Crossy

We had one minor bump in the road in that I had to return to the bank to get online banking working, 10 minutes (and more photocopies) and we're good to go.

If you are worried about duty / tax then ask if your seller can ship "DDP" (Delivery Duty Paid) which means that there's nothing to pay at this end, everything is pre-cleared by Thai customs.

Where in Thailand are you located? Your local university may well have testing facilities, or if not, may be able to point you in the direction of a reputable lab.

Do you have links to these reports please. It's always good to have all sides of the discussion.

Did you get anything back from Luyuan? Our packs are behaving well and staying well in-balance (we do have the optional active-balancers).

Since I have to replace the cells in a couple of our deco lights I need to order a few 18650s. Which of the plethora of cells in their shop would you recommend as known good??

In our quest for more power, "more volts Igor, more volts!!" we stuck 6 x 445W panels on the patio roof. We are now up to 51 panels totalling 18kWp. The roof slopes to the east and the panels are shaded by the house later in the day but their performance has actually been rather better than I anticipated. The 4 baby panels power our floodlights.

Back in April this year we got two new 280Ah x 48V (about 14kWh) packs from China for USD 3,774 the pair including DDP shipping (no duty or tax to pay at this end). Unless your second-life packs are very competitive is it worth the risk?

It's also worth noting that many of the used packs (including the Nissan Leaf) use the older NMC chemistry. NMC packs have a rather greater propensity for going "whoosh" than the newer (and now favoured for EVs) LiFePO4 chemistry. Personally, I would rather not have either chemistry inside my home (our 70kWh of LiFePO4 storage is in its own fire-resistant shed) but having an NMC pack inside your living space would be a definite no-no. EDIT For any type of ESS it's worth remembering that a "reasonably sized" i.e. 14kWh pack contains as much electrical energy as about 1.5litres of petrol/gasoline. Treat your energy storage in the same way as the gas can for your mower!

MG have modified their battery warranty (even for existing owners) to be unlimited mileage. https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/motoring/2829412/mg-announces-extended-lifetime-warranty-for-four-models and here (use Google Translate) https://brandinside.asia/mg-lifetime-warranty-battery-ev/ I expect other manufacturers to follow suit forthwith.

Touché

More here https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/19/24201717/windows-bsod-crowdstrike-outage-issue

Continues in News

Yeah, the original US version was a Nash Rambler and a Cadillac. I'm just a tad younger 🙂

A faulty update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike is responsible for the global outage. Thousands of Windows machines are experiencing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue at boot today, impacting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, supermarkets, and many more businesses worldwide. A faulty update from cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike is knocking affected PCs and servers offline, forcing them into a recovery boot loop so machines can’t start properly. CrowdStrike is widely used by many businesses worldwide for managing the security of Windows PCs and servers. Australian banks, airlines, and TV broadcasters first raised the alarm as thousands of machines started to go offline. The issues are now spreading, as businesses based in Europe are starting their working days. UK broadcaster Sky News was unable to broadcast its morning news bulletins for hours this morning, and was showing a message apologizing for “the interruption to this broadcast.” Ryanair, one of the biggest airlines in Europe, also says it’s experiencing a “third-party” IT issue, which is impacting flight departures. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/19/24201717/windows-bsod-crowdstrike-outage-issue

Doesn't everyone talk to their pets?? Ah!

Scored at Krungthai bank, personal attention from the senior account manager as he spoke passable English. Took a while because they'd not come across a farang needing an account in their Thai name before. Took copies of my Pink ID, Yellow Book, passport and (for reasons unknown) driving licence. I signed 1,000,000 pieces of paper including the obligatory FATCA form (as a Brit just tick all the "no" boxes) Interestingly, Madam confided in the bank staff that BKK-Bank had actually told her that it was too hard and she should take her husband somewhere else!!!

I hope not, they will screw our solar production 😞

I do admire your perseverance; I would have told them where to shove it by now. We've gone the other way and gone off-grid although we still have the PEA connection as backup.