Bandersnatch

1 minute ago, scubascuba3 said:

Very smart, using wind seems the best way to do it

I combine natural ventilation with lots of insulation: - My walls are made of sandwich  of 2 layers of  Aerated Concrete Blocks, double sided foil insulation, air gap, 3 inches of foam insulation, second air gap, then the second wall. Wrap around porch roof to keep sun off the walls and windows. Small narrow windows positioned high up under the porch roof. All walls painted bright white.
 

1 hour ago, Skylight said:

 

Yeah aesthetically it would be a little bit out there but I am sure you got a cool house.  I'll have to think about it for a long while.

 

How is the design treating you.  The house is pretty cool all day?

It is far cooler on the third floor than at ground level, this is partly due to the fact that wind speeds are higher with increased height, but the speed of the wind is further increased by the building design. The wind is funnelled by the sloping roof and partial side walls, this  phenomenon is called The Venturi Effect

When no aircon is being used, the doors in the stairwells are opened to aid with natural cooling, using a principal called Stack Effect Ventilation: having an opening at the top of the building, draws heat up and out like a chimney. The effect is magnified by the higher wind speed on the third floor caused by the The Venturi Effect which creates a partial vacuum in the stairwell. It is like adding an extractor fan to the chimney.

1 minute ago, scubascuba3 said:

the main building just has a flat roof? 

I designed my house to have a roof designed to a vent and cool via natural airflow with no heat build up. You end up with an unconventional design, which may not appeal aesthetically to all tastes, but it does prevent heat from being transferred down into the house.

1 hour ago, Rancid said:

Very interesting movie. Progressives hated it as it puts lie to the many claims of renewable green energy, as it turns out it isn't. Sadly climate change is not about cleaning up the planet, but simply another profit zone for the usual gang of environmental rapists. Unfortunately the excellent questions it raised were immediately swept under the carpet by the compliant & owned media.

Much of the video in this movie dates from 2005, when green energy was nothing to shout about.

38 minutes ago, Grumpy John said:

What is your home solar system? How many kilowatts? How much use will the electric car get? Just making a blanket statement and not providing some statistics means F all.  .... 

I am sorry you didn't understand my reply, but you needed to read it conjunction with the post I was replying to which was that electric cars will result in More Dirty Power stations. All you needed to know what that my solar installation is designed to charge the house and an EV, so no more Dirty Power stations in my case, which is what I said. My system is 11.2kW of PV and 38.4kWH of storage, my PEA bill each month is 39 Baht. I don't commute or go on long road trips

I do however, object to your language and have reported your post.

44 minutes ago, JesseBronson said:

I am looking at a new electric car, but not until they ditch the import duties ! 

 

Now Tesla Shanghai is in production, we just have to wait until they start exporting to Thailand. Import tax on Chinese cars is 0% compared to 80% from Europe, 40% from Korea and 20% from Japan. 

On 9/5/2020 at 1:44 PM, scammed said:

i dont mind electric cars, but i do mind subsidies

that pervert the market

I agree with you

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/06/15/united-states-spend-ten-times-more-on-fossil-fuel-subsidies-than-education/#3c9eb2974473

On 9/4/2020 at 6:10 PM, digger70 said:

Big Scam Biggest Rip off yet.

How are the Power stations going to keep up with all the power using vehicles? 

Make More Dirty electric power? More Dirty Power stations 

Who's going to benefit ? Power Station Moguls. Car Factories 

Price of Electricity will go Sky high. 

My home solar system is designed to charge an electric car. For those without solar, then smart grids, time of use electric pricing and bi-directional EV charging will soon mitigate the need for peaker power plants.   

On 9/4/2020 at 2:27 PM, scammed said:

no for christ sake cum off it

 

The film includes a great deal of outdated, inaccurate and misleading information.

Watch this review of the film 

Planet of the Humans : Let's just have a think

On 8/29/2020 at 3:34 PM, natway09 said:

Next is the battery disposal  

MGZS EV's 44.5kWh Lithium Ion Battery has an 8 year warranty in Thailand against suffering a capacity drop below 70% of the original capacity. 
So after 8 years the car will be able to still drive 233.8km under the NEDC driving mode. 

Alternatively it could be used as backup storage for a solar system as it still has the equivalent capacity of 2.3 Tesla Power-walls.

On 9/3/2020 at 12:24 PM, richard_smith237 said:

A rather vague comment that....   How quickly ?

 

Other threads on this subject imply about 10 years to recover costs, by which time the cells themselves may need replacement incurring further costs. 

 

Cost of purchase, installation and available ‘roof’ space are key factors.

 

I’m not convinced solar panels in Thailand are an economically viable solution. Additionally, the MEA do no offer ‘buy back’ power options and would actually fine someone who ’trickle power back’ to turn back the meter in periods of low use. 

