Bandersnatch

1 hour ago, connda said:

The way things are going Renewables and Hydro have probably already overtaken Coal in the electricity generation mix in Thailand, particularly as published figures do not include domestic production (There is no permitting requirement for domestic solar here)

1 hour ago, dutch boy said:

the global alarmists will keep buying them and keep losing money. So very funny.

You need to support your comments with some evidence. Nobody is interested in uninformed opinions.

I don’t pay to fuel my EVs as they are powered by solar.

V2L helps me from having an electric bill.
 

Road tax on EVs is considerably less than ICE vehicles. A diesel pickup can cost ฿5,000/yr

“The DLT attributed the jump to the annual tax break for newly registered complete built-up EVs, which began in May last year and will run until November 2025.

Under the measure, EVs weighing under 1,800 kilogrammes will be taxed 320 baht annually instead of 1,600 baht.“

https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2024/03/05/tax-breaks-triple-thailands-electric-vehicle-registrations

The usual negative fiction from the EV haters, so how about some facts for balance 

Several AN members, including myself, bought the BYD Seal when it was launched in Thailand last year.

It comes with 8 years of 100% free servicing (parts and labour) 8 years warranty on the car and battery (guaranteed to not fall below 70% capacity) 

I chose the BYD Seal over the Tesla model 3 for the following reasons:

It was considerably cheaper,

it comes with LiFePO4 across the range which is far safer battery chemistry and has a far longer cycle life at the expense of energy density,

it comes with bi-directional charging.

As I am off-grid (no meter) I use the Seal for backup power for the house.

If in 8 years time the battery capacity has really dropped by 30% (unlikely as that would mean BYD would have had to fork out for many batteries that had fallen below 70%) I would still have nearly 5 Tesla Power-walls of backup energy storage. Meaning the seal would be worth far more than the average 8 year old car just in terms of energy storage alone.

21 hours ago, CharlesHolzhauer said:

Many thanks for this very useful information. I had no idea that the panels are sensitive to heat - thanks again.

I wouldn’t worry too much about heat. It is a factor but not a significant factor in my experience.

For every degree above 25°C, a solar panel's output can decrease by around 0.3% for a modern efficient panel.
So for every 10 degrees you loose just 3%

It is not ambient temperature that causes panel temperature to rise but Solar Radiance - which is the thing that makes solar power. So a cloudy day leads to a cooler panel but less solar production 

e.g. 10kW on a sunny day produces 50kW at 90% efficiency = 45kW

10kW on a cloudy day produces 30kW at 100% efficiency = 30kW

 
Why are the biggest Solar Parks in the world all in hot places?

1st Golmud Desert Solar Park — China

2nd Bhadla Solar Park — India

3rd Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park — UAE

4th Pavagada Solar Park — India

5th Benban Solar Park — Egypt

6th The Tengger Desert Solar Park — China

7th Noor Abu Dhabi Solar Power Project — Abu Dhabi

49 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

thought you might recognize this charger

Mine has been nagging me for updates via the app

2 minutes ago, CharlesHolzhauer said:

Hypothetically, if cost is not a major issue, and my calculated usage is x kW, with double the required roof space available for panels (excluding the house roof), can you see any reasons not to utilize all available roof space for panel installation? This setup would exceed the calculated kW by about 100% and store the excess solar power in a bank of batteries.

I have had solar and batteries for 7 years now.

Most people usually think batteries are to cover night time usage, but in fact their primary benefit is to act as a buffer storage for your solar production.

e.g. Your load for 12 hours of daylight is 12kWh and your solar production is also 12KWh. So you might think you can cover your energy load 100% from solar, but your load will vary wildly during the day as will solar production as the weather changes.

A small battery will help cover spikes in household load, cloudy times and wasted solar production that has to be curtailed as it exceeds demand.

I would strongly advise adding at least a 5kWh battery to any solar system.

27 minutes ago, CharlesHolzhauer said:

Apart from cost, is there a technical downside for buying/using an oversized inverter? (e.g. 5kW of PV and a 8kW inverter).

A larger inverter can mean that you can more easily expand your system cheaply with a few more panels.

One thing that is often overlooked is the voltage requirements of the inverter.
 

Inverters come with a minimum and maximum voltage range. So you not only have to consider the wattage of your panels but also ensure that the combined voltage of your panels match the inverter.

39 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Interestingly, it looks like Roojai won't cover the Seal Performance.

The cars aren’t even a year old yet. They know that they come with a free first year insurance so maybe we have to wait a few months

18 minutes ago, CharlesHolzhauer said:

Thanks.
Based on the information you provided, I searched for "Tuya Zigbee energy monitor" on Lazada. The vast number of options across 52 pages was quite overwhelming. Eventually, I found a product similar to your suggestion: https://www.lazada.co.th/products/tuya-wi-fi-ct-i4787171495.html. Am I on the right track?

 

The MomoSpace comes with it’s own app and works fine as a stand alone system. My plan is to have a smart home display that shows energy usage in real time.

