Crossy

I have a friend (I know, mods aren't allowed friends) who needs some solar kit installed on his roof. He already has the panels, inverter etc. but he needs someone to mount the panels on his roof (standard 2 floor home with a pitched roof). Probably need to supply mounting hardware too. Of course, any outfit one talks to want to sell you the whole kit and caboodle (and make a handsome profit). But TiT, I'll put money on there being a crew who could do the job over a weekend, cash in hand, just like PEA did when we got our power poles installed. Any pointers, links, etc. etc. would be welcomed. Post here or PM.

OK, how many will admit to using Google Lens "just to check"??

At least one member here is married to an immigration officer, I'm 99% sure he gets free medical. Having worked here since 2004 (crikey, that long!!) I have the Thai social (plus employer provided health insurance). You can continue it once retired for a fairly nominal fee. It's not perfect but it's affordable.

The oldies are the goodies! One Sunday, when counting the money in the weekly offering, the Pastor of a small church found a pink envelope containing $1,000. It happened again the next week! The following Sunday, he watched as the offering was collected and saw an elderly woman put the distinctive pink envelope on the plate. This went on for weeks until the pastor, overcome by curiosity, approached her. “Ma’am, I couldn’t help but notice that you put $1,000 a week in the collection plate,” he stated. “Why yes,” she replied, “every week my son sends me money and I give some of it to the church.” The pastor replied, “That’s wonderful. But $1,000 is a lot, are you sure you can afford this... How much does he send you” The elderly woman answered, “$10,000 a week.” The pastor was amazed. “Your son is very successful; what does he do for a living” “He is a veterinarian,” she answered. “That’s an honorable profession, but I had no idea they made that much money,” the pastor said. “Where does he practice” The woman answered proudly, “In Nevada. He has two cathouses – one in Las Vegas, and one in Reno.”

Very, very finger in the air! 18,000 BTU will swallow 1,800W when running. You need to over-panel a bit so you are generating in the morning / evening, let's say 3kW of panels and a 3kW grid-tie inverter. 10 x 340W panels at 3k Baht each. 30k Baht 3kW grid-tie mid-price inverter 12,500 Baht (cheaper units are available). Say 43k + something for bit's n bobs, say 50k all in. Do you have a conventional spinning disc or electronic meter?? That system will over-generate at mid-day, if you have spinning disc, it will go backwards an electronic meter would ignore it. If you are on an electronic meter, I would now recommend going hybrid with a small energy storage system (battery), more expensive I'm afraid. Start a separate thread if the numbers are not too frightening.

It's been possible for some years, and it's the cheapest option. Grid-tie inverter and enough panels to run your A/C during the generating hours, with no batteries you will waste generation during the sunniest part of the day (unless your spin a conventional disc meter backwards - naughty).

You really don't need a massive investment to enable noticeable savings. Our local coffee shed seem to find it practical. I just re-ran my ROI calculator which takes account of the varying (up mostly) cost of electricity and the break-even point is 3.28 years. We will be generating free power later this year 😄

Does the LCD display tell you anything useful? Check the manual, it should have the maximum charge rate. I would try running with no load for 24 hours, to ensure the existing batteries are fully charged.

I found a similar inverter to yours https://m.indiamart.com/proddetail/durasol-dsw1450-pure-sine-wave-ups-2850393422755.html Max charge current is 8A which may not be enough to fully charge your batteries each time. As above, try to do without power during a couple of outages to ensure you really are fully charged. EDIT you are going to need at least 15 hours of charging with no discharge to get somewhere near full on the batteries.

I suspect those automotive lead-acid batteries could be shot; they really are not intended to be used in a UPS type application particularly if they are not getting fully charged between outages. Any idea how much current is being dragged from the pack when discharging? What is the charge rate that your inverter can provide? Can you survive a couple of outages without using the UPS so you can ensure your batteries really are fully charged? Do you have / can you get a multimeter? If we determine your batteries really are dead then: - You really need deep-cycle (marine) batteries, and never go below 50% charge. Can your inverter support lithium batteries? They would be a longer-lived solution. Is it possible to get stuff mail-order and shipped into Myanmar?

A couple of beers and the Wayback Machine in fully functional ...

Sadly, lost in September 2023 😞

And somehow, this was actually a hit that made it to TOTP!!

And the theme to my first (legal) entry into the pub!!

Sad back-story, but still great music.

This is obviously some strange usage of the words "recent" and "documentary" of which I was previously unaware ...

Yup, Thai immigration have these weird, almost magical, things called "computers".

Once the system has made enough energy to cover its cost of installation (5 years or so, but highly variable) the energy is FREE, zero Baht per kWh. EDIT We are not off grid, our system isn't big enough, yet. We use about 35-40kwh per day, our PEA bill is around 1,000 Baht monthly. Last year our 10kWp solar saved us 60,599 Baht (using PEA's calculator). Cost to date about 240kBaht, looking at payback time of 4 years or so.

Once you have your new passport you need to go to your local immigration and transfer the stamps, it's supposed to be a free service. Don't forget a re-entry permit to keep your current extension alive before you leave the country.

How big are these cracks and are they just in the non-structural walls or ... Are your foundations driven-piles or concrete pads, if pads did the builder excavate down to undisturbed soil (below your fill). Photos of the house and detail of the cracking would be useful.