Payback depends on the size of your system. A very large system designed to be completely off-grid and charge an electric car like my system will take 10 years to payback (including installation), but smaller systems covering say 60% of the bill, will payback much quicker. Remember a 10 year payback is a 10% return, try getting that in the bank.

My solar panels come with a 20 year guarantee 

"Photovoltaic systems typically last 25 to 40 years"

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

MEA and PEA both offer a buy back scheme called the solar rooftop scheme for residential PV

Try Pong Thai Village หมู่บ้านพงษ์ไทย Salak Dai, Mueang Surin - always have places to rent 3 bed 2 bath pool and a gym about 4k / month

https://goo.gl/maps/vn7aLUhV74peEzDF6

31 minutes ago, pineapple01 said:

It was usefull in power cuts. Thats about all.

Having solar also protects you from rising Electric bills. 
 

On 5/19/2020 at 5:47 PM, moe666 said:

It always boils down to how long is the pay  out. 10 years, 20 years 25years will you still be alive. Same for elect cars. Solar homes also a waste, to hot in the summer too cold in the winter, just too hot in thailand.

If you are short of money and need a very quick payback. I would suggest aiming to cover 60% of your electric bill with solar and not installing batteries. This is the low hanging fruit and would have produced a payback of about 5 years in my case. I chose to go off-grid with PEA as a backup, which meant I needed batteries and an excess of solar to cover cloudy days. My over-the-top system has a payback of 10 years. I am not sure where you got 25 years from. Is that based on an install in Thailand or New Mexico? 

"Solar homes also a waste, to hot in the summer too cold in the winter, just too hot in thailand."

I have no problem running aircon on my solar system system. But if money is tight I would suggest spending the money on insulation first and solar later if you can afford it.

My solar house is lovely and cool, but I did insulate.

Being reliant on income from abroad is a risk with currency movements.  My approach has been to reduce my future costs as far as possible. 1st put 800k/400k away and don't touch it. That way your visa is safe.

I don't pay rent; condo fees; water or waste water bills; rubbish collection bills; electric bills. I don't have any debts. I don't have any expensive addictions. I am growing some of my food. So if push comes to shove, I could survive on very little. My spreadsheet shows my income sources linked to the current exchange rate. I should be ok if the pound goes down to less than 10 Baht. 
 

It is also good to have some income in Thai Baht and an emergency fund if possible.

19 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I did think Fort Knox, is the basement full of bullion? Interesting concept, it doesn't float my boat but we all have different tastes.

 

Our home is discussed at length in another thread, but here's a taster, solar is on the car-port right of frame.

Hi Crossy, I know your build. It is without a doubt a very beautiful house. 

I set out in my design criteria that I wanted to build an off grid house - designed with solar in mind and super insulated. Compromises have to be made and for me that was the aesthetics. 

Being a bit of a prepper, I can confirm that Gold has done well recently.

On 5/13/2020 at 11:17 PM, eisfeld said:

I disagree with the placement of his panels, I think he could get more out of them by not putting any on the north facing side but the rest was very impressive.

I explained in detail in my blog why I chose to put solar on all 4 sides of my house. See https://ecohousethailand.com/design-criteria/

Dual Axis Tracker systems can increase production by 40%, but such systems are complex and expensive and with falling solar panel prices it is cheaper to just get more panels.

Basically I don't need more power, but I need to extend the hours when the solar is producing and so reducing the hours that the house is running off batteries.  Living close to the equator as we do, North facing panels produce power for much of the day, but more crucially, they are producing at the beginning and end of the day. I am getting power at 6am. 

Unfortunately I do not have stats to share currently as there is a problem with the external data module that came with the inverter.

On 5/13/2020 at 7:12 PM, Arjen said:

Do you use a centrifigul blower for that?, they give a very high air output, against reasonable electricity costs. But in my experience they heat the output air easy to 80-90 degrees. We used them to dry metal sheets after processing. First we thought about the need of installing heaters. But heaters where not needed. The output air is close enough to the temp from boiling water. Together with the enormous airflow, everything is dried. 

I have not dissembled the Energy Recovery Ventilator, so cannot comment on it's fan. We did test the ERV before piping it is and it did not heat the air. To be honest we do not use it very often. It part of the future proofing of the house. The door to the third floor acts like a chimney drawing hot air up and out of the house. The wind on the third floor always blows due to the venturi effect helping with the efficiency of the chimney.

13 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Do you guys refrigerate the batteries?

I designed my house from the ground up to be Off-Grid. I have a dedicated mechanical room which is insulated and well ventilated. I installed a large DC motor ceiling fan. The purpose built battery rack allows lots of air flow. I have not seen any drop in battery performance over the last 12 month.