Muhendis

When a company that manufactures solar equipment first starts up, development and tooling costs are seriously scary high. It will take that company many months if not years to get their products to market. So, to recover their costs, these companies have to sell at grossly elevated prices. This if fine and normal especially if competition is thin on the ground. After a time development and tooling costs are recovered and production becomes streamlined. Profit margins are huge (1000% is not unusual at this stage) but then in comes the competition and down go market prices. Market forces prevail and the likes of you and I get happier and happier. Natural events like covid tend to chuck a spanner in the works which causes prices to rise later which enables companies to recover their pandemic losses. But that is normally temporary in the world of technology and prices can get back to normal fairly quickly. Once again, market forces take care of that.

I agree with this idea it is something that could be done with a little support from the national government. We are a village of 200 or so houses. If each house were to generate something like 8kW AC this power could be connected to a local, village grid. Nighttime power could come from each house battery bank of 36kW. In effect, the village would be it's own mini grid. Another idea could be to have a dedicated area for a solar farm complete with industrial size generator of 1.6MW, a container full of flow batteries and a few powerful inverters. Never gonna happen though. The government is the majority shareholder in PEA and likes to see massive Mega bucks coming in every week.

Ha Ha Ha It does seem like some sort of fanaticism but in my case I went off grid because my house was built 1km from the nearest electric post. This meant having a temporary or construction supply. This temporary supply voltage fluctuated down to below 180v as the village woke up every morning and if someone decided to do a bit of arc welding then we could well have been down to 50v. Solar was the only option worth looking at for me because I have a certain expertise in things electronic. Good job I went solar too because I had to wait 7 years from application, for a permanent PEA supply. The permanent supply is about 4 Baht/unit whereas the temporary supply was about 8 Baht/unit. I still have my PEA connected but it was relegated to backup once I had my solar up and running.

The figure of 150% is what was quoted some years ago when this first came up however your comment has me wondering if that may be the figure for visiting expats who are looking for treatment by the NHS before returning to their adopted home. What is the NHS surcharge in financial terms?

Good question. I guess someone important enough decided it was worthy of pulling apart officially by the government influencers (backbenchers to you and me). Some of the comments highlight the fact that something like 70% of the UK population live on less than the £38,500 minimum income limit for migrants, so why are migrants required to have more? I think I'm going to answer my own question. Immigrants need more money to pay 150% of any NHS treatment they may need irrespective of any income from working in the UK.

If you mean discussed on this forum then you really should have a look at the link. The link is the Government debate on the subject. Clearly this is a wrong assumption but never mind. The Government has debated it now anyway and that is what should be of greater importance.

There is a UK Government petition that I recently signed, which highlights the proposed future costs of non-UK citizens to live in the UK together with their spouse. The petition cleared the minimum number respondents which caused the Government to debate the issue. Here is the full debate which, in my opinion and if nothing else, highlights the Government's lack of forethought and consideration. It is also notable that nothing is mentioned of the financial improvements that the UK Inland Revenue might expect from an increased number of working immigrants. https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-04-23/debates/197A4BF5-2D70-4087-9ECC-479F740A7C10/PartnerAndSpousalVisasMinimumIncome

Ta.

I am just a bit confused about the schengen visa. Perhaps someone can clarify I thought schengen was a visa agreement to visit countries which are part of the EU. Does that now include Switzerland?

OK I'm jealous.

Don't be to grateful, it's a bit of a backhanded compliment. What he's saying is that you guys made it horrendously slow before. But I agree it's nipping along at a goodly pace now.

Back in those days cars were a lot less reliable and there were very few of them on the road so it's quite likely true to say a motorcycle combination was the safest thing on the road, but not any more. By the way. Like the 1960's blow wave.

I have my suspicions that, although funding was made available four years ago, by the time the company started work there were insufficient funds available to complete.

I always used to fancy one of these things But never quite got there.

Good to see someone's paying attention. Those old panels are still good for a few years but with reduced output. I sold 'em all off for 100 Baht each. The villagers are pleased because they will get on the solar merry-go-round with free power (almost) for their lights, fans and TV. Not really enough in the old panels to do much else. The hidden bonus for me is the extra free beers I will be offered when I pop into the village shop/pub.

I spend many hours yesterday rerouting my cable from their old location on one side of the house to their new location on t'other side. That's four 16mm² cables (two red and two Blue) somewhere in the region of 20 metres long and definitely not flexible. Today I completed the installation with the final connection, test and commissioning. The difference is, for me, mind boggling. Whereas before I was getting about 40A total charging current at peak time, the new panels are giving me 70A at 09:30. I am well pleased with the outcome and a bit grumpy towards the original equipment supplier from 11 years ago. Still got a bit of final touching up to do which shouldn't take too long but probably will.

Joking aside. All electronic components, even fuses, have a voltage rating for this very reason. For example. Fitting a correct value resistor in a circuit may seem like a good idea but, in a high voltage circuit, the physical dimensions may allow for a current path to exist over the surface of the component. Same thing with fuses and fuse holders.

This reminds me of a case of professional stupidity from a huge number of years ago. An idiot approached an 11kv cabinet with the intention of doing a few continuity checks with his AVO 8. The cabinet had not been locked off. There was a welding arc-like flash and the meter went into orbit. The man was projected across the room landing in a heap of semi consciousness. The man was OK after a brief stay in hospital. The cabinet was fine having passed it's test. All parts of the AVO 8 were finally located and consigned to the rubbish bin. Moral is obvious.

You have my sympathies Crossy. When did that happen?

Additional vertical struts added to stop panels waving in the wind. All wiring completed from panels to combiner box in the picture at the far end.

What a hefty tomb that NFPA document is............. I had a quick skip through it and note there is a requirement for smoke detectors to be fitted for all ESS's.

The point is that the stored, extremely high energy, should be isolated from the rest of the low power electronic world by normal protective procedures. If the battery itself should become unsociably unstable, then there is very little you or I can do about it.

I think that may be dependant on global warming/sea level rise.

I thought about fitting a smoke detector, but my feeling is that by the time smoke is detected it is too late to save anything electronical. Circuit protection is the best anti-fire regime. My battery balancers were connected direct to the batteries without any current limiting devices or fuses. It would have been nice if the company which supplied them had included a word or two about safety but, as usual, it is left to the individual to take whatever precautions are necessary. Batteries are chock full of big heavy power just itching to get out so any electronic devices connected to them need to be protected by a fuse. If a component in said electronic device were to fail short circuit, it would be nice if the thing failed to catch fire.

Those balancers can be a fire hazard if not fused. Been there. Done that. Extinguished the fire and replaced the nearest battery.