a very dangerous and slippery slope, that over time could lead to an EV, but since I am paying 30 baht/kWh, it is a risk worth taking. At the moment I am using 12 litre of diesel daily to generate electricity, so the main problem is how to maintain my carbon footprint 👣 when switching to solar 😉.

Perfect, the 8.2 kWh number was exactly what I was looking for and it looks like that can easily happen 3 days in a row. Meaning even on extreme low solar days the panels still deliver approximately 1 hour of nominal rating. On the other end, looks like it is also possible to get 6 hours or almost 50 kWh on the 18th of August. Good stuff, thanks. The Inverter has 2 strings of 600 V, so I am considering 2×10 of the below panels, if I have the roof space.

Based on UWEB's link, the CBC 200,000 baht quote is about right. https://www.thaisolarsystem.com/product/1162/ชุด-hybrid-ongrid-deye-5k-1-phase-battery-5kwh-พร้อมติดตั้ง

Zero might be a bit on the low side. Crossy's all time low is 13.9 kWh from 11 kW of panels on a cloudy ⛅️ October in 2023. What was your all time daily low and at what size array?

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Right, you basically curtail power generation on most normal days. I am not really concerned about sunny days, they will always produce more than needed. Crossy is getting 20 kWh out of his 23 kW panels on rainy days. Similar it looks like you are getting 8-10 kWh out of your 9.7 kW panels. Do you recall the lowest couple of days you have ever had?