Bikkel

I looked some time ago into the renewable energy biz for my energy needs. I came to the conclusion that for Thailand with its relatively low diesel prizes, renewable energy is totally uneconomical in the short run.

Yet diesel prizes are expected to go up and up in the future, since the Chinese and Indian people start getting prosperous.

For a 10 kW diesel generator: 3 k$ on Ebay ex operational costs, compare this to an investment in solar power of 25 k$+. Biogas is nice for cooking, for electricity you need shit from 100+ piggies, a really big pooperscooper (septic tank) and a converted diesel generator that uses 1 liter diesel / hour to ignite the biogas and to prevent H2S corrosion.

Check out Palang Thai, something like 'power to the Thai people' (?):

Palang Thai

Yet a solar water heater from solarhart is worth considering.

Renewable energy suppliers in Thailand here

I didn´t vote for them but I do most of my flying with China Air, simply because they are cheapo and have a direct flight to BKK. Their Boeings are quite dodgy, but I don´t mind. Flying is like sitting in a bus. Can´t wait to leave the cattle hauling class seat.

Just don´t go to sleep before the trip and with the help of a few whiskey cola´s and a bit of luck you pass out for most of the time

Last trip was with Royal Jordanian. Not so bad, the staff was a mix of Jordanians, Thai, Turkish and Singapore girls, if you don´t mind the 5 hour stopover in Aman.....twice

Not to mention the double airport tax, yet I had little choice left in the high season between xmas and newyear. Next time China Airways again.

Great to see that there is navigation software covering Thailand. No TOMTOM yet

Currently I am using Gem on a PC at home and Pocketgem while driving. Gem downloads Mapquest maps from the internet. Pocketgem is the same deal: you load maps from the internet with Gem on your PC, send it to a pocketpc and pocketgem shows you your current location with a GPS unit.

No routing, no directions, no voice, just plain Jane location only. The mapquest maps are only street level for the Bangkok area. The regional maps show only the main highways. But I found that quite nifty already. The coverage of the maps is worldwide, with more or less detail.

Gem is free, yet driving with a laptop next to you is not a solution and dangerous. I navigate with a Ipaq attached with a cradle to the windshield and a serial GPS unit plugged in the cigarette lighter. This setup lets you keep an eye on traffic.

Pocketgem asks for a license fee of $20, but it is worth it after being lost just once .

Get the goodies from here

Blast , the answer was there on another unrelated topic in this forum.

Solar power in thailand:

www.solarsolutions.co.th

Found someone with the same problem:

http://www.koi.com.my/forum/KOI_Talk_C1/Po...te_pond_P56641/

How about this:

http://www.bondall.com/Products%5CWaterpro...lt.asp?pid=1648

>Was thinking the other day about a solar pump,is there such a pump and how many >square feet of panel per horsepower?

Grundfos has solar driven DC deep well pumps:

http://www.grundfos.com/web/hometh.nsf

Look under renewable energy.

Solar panels from BP, Sharp, Sanyo can deliver 160~180 Watts max/panel. The highest yield panels I found are from RWE with max 310 watts / panel. Keep in mind though that the average yield is 75% of the max power rating or less. Dimensions of a NE-Q5E2U-sharp 165 Watt panel are 62.01"x32.52"x1.81".

Be prepared to cough up to $1400 for each panel, ex shipping, import tax and inverter. Since the solar pump stops working at night you need a intermediate storage tank or a set of deep-cycle batteries and a charger.

Complete off-grid power stations can be found at http://www.sunwize.com/

On Thai Global Network TV I saw that the schools in Changmai or Changrai have solar panel power stations, founded by a Royal program. Any dealers of solar panels/power stations in Thailand with a website?

My advise: Never buy it unseen.

Isaan is very dry and arid. It is difficult to make a living out of the land. It will require additional investment for irrigation, pumps, fertiliser, digging fish pounds, the works.

In my experience, Isaan Thai are very biased. All land you will buy for them is good. But is that really the case: Is it sand ground, near a canal (klong), is it accessable via an asfalt road or a goat track, any chance of electric power lines? How about the status of the owners' papers.

Sounds to me it to good to be true for me. I bought 22 rai for my girlfriend from Isaan with a good land title. My inlaws registred the land at the Amphur under a lesser land title. In fact it became totally worthless, because with the lesser title you can not sell it or get a loan for it. Nice for my gf but I will not put in one stinking bath in developing the land. GF gone, investment gone.

A lesson well learned, no more inlaws for me. I go live in Thailand far away from Isaan.

Maybe I was to generalistic and if I stepped on your toes, oepps sorry.

And I am looking at a bloody beam in the middle of my living room to be.

Thank you for checking my posted reply:

Now in the UK bricks are baked, so then they are extremely strong and can hold up a lot of weight, here unfortuneately those little red things that Thais call bricks are sun baked and these cannot withstand a lot of weight, so generally everything is supported by concrete beams and posts and the bricks are just used for infill, ie making the walls and that sort of thing.Anyway here is a nice picture of beam work.

http://www.thaibuilding.blogspot.com/

Of course you have bricks and bricks.

Hello everyone,

I heard of a story that a falang started a restaurant with his wife. The falang only showed the customers to the table. The competing restaurant next door tipped off the police and the falang had to leave the country.

To get back to the subject, Thai red stone bricks are sunbaked and not like in Europe baked in a furnace. The structural load bearing capacity of the red bricks is rather disappointing. That's why everyone builds their house with upright concrete beams every 3-4 meters apart. So the walls do only carry their own weight.

A fellow expat build his house in Isaan with a single wall of the superblock bricks of 20x20x? cm glued together, without concrete beams. The floors were made of 6 meter floor panels as featered on the Q-con site, topped of with an extra layer of poured concrete. Wheter or not you need the concrete beams, consult a structural engineer first.

Fact is that your building plans without concrete beams will not be approved by the piyu-baan (head-village).

The superblock bricks are sold under de brand name Ytong in Holland an Belgium. They offer great isolation value.