Crossy

Do you have to pay for the "open" sign as it's portable? Local plod tried (half heartedly, he's not stupid and he knows my wife) to charge us for the English "29 Palms" (I'm a Robert Plant fan) on our house name sign.

Ouch!! Before you get the man in, turn it all off and try moving the variac by hand. Ours threw a wobbler and stopped regulating, i never really found out what had gone wrong but removing the motor and putting it back fixed the beast.

There most definitely is external control in some GTIs for certain markets, Oz being one of them ???? If your inverter has WiFi then it most likely has the facility for external control, whether that control is enabled or exercised by those in control ....

A properly configured hybrid will only import grid energy when there is low sunshine and the batteries are depleted. There is nothing to stop you configuring it to never import - all that happens is your lights go out if there's not enough solar and your batteries are depleted. The whole point of running hybrid (of either on or off grid flavour) is to ensure you always have power, they are inherently a UPS. I'm not really sure what the confusion here is to be honest. Maybe start by forgetting about the batteries and consider how a pure grid-tie system works, then do the same with it set to "no export". Once that's clear you can add an ESS into the fray.

Because the systems in question are grid-tie (no batteries). If the grid can't take the generated energy the authority shut down export. Hence my friends adding batteries to store that energy that would have been exported if permitted.

Yeah ^^^, with an AVR which will provide its own low-voltage shut off anyway, why bother with our orange friend and its associated contactor?

No, it just means the inverter is exactly balancing its output against local consumption, so grid power is zero. If there's no solar the inverter is quite happily importing for local usage and battery charging if you have it configured like that.

By far the best people to contact would be VFS who handle all PP issuance in Thailand. Failing that, plenty of agents who will do all the donkey work for you.

It's definitely "horses for courses". The grid can only absorb so much power, if there's more available than is being used then they either have to shut down the exporting systems, or store the excess energy. Of course one option is rather cheaper for the energy companies than the other. If my system was being regularly curtailed I would certainly be looking at storing (or using) the available excess. How viable that would be based upon cost-benefit would depend upon multiple factors. Here in sunny Thailand I'm quite happy to spend the $$$ which I didn't spend on a "professional" installation (which would allow me to legally export/re-import my excess) on an ESS which will let me keep that energy within the boundaries of my property and then let me use it later. I know that one day I'll end up with an electronic meter at which point the unofficial net-metering will end, so I aim at being ready. As a bonus I get UPS functionality that keeps everything but the big pumps and water heaters alive when a cement truck takes out a line of power poles.

Our GTIs will happily ramp up their output voltage until they either reach the available power, the set export power limit or the set maximum grid voltage. Of course if the grid is lightly loaded and thus already a bit high we run out of voltage headroom before reaching the available export power or the export power limit limit at which point any available power remaining is simply not used (and the panel voltage rises).

Is the supply actually low? These things have very basic series capacitor-dropper power supplies which can get "tired", this would make the internal relay buzz. Pop the lid off the really noisy one, you will probably find a 400V AC rated capacitor (similar to a motor run capacitor). Replace it with a similar cap (and replace the electrolytic that's nearby too) and I bet it starts working and stops buzzing.

The latest version of the PEA App goes back two years in "Table" mode, sadly it doesn't show FT, just usage and total $$$.

I don't seem to be able to edit the attribution, so I've simply removed it to prevent confusion.

Don't worry about excess production when there's low load, once the batteries are full the charge control system will simply shut down, the panel output just goes to zero (lots of volts but no amps), they are quite happy in this state. 72 hours autonomy @ 300kWh per day is 900kWh of battery! That's about 66 x 13kWh Tesla PowerWalls. Just the batteries will blow your 2.5MBaht budget ???? 100kWP of panels at current prices would be say 500kBhat. 45kW worth of off-grid inverters say 200kBaht (you are going to need a bunch of additional charge controllers too). Say another 400kBaht for mounting hardware, cable, surge suppressors etc etc. Then double the number for a contractor install, say 2.5MB WITHOUT the batteries. You probably need to talk to an industrial installer. I'm assuming this isn't a home, maybe a resort?

Do you have an idea of your peak loading, that will determine your inverter sizing. 9,000 units a month is about 300 a day (that's nearly 10 times what we use), you are looking at something like 600m2 of panels, say about 100kWP!!! How much autonomy will be needed (for low sun days), backup power supply (genset or is there grid nearby which could be used as backup)? Definitelely LifePO4 battery technology, much safer than Li-ion. With a system that size going directly to the manufacturers becomes viable.

There are many threads regarding Lazada service / support (or lack of it) we really don't need yet another, particularly a non-specific one.

In some areas Oz the supply authorities are also implementing curtailment on domestic solar, the supply authority can turn off export from your solar without your knowledge so you are still making energy, but are neither using nor selling it! https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-02-16/solar-how-is-it-affected-by-renewable-energy-curtailment/100830738 A number of mates in Oz have had this problem, many are investigating moving to hybrid systems with local storage rather than grid export/import and taking back control of their energy supplies. ROI on a hybrid vs export/import isn't wonderful although with the cost of batteries decreasing it's getting better and when curtailment is taken into account it becomes even more attractive (and you have the advantage of UPS functionality so no power cuts).

But, we are not talking about 10 years ago are we??? What was the correct decision then (it likely was) may be not be the correct one now (it probably isn't). If your current units are functioning OK and your bills are not excessive why change anything?

Prices are rapidly approaching parity with non-inverter types, as is the cost of repair and the works are significantly more robust than in the past. Ask me 5 years ago and I would think twice about an inverter, now I would only consider an inverter. The manufacturers really love making inverter A/C units:- Once the development costs are recovered the electronics is cheap. The electronics allows them to use much cheaper motors (they can be designed right to the line as the smart bit protects the motor). They do actually save energy so they have a built in selling point for the masses. So, they have a product that's less costly for them to make that they can (could) sell at a premium, or at least the same price as a conventional unit that costs more to make and the public actually wants the new product. One of those rare occasions where everybody wins, including the environment!

No, but AliExpress has a decent escrow system that doesn't release the funds until you (not the courier) confirm delivery. It does have a time-out so if something hasn't turned up you need to either start a dispute or extend the time or it will automagically release the funds (that's how it worked in the past, it might have changed).

I have some ancient Tesco electronic scales, but they only show to the nearest gram. So I use the "don't have accurate scales" method from here https://www.localfoodheroes.com/dry-cured-bacon-tutorial/

The whole point of an inverter unit is that the compressor doesn't cycle on/off. It dynamically adjusts its output as required by the needed cooling, very rarely actually switching off (most inverter units have a minimum cooling level at which they do power off the compressor). Also inverters are "soft starting" so there's no large switch on surge, this is nice if you have solar or a genset.