Zigbee is a smart home communication protocol that requires a Zigbee gateway like Home Assistant, so I would recommend  Tuya wifi and then the information would be displayed in the Tuya app with any other Tuya devices that you might have.

32 minutes ago, CharlesHolzhauer said:

Additionally, to determine the quantity and size of solar panels, why would collecting PEA power bills for 12 months differ from using an energy monitor?

All your monthly PEA bill tells you is how much energy you used in total. It doesn’t tell when that power is being used or which devices are using the most power. 

So you might think that your 700 units (kWh) bill for the month = 1 kWh per hour usage and on that basis you buy 5kW of PV and a 5kW inverter. Then you find out that your old inefficient aircons that you only run at night are actually using most of the power.

Here is a system I installed a few of years ago

If I was installing it now, I would probably choose something that integrates with a smart home.

44 minutes ago, SpaceKadet said:

Hate to piss on your party, but sooner or later (most probably sooner) you'll have to replace your batteries, and at some point your solar panels.

That's gonna take a big toll on the environment to recycle them.... but why should you care? You're green, right?

You have just demonstrated your total ignorance of solar. PV has a 20+ year life. I already had them for 7 years without any issues. 
 

As for batteries I chose LFP chemistry that have a 6,000 cycle life, but as I treat them gently and only use them down to 50% DOD that equates to a cycle every 2 days.

You do know what the word recycle means don’t you? 

If so how is reusing the material 

57 minutes ago, SpaceKadet said:

gonna take a big toll on the environment to recycle them..

I supported my comment with a citation clearly showing that SMRs have major issues. However your about solar was just your uninformed opinion with nothing to support it.
 

As of 2023, only China and Russia have successfully built operational SMRs

The US Department of Energy had estimated the first SMR in the United States would be completed by NuScale Power around 2030, but this deal has since fallen through after the customers backed out due to rising costs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor

Clearly Thailand should be concentrating on Solar and battery storage. Here we have access to cheap Chinese Solar and Batteries without any import duties and being located in the tropics we have good solar production for most of the year.

I have had solar for 7 years and I am off-grid (no meter) with all power being produced by solar supported by backup power from my EV. 

On 5/30/2024 at 2:04 PM, josephbloggs said:

There was a guy asking about mini EVs in RHD but I can't remember which thread it was in - I thought this one but I can't find it.

The thread was:

Thailand Faces Economic Question: China and EV Cars in Thailand News

His name was @WDSmart

this is the car he wanted. I’ve already sent him the link
 

25 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Latest list from PEA

 

04 Inverter List Update 2024-05-08.pdf 3.12 MB · 5 downloads

Thanks for this @Crossy very helpful.

Questions about this come up all the time.

8 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

I did! That's why I thanked you... 

No you asked if anybody else had any suggestions

19 minutes ago, WDSmart said:

Thanks! These look perfect for me, and some of them in the images are shown with right-hand drive. I'll check them out! 

I already send you the link to the Thai Website  - why you didn’t bother to click the link?

https://www.wulingthai.com/

Some people seem to forget that they are living in Asia now.

I don’t see much investment here by US and EU companies.

On 5/26/2024 at 8:28 AM, WDSmart said:

An example is the Wuling Nano

On 5/26/2024 at 8:28 AM, WDSmart said:

If you have found any very small mini-EVs with RHD from any country that I could buy in Thailand, please provide a link. I'd appreciate that a lot.

You could try putting “Wuling Thailand” into Google: 

https://www.wulingthai.com/

If you can stretch to ฿500,000 I would recommend the Neta V

24 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Power stations are not built overnight, Expanding the electrical network cannot be done overnight

 

Expansion needs to come before consumption, and that IMO is the problem,

Still worrying that there will be enough electrons for all those EVs? 
 

Here is an article by the UK’s National Grid that you should look at. They don’t seem worried to me.

https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/journey-to-net-zero/electric-vehicles-myths-misconceptions
 

Thailand aims to add more domestic production of renewables and EVs which  are batteries on wheels can help with that transition. I currently have one of my EVs sending power back to my house.

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/thailand-energy

54 minutes ago, CharlesHolzhauer said:

Off Topic but interesting anyway.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/car-advice/roadside-assistance-ev-nightmare-as-prices-crash/news-story/b62dd244c63c842b56c24d1c649fd5cd

Tesla has a history of rapidly adjusting prices to match market conditions almost everywhere, except in Thailand. The only price adjustment here for the model 3 came a week after the launch of the BYD Seal which at launch sold more cars in a week than Tesla had sold model 3s in the whole year. 

RWD Model 3 in Aus was ฿1,424,995 now is ฿1,328,325 way cheaper than in Thailand

The BYD Seal AWD Performance is a ฿100k cheaper than the RWD Tesla in Thailand before the extras that you have to pay with Teslas: Paint, Wheels, Wall Charger, insurance etc. and you don’t get bi-directional charging as you do on BYDs