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Crossy

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Everything posted by Crossy

  1. "3 pin extension cord" in a Lazada search nets 2,500 hits. You must check carefully that they are actually 3-core cable. Or get one in Lotus's where you can look at the markings on the cable. Or get the bits and make your own.
  2. We actually had no rain at all yesterday. These downpours can be very localised, I've driven through 2 feet of water in Rangsit and arrived home 15 minutes later to bright sunshine and Madam watering the plants coz it hadn't rained. Localised flooding from rain isn't an issue for us, it all flows into a ruddy great river. Unfortunately everyone upstream also has their rain go into the river. Local level is certainly up a bit today, 101cm below "Worry" and off the green at Pak Kret.
  3. Argh. It really was a mistake removing the laugh icon!
  4. This is our solution to a low door on the feed shed.
  5. Guess who's wearing Harmony Hairspray ????
  6. Is this the standard Thai style concrete/brick/block kitchen counter? If so it should be a relatively easy task to remove the top (probably destroying it in the process) and add a couple of courses or a steel framework (which would be lighter) to the existing structure before replacing the top. Actually, thinking about it why not add a steel framework to the existing top with a new worksurface (sort of like a very low table) and make a feature of the "industrial-chic" exposed structure (and create a "handy" storage space into the bargain)? Your local metal basher should be able to knock something up in a few hours.
  7. Can you post a photo of the area you want to modify please? If it's rendered concrete you could certainly lose the rendering and gain a couple of cm but I wouldn't want to be removing much meat from a structural beam. And of course, making changes like this will kiss any warranty goodbye ???? Humans are very adaptable creatures, bang your head a couple of times and muscle-memory will take over ????
  8. S.K. Universal https://www.sk-wires.com/en/ will likely get you whatever you want. But, you will have to buy a whole roll. Coloured heatshrink is your friend.
  9. @Bandersnatch has a system which would match your requirements. You will need to do some sort of energy use estimate to get an idea of how big a system you will need. Have a look here:-
  10. This might do better in the Alternative Energy forum. If you don't get any responses here PM me and I'll move the thread for you ???? EDIT Moving to Alt Energy
  11. My cards are set up with 2-factor authentication, the perp needs my phone and for it to be unlocked to make an online purchase. A text with an OTP is sent, you enter the OTP into the online purchase site. I'm sure it's not totally secure but it worked well enough when someone tried to use my card details to buy some stuff in the US. I awoke to a bunch of authentication texts and an equal number of "please phone card security" texts. No transactions went through but I still had to get a new card with all the pain that goes with it.
  12. Well the river level doesn't really seem to be doing much, 110cm below my reference "worry" level. It's high and plenty of areas are flooded but it's not really moving much, at least not yet.
  13. Meanwhile, on our side of the same river, in the same area we are now 140cm below "worry" level. Yes, many of the village houses are using boats but the occupants just get on with life. What's coming from the north ... EDIT Madam has suggested that some jealous (flooded) people "might" have opened some floodgates! This happened last time too.
  14. Yup, that's the beast. Arrow points towards the meter (incoming supply) if it's installed on the live wire as per the instructions. It WILL work on the neutral but needs to point the other way.
  15. Well here we go again the river is on the up already so I will attempt to post daily images. You can monitor for yourself at the Pakkret water level monitor site Pakkret Water Report (thaiclouderp.com) it seems not to work with Chrome now. So a couple of photos from our back garden, the village is already a bit "moist". The usual "Green House" which is located here - 14.054011343688499, 100.55204306162572 And a view in the opposite direction.
  16. Some of you may remember us building this back in 2015. Thread here https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/481794-housebuilding-thread/?do=findComment&comment=9603407 Well the time has finally arrived for me to get my finger out and actually put some solar on the car port. We spoke to our local PEA office who were quite enthusiastic and helpful until we said we didn't want to join the government scheme (IIRC it's called My Solar Roof), the contract was too long and restrictive and the feed-in rate silly. So, we are NOT permitted to spin the meter backwards (net-metering) - At least not officially "don't let the meter reader see it going backwards" said the supervisor (he's not over enamoured with the government scheme either). That along with the costs associated with doing the job "officially", approved inverters, approved installers (no DIY) decided me to do this on the QT. Luckily for us (but not my wallet) we have a standing load of about 1100 Watts (mostly Madam's koi and the freezers), our base consumption hasn't gone below 1000 W for the last year or so (yes, I'm sad, we keep a log - ok the supply monitor does). So 1000W or so of solar would cover the base without the meter going backwards and still produce a visible saving on the power bill. A quick and dirty estimate:- 1000W x 5 hours per day = 5 units per day generated. Times 30 days per month = 150 units per month. @ 4 Baht per unit thats 600 Baht per month = 1 case of beer!! Our bill is usually 5500-6000 Baht so 10% reduction, enough to keep Madam's green desires happy. So I went shopping:- 4 x 300W solar panels from Global House - On offer at 3,890 Baht a pop. 2 x 600W WVC micro-inverters from AliExpress - 6,500 Baht for the two including duties and VAT. The cost of the "proper" mounting hardware scared me so a visit to our local steel supplier got us 11/2" square x 2mm wall thickness at 300 Baht a 6m length. I got 6 pieces, we don't need it all for 4 panels but I'm going to put all the mounting stuff up whilst I'm in roof-climbing mode. So 1800 Baht. We also need some stand-off parts to keep everything off the actual roof, I had some 3" x 11/2" x 2mm "in stock" so I made 36 x 100mm long stand off pieces. This steel would probably cost another 400 Baht or so. Washers, self drilling screws, angle fixings, primer and paint are all from stock, but I doubt they would cost more than a grand or so. So, we've spent about 25 grand to save 600 Baht a month. Payback period 41 months, about 3.5 years. I can live with that. I've not decided how to configure the rest of the roof space (there is room for 18 panels) yet, but if back-feeding remains off the option list I expect something with batteries is going to be on the cards (look up hybrid inverters). This would also provide a whole-house UPS facility and render our (noisy) genset redundant. Photos as we progress so hopefully all will become clear. Comments always welcome of course (or I wouldn't be posting).
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