Muhendis

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.

In the pre-social media days, these police activities would never come to light. Police would think themselves untouchable. That is the mindset which still persists even when caught with their fingers in the till.

End of play today and all the new panels are all in place. Each panel is 550 Watt and seriously big and heavy. Size is 2.2 metres by 1.1 metres and, coming in at 35kg, highly recommended for industrial use. The silicon is 'N' type and half cell size. The flat roof is over 3 metres up so we (myself, wife, a nephew and a niece) did some interesting and innovative things with a ladder and some rope. I noticed that the frame of the panels is a bit floppy so I will be adding a bit more supporting truss work tomorrow. They don't make 'em like they used to.

A couple of days ago I removed all the old panels from my carport roof and started assembling the steel supports for the new panels.

I mentioned I would be replacing my 11 year old solar panels earlier. Why do I want to do that? The older panels are well worn out in the sun all day and the output is down enough for me to do something about it. Panels, particularly older tech ones will suffer from micro cracks, reduced intercell conduction, complete shattering of the front glass and UV light protection failure. Mine also suffered from being rated incorrectly with the sales pitch quoting them as 200W each but the label on the back making them to be 178W each. The micro cracks are in the silicon and will make it a bit tricky for electrons to travel from one side to the other. The burnt parts of the rear plastic layer in picture 2 are caused by the aluminium interconnections going resistive. The shattered glass in picture 3 is the result of the heat generated by the aluminium interconnections. Picture 4 shows the brown patches caused by failure of the UV protection layer.

Yeah. I had some similar excitement with my battery delivery. They were all on a single pallet and came in at a whopping 940 kg. I used a local courier from Bangkok to Buriram where I knew they had a forkin' lift. They fitted in the back of my Izusu 4x4 very well when I went and collected them. Downside is It cost 1k Baht to get them to the Bangkok depot from the Bangkok port warehouse.

I'm going to backtrack on this a bit. The plywood is still a reasonable idea but, having gained some more knowledge I would supplement that with aluminium foil arranged to have free air on both sides. I changed my idea because I read this:- https://radiantbarrier.com/blogs/news/how-radiant-barrier-works-heat-gain-loss-in-buildings#:~:text=Most aluminum insulation has only,strikes its air-bound surfaces.

That's the sort of thing although it looks a bit thick and heavy. Thaiwatsadu also have some 5mm thick plywood which might be better