Crossy

The weather is being kind at present, but there's a promise of flash, bang and dampness later ???? Solar mounting rails go up, we're using the same method as for the first batch. Maintenance walkway in place for ease of cleaning with the hose and our telescopic pool brush. It's right about now that one realises that solar panels actually aren't all a standard size

I've a feeling 63A may be the biggest they do as a main switch, do you actually need 100A? If so you'll need to protect individual "risky" circuits with their own (single-width) RCBO.

With only a 30A sub it's no issue to feed it off a regular breaker in one of the empty spaces. I would get the polarity swapped ASAP but get a local sparks (not the same one) in to do it for you, doing it live is a risk. It might actually be easier (and safer) to swap at the meter. You then need to verify the polarity of your outlets and maybe move all the black wires to the relevant breaker and the greys to the neutral bar. I'd also consider swapping that main breaker to an RCBO to provide you with some shock protection particularly if you have water heaters and outside outlets.

The correct way to feed that panel is :- Incoming live to the right hand bottom terminal of the main breaker. Incoming neutral to the left hand bottom terminal of the main breaker. The earth rod and circuit earths go to that bus bar at the top of the board. All the circuit neutrals come from that copper bus-bar to the left of the main breaker The circuit lives come from the bottom of the individual breakers. You have no need for any extra bus bars. From the wire colours you seem to be wired backwards, have you verified that the incoming neutral really does go to the right hand terminal? How? To feed a sub-board you could run the neutral from the existing neutral bar on the left and a new breaker in one of the unused slots, what sort of power are you anticipating for the sub?

I'll echo the above, technically you need a WP and a company, although ministers in the past have said that "digital nomads don't need one" then a week later one of the work-spaces gets raided! In reality nobody bothers if you're working online. Tell nobody what you are doing or what your source of income is, the risk is minimal but ...

I did a thread about the various inverter types https://aseannow.com/topic/1228023-whats-all-this-on-grid-off-grid-hybrid-stuff-all-about-solar-systems-demystified/ Basically a grid-tie hybrid aims to keep the grid consumption at zero, excess solar will charge the batteries, if solar is insufficient the batteries will discharge to top up, once the batteries reach a set limit energy is imported from the grid, if the batteries are full excess solar is exported to the grid (configurable for zero export). The inverters themselves play pretty well together without any actual communications between them, the hybrid does its thing whilst pretty much ignoring the pure grid-tie. One trap I did fall into was assuming (I know, I know) that the two Sofar inverters would talk to the same internet logging software so I could see everything at a glance. I was wrong! The grid-tie came from a seller in China and turns out to be a mainland-only unit (not for export) and talks to one site, the hybrid came from a seller in Thailand and is the Aussie export model, it talks to a different (rather better) site. They also have different Wi-Fi dongles and won't talk to the other type. Grrr. It's possible that the Aussie firmware would run on the grid-tie unit (if I could get it) but Sofar Support whilst generally helpful and communicative won't say if it will and wouldn't let me have a copy anyway. Obviously I also worry about bricking the unit (I do have the Chinese firmware so should be able to go back but ...). In reality my DIY monitor does everything I need and when I get the odd moment I'll do something with Node-Red to integrate both inverters and the BMS's (they all have RS-485), but that's a future project. All good fun.

For completeness I've pulled this from another thread, this is what we currently have in the battery box. Since we are "experimental" (and not millionaires) I got the used golf-cart batteries from lifepo4shop https://www.lazada.co.th/products/calb-lifepo4-32v-200ah-4-12v-i2523760591-s8967280783.html I've seen these advertised as "new" on AliExpress but CALB stopped using that case style some years back. I've also got a "100Ah" pack which I was given by a mate who was rather miffed to find they measured at 50Ah, so yes finding a good seller isn't always easy! They're certainly well used, testing at about 80% of new capacity but at 1,600 Baht a pop what's not to like. We will see how they go life wise. They're coupled with a Daly 16S 100A Smart BMS https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i2480878972-s8740847689.html We also have a "flying capacitor" active balancer which can shift 5A between any pair of cells if they go off balance. With used and probably mis-matched cells I consider this an essential item. It works very well, this morning the cells are within 12mV according to the BMS. https://www.lazada.co.th//products/i2299959424-s7751185517.html

