Bandersnatch

In Europe an East West orientation corresponds with peak demand and low solar supply on the grid. Bi-Facial solar panels make up for low production in the middle of the day with effectively being 2 panels. There are some suggestion that they are cooler and so are more efficient, but 700% more efficient I’m not sure about that. A couple of years ago I made a video on which direction should your solar panels face. Normal air-cons are AC, I think you meant DC. I briefly investigated them during my build. They are very much more expensive than conventional air-cons as they are a bit of a niche product. If the sun goes in the power will drop, so it is recommended to pair them with batteries. It’s now getting very expensive. A 5kW inverter will only cost you ฿25k so you’re not saving much. So equivalent to 5 conventional 4mx4m rooms with all the added heat from the kitchen and I am guessing not much insulation or a good air seal? Wouldn’t want to guess what your BTU requirement would be but it’s going to a lot

I have a rainwater harvesting system that provides drinking water and household water and 2 filter systems to provide the different qualities of water. All Grey and Black water is processed and returned to the garden Thanks to Ruben from http://www.h2o.in.th/

I had solar thermal since before I installed solar. It is a very efficient way to heat water and protects you from very high energy demand spikes. A 6kW water heater draws nearly as much power as my EV (7kW)

Did you watch the video? In case you didn’t I showed my electric bill for all of last year and it showed zero units used, when I had 36kWh of solar batteries I now have an EV with an additional 82.5 kWh of backup power. I have provided evidence that I can operate without the grid on 36kWh so why do so many people think I won’t be able to on 118kWh?

5 years 70%

You should watch my other videos on my channel about how I setup V2L. Basically I used a transfer switch to select between 2 sources of ac power input. In your case the grid and V2L. Set your inverter to SBU (solar first, then Battery, then Utility) with Utility if there is no V2L it will switch to PEA/MEA I have single phase so I can’t say for certain that it would work. Does your inverter have the option to accept a generator input?

Warranty is 5years/6,000 cycles maximum degradation 70%. They use CATL LFP Cells

I have documented my experiences with PEA over the years on this forum. I have been accused of spinning my meter backwards (to the exact same reading every month) Each time I asked for a digital solar meter that cannot be turned back. I have been accused of breaking their meters with my big bad off-grid solar system. I have had about 20 meetings with PEA Surin at their main office over the years. I have had my solar system inspected 4 times including by the Solar Team from PEA Korat, who tried to explain to the local office that my system is off-grid and physically cannot send power out to the grid. Over the years staff change. Every time I get a new meter reader, I get a new meter.

I have had solar for over 5 years and not had to replace anything yet.

At todays prices: Main Components: 20,000 Watts of PV @ ฿5/W = ฿100,000 36kWh Batteries @ ฿5k/kWh = ฿180,000 20kW of Inversion @ @ ฿5k/kW = ฿100,000 = ฿380,000 Savings: PEA saving ฿5,000/month Fuel saving for 2 drivers and 2 vehicles ฿4,000/month (based on Previous usage) = ฿108,000/Year saving Payback = 3.5 Years - after which free electricity and driving

Did you watch the video I posted in my opening post?

There a few approaches to solar that attract people for different reasons. There is the full on DIY approach including building up batteries with individual cells. Such an approach is definitely the cheapest but would be very difficult to support. The other extreme is have a professional company source all the components and install them. They will manage the warranty process and will offer annual checks and panel cleaning. You get what you pay for. I am in the middle. I purchased all the panels, inverters and batteries myself. I then employed a Thai company to install and supply all the ancillary items. They offer no warranty but can be paid to problem fix. I dealt with the manufacturers to ensure the installation was correct. In your case I would recommend a professional installation with warranty and support. DM me if you want suggestions

Lithium Iron Phosphate, it’s a new type of Cathode battery chemistry. It is contains no Cobalt, is far safer with a far longer cycle life than Li-ion. I have LFP batteries in my home storage and my EV.

I have basically been “off-grid” with solar and home batteries for 5 years now and I have posted my solar journey in this forum. With Solar you are basically paying your electric bill forward and I understand that many people are unable or unwilling to make that investment. For those that do, they are shielding themselves from price rises and power cuts. Even if your pay-back was ten years then your return on your investment would be 10%, assuming electricity prices don’t rise, which is better than you would get in the bank. The reason I post is to share my experience, show what is possible and be available to answer questions.

Not everybody who watches my videos lives in Thailand

Toyota Hybrid Camry 0-100 of 8 seconds BYD Seal AWD Performance 0-100 3.8 seconds BYD Seal comes with 6 Tesla Powerwalls of backup power and I can charge it for free for excess solar power in the middle of the day.

My EV is a BYD Seal AWD Performance and cost ฿1.6m. There are cheaper EVs with Vehicle to Load (V2L) I have 2 EVs and an electric Motorbike all of which are charged at home from my solar system. My new EV has 580km of range. As I said in the video, that the car has the equivalent of 6 Tesla PowerWalls of backup power in addition to my home batteries. Remember I am using the EV as a backup. It’s not the main source of power. The car has 82.5kWh of battery storage (think 82.5 units from PEA) The Car has an 8yr 70% warranty on the battery and as they are LFP batteries that have a very long life. We run 2 aircons at night. I don’t think that the government should be helping to keep Diesel prices artificially low as pollution from Diesel trucks is adding to Thailand air pollution.

Did you watch the video?

Now solar panel prices have dropped to ฿5/Watt, solar makes a good off-grid solution. I have an electric pole 10m from my house, but I have chosen to give my meter back to PEA. I have solar and home batteries and I use my EV which has bi-directional charging for extra backup power.

Are you “Neil the watcher from Thailand” ?

“Registration of 100% electric cars in Thailand in January 2024 total 13,653 cars. The ratio of 20.5 % of all new cars across the country 65,067 cars” https://autolifethailand.tv/register-ev-bev-thailand-jan-2024/ Not sure I agree with their maths, closer to 20.9% (21%) than 20.5%, but feel free to correct my pre-coffee calculations. AutoLifeThailand quoted 25% of all vehicles sold in December as full EVs. I thought this might have been inflated due to concerns about the removal of EV subsidies so good to see EV numbers are still strong. On a side note I am currently powering my house 100% from my BYD Seal - that never gets old.

As Tesla started selling cars in Thailand at the end of 2022, their Y2Date figures for 2023 looked good compared to EVs that went on sale later in the year. Now all that is stripped out we see month 1 figures of about 8,000 cars for BYD and about 50 for Tesla. Looks like all those who really wanted wanted a Tesla have already bought one. Or maybe everyone is waiting for the Juniper Model Y

Maybe you are not familiar Toyota's bZ4X but it has had a few problems Toyota finally found a way to keep wheels from falling off its electric SUV https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/06/business/toyota-bz4x-wheel-fix/index.html The Toyota travelled only 307km (191 miles) – way short of the car's 470km (292 miles) stated range on the WLTP cycle. Tester Fred Magne Skillebaek was so shocked he repeated the test – with much the same result. https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/first-official-pictures/toyota/bz4x/

The BYD Seal does come with 8 years of completely free servicing (see below) However the main point for me is watching the technician walking round the car with a clipboard - he wasn’t doing any servicing. So even if you were paying for a service on your EV it’s definitely going to be cheaper than an ice car.

Why do the EV haters always claim “servicing” an EV will be more expensive? I have just put my BYD Seal in for it’s first “service” Maybe it should have been called check and inspection, because they didn’t do any “servicing”