Crossy

Sorry, fetching my (sheepskin) coat

Out of the plane? That's a bit much even for a crazed Iranian

No candles other than the orange religious ones, but we do have some oil lamps recovered from MiL's home when she died a few years back, they've been cleaned and polished and now live in the nick-naks cabinet. I'm sure they would actually work Madam sold the plot which was in a good location, and bought a similar sized plot a bit further from the road. She had enough $$$ left over to build a nice steel and Shera family home for remaining family. Smart cookie that lady (she married me) 🙂 We already had the genset of course and it seemed a waste not to use it. In reality it gets run once a month or so for testing and we push the energy into the batteries, I doubt we will ever actually need it in anger (famous last words?).

Our system is like this highly-simplified diagram. The breaker between the inverter and home loads is usually off (turn it on if we need to charge the batteries from the grid). Home loads are just our on-demand water heaters, keeps the meter moving in the right direction and limits strain on the inverters and batteries. If/when we get an electronic meter I'll shift the heaters to the load side and stuff PEA. If we lose the inverters then the transfer switch flips over and, after about a second, we get grid supply to the loads.

Ouch! If the inverter never goes into export, then I suspect things will be just fine as it's seen as just another load, but ... I'm pretty sure the Deye can drive an external transfer switch, so you could run the AVR to that, and in the event of low battery the external ATS flips over and you get regulated power. I would check with your solar installer what he recommends, then you have someone to blame if it all goes pear-shaped

Earth and neutral are certainly linked somewhere in the installation. In a condo it's likely that you have a TNC-S (or possibly TNS in an older place). Have a look here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthing_system If you don't actually see a link then it's going to be elsewhere. If you measure 220-230V between a live and the earth and something close to zero between neutral and earth you're likely good to go. In our old condo all the A/C units were supplied from live and earth!!! They worked just fine although I did move the connections to the right place 🙂

Good question, and one I thought about in the past. In the end we decided not to and our AVR is currently disconnected. Just how low is "somewhat low", most hybrids are perfectly happy down to 185V or so at which point they disconnect from the grid and continue powering the loads from solar/batteries. My main worry is that the AVR isn't designed with this mode in mind and the control system could become confused and do weird things. Note that I didn't actually test this so what actually happens is unknown and is very likely variable with the type and manufacturer of the AVR. If your supply is always very low you could consider a fixed boost auto-transformer, basically a manual voltage regulator, lower cost than an AVR and no control system to become upset. Personally, I wouldn't bother doing anything unless it becomes an actual issue.

Try running the unit on "dry" before you start exercise to remove existing moisture before running it on "cool". Or try the other way round. Run with the fan on high, not auto.

The shade hedge is a bit thin at present having had a haircut, but not doing too bad. I may add some ventilation fans to move some air around.

Got the tiles on, enough for this week, too darn hot. Somebody left a power pole in the way And the added bonus of having panels that nobody really thinks about.

I don't suppose there was any sort of diagnostic report showing what they actually did? It does sound like something corrupted the software, with good design it shouldn't happen but ...

From another thread, just to keep the info together 🙂

U got a link? It would be interesting to know what the failure mode was. And of course, which inverters he was using.

It's definitely worth collecting Lazada vouchers and coins! 🙂 Shopee have a similar scheme.

I got one of these "MaxSky Solar" branded Deye units for 21k Baht with 3-3 vouchers. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i5568215289-s23690707744.html At this price they sell out very fast (only one left from this seller). They are identical to the "pure" Deye units, even have the same firmware version, the beast works perfectly with our 3 existing Deye units. All ours are SG05, but I have no idea what the actual difference is.

I stand corrected, but so long as the comms protocol is supported by the inverter it doesn't really matter.

Hire a man or two 🙂 Or arrange delivery by helicopter But you are right, maybe the smaller packs are more practical.

I believe "LVtopsun" are a Deye re-brand 🙂

How about this one from the other thread? https://www.thaisolarsystem.com/product/1162/ชุด-hybrid-ongrid-deye-5k-1-phase-battery-5kwh-พร้อมติดตั้ง Slightly less $$$ and a Deye inverter, definitely worth talking to 🙂

A qualified yes to all. IF you get an inverter that's well supported and can run in parallel. We have 4 x 5kW Deye hybrids running together, they will do everything you want and more, there are offers available on these for as little as 23kBaht on Lazada with vouchers. They are also on the PEA approved inverter list. Do note that a 5kW inverter likely can't support more than 6kWp of panels. You may find that larger battery packs are more economical on a bang-per-buck level (and less wiring needed). Is this going to be a DIY or Contractor install??

This ^^^ Your heater definitely needs an earth even if there's an RCD/RCBO. It also needs an RCBO (it may well have one built in) for extra safety. The water pipe will likely be a good enough earth if there's an RCBO. But ensure it's not part of the fire prevention system, using the fire pipes is an absolute no-no. Do NOT "earth" by linking earth and neutral!!

Looks like a nice installation to start with 🙂 Is the ground bar actually linked to ground? Those siemens MCBs seem to be normal DIN mount units rather than plug-in 🙂 Single-width RCBOs that will fit are available, although not necessarily cheap. This is possibly why a separate RCD/RCBO was used for the kitchen. Do you have a part number for the Siemens units you found? Sadly, it looks like you will have to extend the white neutral wires for the circuits you need to protect, but such is life. Wire colours? "It's what was in the van guv" I would decide which circuits you need to protect with RCBOs and then look at the costs. Certainly, I would do outside lighting and outlets, water heaters, kitchen outlets except for your fridge/freezer.

As you have noted there are literally zillions of suitable devices at various prices available on Lazada. What do you actually want to measure? certainly V, A, W and kWh Do you want it to log usage over time? Do you want Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/RS-485 connectivity so you can link it to your PC, smart device (Alexa etc.) or Home Assistant to analyse the results? Do you want it DIN mount or in a separate standalone box? I would go for one that uses current transformers rather than direct connection, easier to wire and fewer joints to fail/get warm. For brands, I've had good experiences with Chint and Tomzn kit as lower-cost units, of course the big names are there too with suitably big prices.

As with most things here, it's really entirely up to you. A few thoughts. Do you actually need a switch at the pump? A waterproof outlet on the pole may be better. If you do want a switch, would it be better/more convenient at the house end of the cable? Don't "extend" the pump cable, replace it with a suitable length of flexible cable in a conduit to protect it from the weather and UV. I wouldn't run underground unless you use underground rated cable (even if it's in conduit), underground conduit invariably fills with water no matter how carefully we seal the ends. The cable run from the house should be protected by an RCD if your installation doesn't already have one. All good fun 🙂