Bandersnatch

The title of the article is

"Clean energy, dirty secrets: Inside the corruption plaguing california’s solar market"

So nothing about Solar being a dirty form of energy. 

I think you would be hard pressed to find any industry that doesn't have any "corruption or dirty secrets"

1 hour ago, wensiensheng said:

I’m in the process of buying a BYD sealion 6, so a PHEV.

 

As part of the deal I am being given a free home charger and installation. BUT, the BYD guy says I need a special cable to run from my fuse box to my charger and for a special stand for the charger to fix to. The latter because it won’t be fixed to a wall.

 

So:

 

1. having googled, it seems that I DO need a special cable to handle the continuous power load. Fair enough. But does anyone know if the BYD people supply said cable at a significant mark up? Or is their pricing pretty competitive?

 

2. Does anyone know if their special stand is anything, well, special? I haven’t seen one in real life but from the picture it looks like plastic!

 

3. Just generally, do BYD use the charger installation exercise as a price gouging opportunity?

 

Grateful for any insights on the above

I got a free BYD Charger and installation when I purchased my Seal in 2023. BYD came and did a site survey and they provided a cable, from memory I think the first 10m was free.  I did ask how much per m for longer and I remember thinking it sounded reasonable. As for what they quoted me, that I don't remember.

Question 3 "do BYD use the charger installation exercise as a price gouging opportunity?" - I don't think so, I think they are just covering their costs

I've just swapped out my 8 year old "Rosen Solar" 350 Watt panels for something a bit more well known.

I have sold them all for ฿500 each 

I replaced them with Trina 705 Watt panels for ฿2,780 each or ฿3.9 per watt. Not as cheap as @BritManToo got but I was paying a premium for higher Wattage panels.

I purchased the "Rosen" panels for ฿10 per Watt. At the time Global House was selling panels for ฿20 per Watt

33 minutes ago, wozzlegummich said:

Also known as Air Source Heat Pump Water Heater these are hot water heaters that use a reverse cycle air conditioner system to heat the water and are apparently very efficient to run.

I am currently planning the installation of a heat pump to provide hot water as well as hot water for the radiators for a house I own in the UK.  

For my house in Thailand I installed a solar thermal system instead. I paid  ฿30,000 for it 8 years ago and it's still going strong.

I have had comments on my YouTube channel from people in the UK saying that a heat pump would provide far more hot water, but we don't get the £7,500 boiler replacement grant here making it a very expensive proposition even if you could find one for sale and someone willing to install it.  

13 hours ago, UWEB said:

Sounds good but it isn't

The UK figures in the graph above were an anomaly due to a spike in all EV sales in March to beat incoming EV tax changes. Tesla's April car sales dropped 62% in Britain.

Here in Thailand, Tesla sales have always been poor due to inflated prices and poor investment in the Super Charger network.

You can buy a 13.5kWh Tesla PowerWall in Thailand for ฿699,000, no wonder nobody is buying them.

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-powerwall-installation-thailand/

On 5/23/2025 at 7:49 PM, Pib said:

Total registrations of 100% electric vehicles in Thailand in April 2025

Tesla with 2 newly refreshed models for sale in the kingdom selling less than 100 cars must be disappointing

27 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Thanks guys, this is helpful.  I guess my final question is whether I should just buy a petrol vehicle after all?  As I understand it, there is no likelihood of a ban on petrol vehicles in the future (even the UK seem to be backtracking on this), so other than being an environmentally-concerned person, I could save money (I'm a poor teacher!) and just buy a 'regular' car?  

If you want cheap motoring would go for a low mileage used EV. Then you will have low service and repair costs and if you can charge at home about 7km per kWh (PEA/MEA unit)

I have always said that Teslas are overpriced in Thailand. 

In this example from the Tesla store, they have knocked half a million off the price of a prefacelift Model Y AWD Performance, but it’s still half a million more that the brand new BYD Sealion 7 AWD Performance.

1 hour ago, Photoguy21 said:

Currently driving a HONDA CRV. My decision is based very much on engineering, not quality but limitations

If you like big SUVs I would suggest test driving a BYD Sealion 7. It costs ฿1,249,900 for the Performance variant and can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.5 seconds. The entry-level Premium variant is priced at ฿1,149,900. 