So today we went shopping. I have purchased 12 x 340W Jinyuan poly panels @ 2,890 Baht a pop, from Global House I'm in instant-gratification mode. EDIT I ordered and paid online via the Global website for pickup from our local store, the store called when they were ready for collection (slightly over the promised 30 minutes, but no problem) so minimal interaction with crowds all very easy and professional. So assuming the weather is OK tomorrow the supports will go up along with the panels if time permits. This will bring us to just over 10kWp which is probably going to be our final configuration, there is room for a further 6 panels but they would be quite heavily shaded by the house in the afternoon. Once these panels are up the configuration will look something like this:- More news as it happens!

Unless someone remembers that Thailand and Japan (whilst both nominally "metre gauge") are not actually the same gauge they aren't going to get railed in the first place ???? Thailand is actually 1,000mm whereas Japan is Cape Gauge (1,067mm). If you look at many of the (somewhat) preserved steam locos that were actually Japanese imports during the war they have been re-gauged by moving the wheel tyres inwards by an inch or so.

I'm certainly up for the simple flavours, not sure I could wait that long ????

Conventional wisdom is that older eggs are easier to peel when hard boiled. Thai eggs aren't washed so they keep just fine at room temperature for a significant period (remember a chook will lay up to 20 eggs at one a day before sitting, and those eggs still make chicks so they're not anywhere near "off"). Just cook them on the "Best Before" date for absolute safety.

If you are scrupulous with your sterilisation of the gear and jars they should be good for months, put them in the fridge once opened. I think most of us would just stick them in the fridge anyway to be on the safe side.

Maybe they mis-typed and left a couple of letters off, like SR. USSR Fetching my coat! Yes, I know it's long gone (26 December 1991) but ...

I did wonder if there's actually a whole submarine under the lawn

This Thai skipper took a wrong turn somewhere.

I have Citi Prestige VISA and Rewards Mastercard (need work permit). Major plus for me is that Makro accept them and Prestige gives 12.5% cash for points on fuel from PTT. Credit limit is about 5 times my monthly salary, I pay off every month but it's handy for those "sudden" expenses.

Looks good and simple. Do you have a source (preferably online) for pickling spice?

Lamptan are usually pretty good, but if you can get Panasonic with similar output numbers you should be good to go.

For reasons completely unkown to me I suddenly have the urge to eat pickled eggs (no, I'm not pregnant). Since Madam is gotten a pickling urge (she's not pregnant either) I fancy a go at that pub favourite, pickled eggs. Ideally consumed with a packet of ready-salted or salt-n-vinegar and a quantity of ale! Many and varied recipes on the net, so what are you using?

It's here and has been up for 40 minutes or so.

What's the spec. of the existing driver? You have to be a bit careful because LEDs are not voltage driven, they are current driven. Over-current the device and it will go phut! Getting a driver of similar spec. from a different source would be ok.

Since we are "experimental" (and not millionaires) I got the used golf-cart batteries from lifepo4shop https://www.lazada.co.th/products/calb-lifepo4-32v-200ah-4-12v-i2523760591-s8967280783.html I've seen these advertised as "new" on AliExpress but CALB stopped using that case style some years back. I've also got a "100Ah" pack which I was given by a mate who was rather miffed to find they measured at 50Ah, so yes finding a good seller isn't always easy! They're certainly well used, testing at about 80% of new capacity but at 1,600 Baht a pop what's not to like. We will see how they go life wise. They're coupled with a Daly 16S 100A Smart BMS https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i2480878972-s8740847689.html We also have a "flying capacitor" active balancer which can shift 5A between any pair of cells if they go off balance. With used and probably mis-matched cells I consider this an essential item. It works very well, this morning the cells are within 12mV according to the BMS. https://www.lazada.co.th//products/i2299959424-s7751185517.html