Bandersnatch

Certainly a lot of stupidity in evidence on this forum from people who don't own EVs and clearly know nothing about them.

Interesting article: Can Nissan Save Itself With LFP Batteries? https://cleantechnica.com/2024/10/07/can-nissan-revive-itself-with-lfp-batteries/ You might also like: Nissan Is In Deep Doo-Doo

The Toyota bZ3C (not to be confused with bZ4X) is a full EV powered by BYD being launched soon.

Still hear journalists talking about the importance of Nickel and Cobalt in EV battery production not understanding that the dominant battery chemistry going forward is LFP which contains neither of these controversial metals. "LFP has taken significant share from NMC since 2018 due to improvements in energy density at sustained lower cost. In China, LFP will become more dominant due to robust demand for mass-market EVs and established supply chains, in addition to the emergence of LFP variants with improved energy density (e.g., M3P and lithium manganese iron phosphate [LFMP])." https://www.bain.com/insights/navigating-the-ev-battery-ecosystem

Thailand: Can the 'Detroit of Asia' retain its crown in the EV era?

Mini computers are fine for basic tasks like browsing the internet. I used an intel NUC for a music server. Here is the video I made of the process

Having just solar and no grid connection and having 2 EVs to charge makes me interested in Energy Monitoring and having easy and accurate access to that information.

EVs and Solar in Thailand makes so much sense. Not sure why people hate EVs and PV so much. Not having a meter and relying on just solar on a cloudy day to charge 2 EVs and run the house load is no sweat

I didn't know you were getting solar, do please share your inverter to HA hook up. The HA integration for my Growatt inverters results in my getting a 24 lock out from the app, so I'm looking at alternatives. Having solar may change your attitude to energy monitoring. It becomes a bit of a game to try and not use any grid power. My first PEA bill with zero units used made my day, until PEA came and changed the meter thinking it was broken.

After our discussion a few weeks ago about Shelly, I purchased a Shelly 1pm mini They really are really small. I will test it in one of my sockets maybe for my induction hob and if it's successful I will purchase more. Shelly make a version for breaker boxes, in fact it's the one HA recommends but they are a bit expensive

What power monitoring do you do in HA? You might have seen in the video that I have a Tuya WiFi biometric door lock in my Mechanical Room it works great.

Likewise all my devices use WiFi, however my WiFi smart plugs are shown as unsupported for energy monitoring. I can still use them to schedule when they are on, but I get no power monitoring. A discussion on GitHub said that zigbee works for power monitoring and it does.

I have various wifi smart plugs that give me energy usage data in the Tuya App, but as I am transitioning to Home Assistant I am moving from WiFi to Zigbee, so I needed a Zigbee Hub. A couple videos I have just uploaded:

Looks like rainy season might be nearly over. Not even lunchtime and 2 EVs, Electric motorbike and house batteries fully charged. and Alexander wept, for there were no more batteries to charge and he was going to waste all that afternoon's solar production

Those of us who actually own EVs and follow battery development closely are a bit better informed. Take for example Toyota, who has been promising revolutionary solid state batteries since 2014 and we are still waiting. I bought my BYD Seal AWD Performance a year ago. It has nearly 600km of range and LiFePO4 as the cathode material, giving excellent cycle life and no danger of thermal runaway. If range was really a worry for me I would have bought the cheaper Long Range version, but I would have had to give up on the 3.8 seconds 0-100kph. I am not worried about range as I know that there are over 100 BYD Dealership in Thailand all with fast DC charging and free coffee and snacks in the customer lounge. I can add 7km of range per kWh and can charge at 150kW/hour. So I can add 350km of range in 20 minutes. The new BYD Seal has already been announced and the improvements are incremental not revolutionary. Don't forget that every incremental improvement in EVs with have more of a detrimental effect on Internal Combustion Cars sales.