The CRV  is priced from ฿1,419,000 to ฿1,729,000. The AWD models take 9.4 seconds 0-100. The 2025 CR-V Hybrid Sport Touring can achieve the same in approximately 7.9 seconds but it does have a battery and an electric motor.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8k8dnnp55o

"The sisters of a man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car are campaigning for it to be a legal requirement for detectors to be fitted in UK vehicles.

Micheal Barnard 36, had been listening to music with the engine running.

CO is a silent killer because you can’t detect it. Less than two percent of CO in the air can kill you in under three minutes."

Sitting in cars and trucks with the engine running is very common in Thailand and it only takes a small hole in the exhaust and floor of the vehicle to kill you.

Hilux, the stinky things parked at Big C with the engine running while the wife does the shopping?

Do I wish everyone drove one?

I can't hold my breath long enough for that.

On 3/23/2025 at 12:07 PM, radiochaser said:

 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/musk-kamala-harris-salute/

36 minutes ago, Mitker said:

The next step would be to deduct the loads at that moment to have an idea of what's left available

Couple more of my videos for you. I am now only buying devices that work with home assistant 

36 minutes ago, Mitker said:

My only uncertainty it that this value is very close (by a couple of %) to the sum of the loads and the battery charge.
Would this be due that by chance that day your use was that close from what the system was generating, or that what appears under 'solar PV' is just the sum of the uses plus some losses and roundings ? In the later case, it wouldn't inform about the 'untapped' portion of solar power

I agree with what @JBChiangRai posted above. Any unused solar production from my off-grid solar setup is curtailed.

The screen shots I posted were early this morning  - a very dull day here in Surin. 

Here are 2 more screen shots that I have just taken, one with one of my EVs charging the other without.

I have 4 Growatt SPF5000ES inverters. The ShinePhone app is pretty rubbish so I have have fitted a Raspberry Pi and using Solar Assistant software and a USB hub to link the 4 inverters together I am able to extract data from all the inverters 

 https://solar-assistant.io/

It is possible to push data from solar assistant into Home Assistant https://www.home-assistant.io/ then it is possible to manage smart devices like smart wifi breakers to switch on/off devices based on data from solar assistant.

I plan to manage my EV chargers to do that.

Here is a video I made a few years ago about smart wifi breakers

"A new study conducted by Europe’s largest automobile association has found that electric vehicles (EVs) are less prone to breaking down than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles of the same age, which can suffer two and a half times as many breakdowns as electric cars"

This study is based on actual breakdowns rather than the usual survey of owners views of the reliability of the vehicle that they had purchased. 

https://thedriven.io/2025/04/14/evs-more-reliable-than-ice-vehicles-with-the-best-and-worst-electric-cars-identified/

57 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Obviously you have better reasons for using Rever other than my crass comment, apologies for that.

Re-read your post looking for the crass comments that I obviously missed on first reading 😆 

1 hour ago, motdaeng said:

if you're driving a long distance and need to charge your electric car, and there's a byd reversharger along the way,

do you use it or do you prefer other charging stations? what has your experience been like with byd reversharger?

thanks a lot for your feedback, motdaeng

Long Trips I only stop at BYD Dealerships:

Plug and Charge: plug in and it starts charging.

24 hours to pay: SCB froze my account while on a trip but sent me messages saying that that I was over the limit on my account and to change the limit at an ATM (they had changed my limit to zero) I was able to charge my car and pay the next day after I called the bank to ask them WTF

You can see the chargers on the app to see if they are working/available

As you have to register your car with the app they can only be used by BYD owners and therefore more likely to be free

8 Baht rather than the usual 7 Baht means that they are less popular and therefore more likely to be free

Fast Charging

Never found one not working and if you needed help you can ask in the dealership.

Over 100 BYD Dealerships in Thailand.

36 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

BYD lounge for coffee and some snacks

On 4/16/2025 at 9:14 AM, Crossy said:

Free to use for home PV systems 🙂

I signed up for the free Home PV system but haven't got around to incorporating it into Home Assistant yet  - thanks for reminding me