I feel sorry for AN posters who just bought a non electric vehicle. Many will probably be looking to sell them towards the end of the decade. All of this talk about EV depreciation today is pretty irrelevant, what we should be discussing is depreciation in 5 or 6 years time when we will be living in a very different world than today. In 2022 less than 10,000 EVs were registered in Thailand in 2023 it was over 76,000 To get a glimpse of what the world will look like at the end of the decade we only need to look at Norway where 94% of new car sales are full EVs and over 50% of all cars on the road are full EVs and it’s not just Norway that is expecting dramatic transformation. Diesel sales in London have fallen 40% in the past 4 years expect diesel pumps to start closing very quickly. https://ecofriend.com/sale-of-diesel-fuel-in-london-drops-40-in-four-years.html Who is going to buy your old Internal Combustion Vehicle when there is nowhere to fuel it? It’s not like you can make the fuel at home like you can with an EV. To get a graphic example of this just look at what it’s like to own a Hydrogen car in California.

Thailand does have a long way to go to clean up it’s grid with the majority of the electricity currently being generated from fossil fuels. However, an increasing number of EV owners are adding solar purely for economic reasons. Thailand does have a plan to expand renewable energy on the grid, with great sunshine and a long coastline for offshore wind it is definitely feasible. “Thailand’s alternative energy chief unveils 51% renewable power plan” https://www.nationthailand.com/sustainability/renewable-green-energy/40038917

I can't comment on lawn mower engines but internal combustion engines are notoriously inefficient when compared to EVs

I spray my electric cables to make them less tasty. I can’t comment on the efficacy of cats on keeping rats away, but living in the countryside I find snakes do an admirable job.

I installed solar over 6 years ago to power my house off-grid. ฿5,000 a month electric bill x 12months x 6years = ฿360,000 @NoDisplayName The cost of solar varies wildly. If you opt for a “supply and fit” the installer will charge you a markup on the components as well as the cost of installation. I purchased the components myself and was only charged for ancillaries and installation 5,000 Watts of PV @ ฿5/W = ฿25,000 5kW of Inversion @ ฿5k/kW = ฿25,000 Total = ฿50,000 If you are charged more than ฿100,000 for a 5kW system you are definitely being ripped off. I agree with @Gweiloman installing solar just to power an EV and a few lights won’t give you good utilization and so a long payback time.

Most solar panels are warrantied for 20-25 years. There is a very active second hand market for solar kit here in Thailand. The batteries in my house and EV have a LFP Cathode chemistry. The are less energy dense than NMC batteries but have a longer cycle life. My house batteries are quoted as 6,000 cycles and I do a cycle every 2 days. The car every 5 days My Seal has the equivalent of over 6 Tesla power walls of backup power, in 10 years time that would be down to 5. The Seal is a class D saloon the same as as a Honda Accord or a Toyota Camry so would probably have a similar depreciation even though it was cheaper new than the Accord or the Camry.

Thank you for your kind words My system is a few years old now so I usually quote current prices, excluding incidentals like mount brackets, rails etc and the labour to fit. Main Components (at todays prices) 20,000 Watts of PV @ ฿5/W = ฿100,000 36kWh Batteries @ ฿5k/kWh = ฿180,000 20kW of Inversion @ ฿5k/kW = ฿100,000 Total = ฿380,000

Condo EV charging is being achieved in many countries. It's important for non EV owners to understand that you don't need fast DC charging for overnight, a 3kW granny charger would provide plenty of power for most people's needs. The best post I've seen on this topic was posted by @n8sail

When people say stuff like "but your solar wasn't free, so your EV charging isn't free" they've just demonstrated their ignorance of how solar works. As we live in the tropics here in Thailand there is excess solar production in the middle of the day after powering the house and charging house batteries. So if it wasn't used for charging an EV it would be wasted. It is not possible to feed back power to the grid here as the schemes have been closed to new applicants. I have 2 EVs and an electric motorbike with no fuel bills. My house is off-grid with no meter, so no utility bills and yes my EV can power my house at night.

Excellent post, great to hear from somebody who actually has direct experience of how to solve the problem. Thanks for posting.