lom

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

Buy better, and it last longer, as I got a lot of Chinese stuff, that's still flying, still taking photo, still using 10 yr old batteries (not LFPs).

A lot of crap is manufactured in China mainly by smaller companies but there is also a lot of good products from companies with a name to defend.

I get a deja-vue feeling when people believe that everything Chinese is substandard, it reminds me of the 60's and the Japanese handheld plastic transistor radios and how we made fun of Japan then. 

20 minutes ago, impulse said:

Does the shiny digital meter phone home, or do they still need to read it the old fashioned way?

I don't know what this particular one do but I found the original Chines mfgr when googling for a users manual of it.

Mfgr specifies that it can be fitted with one or more different type of interfaces as 433MHz RF, optical. wifi, mobile broadband, modbus. rs-485 among others.

Mine have what looks like an infrared diod in its round window.

20 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Can you please share some photos of how you fixed the panels to your roof

No photos, company I bought the panels from did the install, I'm too old to enter the roof.

Roof was once covered by leaf tiles (temple type tiles) so it has 1"x1" horizontal metal beams every 10 cm from top to bottom, the tiles were replaced by OSB board and shingle a few years ago. 

The guys mounting the panels understood the 10 cm distance between the beams and screwed solar panel mounting rails through OSB board into the beams.  I've been up in the attic a couple of times to check for leaks and haven't  seen any.

29 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

How long before you need a new 280,000 Battery ? How long before it's efficiency starts to deteriorate ? Thanks.

The battery is rated for  > 6000 full discharge + charge cycles , I don't do full discharges so I estimate that I do the equivalent of ~200/year.

With a pessimistic calculation they should last at least 10 years, optimistically  20 years.

My system is not only intended for saving on the PEA bill, I live along a road with frequent power cuts due to high-voltage fuse blown.

When worst it is a couple of cuts per day  for a week after which we are down to normal which is once per week or two week and this has been ongoing for more than 20 years.

Those cuts lasts for a couple of hours until the PEA fuse-swap-monkey has dragged his lazy legs out of bed.

Then we have the cruise ships anchoring on the sea cable from the mainland and that will surely happen again now with a new cruise ship terminal being built and a doubling of arriving ships.

So, in myself I trust, in PEA Samui I distrust. Self sufficiency in electricity and water (have own well) is a must here.

I've been wondering for some time when someone at PEA will react to our drastically reduced power consumption since end of May last year when I first started to use solar power.

We have always had our meter read in the morning of the 20th during the 22 years we have lived here and the only exception to that has been them reading it one day earlier if the 20th was a public holiday.
That changed in February when they came the 19th even though the 20th wasn't a holiday and then in March they came even earlier, the 18th. 🙂 so I suspected that something was in the doing.

I have not exported much to the grid this year, only around 20 units/month but not close to the dates the meter reader has been here so I'm quite sure that he has not seen a reverse spinning meter.
 
The bill for April was an empty one with all lines x:ed over, not even listing the 17 units we had used so I was not surprised yesterday when I found that they had replaced the meter.

59 minutes ago, Crossy said:

THIS is a breaker!

I tend to agree about that. 😀

24 minutes ago, transam said:

Again, the date they want is in the box on the left, which is the date of the next 90-day report.

No it is not and by saying that you also say that the 90 day report is a visa.

The date they want is the date in your passport of the "Permission to stay until" stamp.

 STAY visa is the keyword. There is nothing from a 90-day report receipt that you need to fill in when you do a new one.

4 hours ago, transam said:

visa expires is the date in the box on the paper clipped in your passport from the last 90 day report.

There is no visa expires date on the 90 day report receipt you get after doing an online report.

ss

23 minutes ago, transam said:

visa expires is the date in the box on the paper clipped in your passport from the last 90 day report.

No it is not.

A 90 day report is not a visa, the date is the expiry date of stay and it clearly says so.

8 minutes ago, transam said:

On the paper you print off to put in your passport, in the oblong box to the left is the date of your next report, this is the date you use on your next online 90 day report...

You have obviously never done a TM47 90-day report online.

You are asked for 2 dates, "Arrival Thailand Date" and  "Stay visa expires" ,  the latter being the date your "permitted to stay until" stamp in your passport indicates.

2 hours ago, Pink7 said:

Update: Temp coming down again.. after tightening the 2 screws.

They will loosen up again, sorry to be repetitive but you are using a flat lug that will have a very limited contact surface with the switch.

It doesn't bottom out so the pressure on it will deform its side edges with time and that is when it get loose again.

Don't ask me how I know this..

17 hours ago, kwak250 said:

Saying that our eldest son just finished school so the aircon in his room is taking a belting

I know exactly what you're experiencing, I have two grand children living with us and they have each their own room..

Me: Not a degree below 27 on the remote or I'll cut down on your candy and your school money!

17 hours ago, Crossy said:

IMPORTANT NOTE: - Please don't lose sight of the fact that there is a LOT of energy tied up in your battery packs.

 

These packs are quite capable of pushing several thousand amps if shorted, that 1/2" drive ratchet stands no chance

My way of doing it in the battery room under the house.

50sqmm feed, switch, 35sqmmx2 to the250A fuse and the  busbars.

Two battery stacks of each 4x5KWh (=40KWh) connected to the busbars.

17 hours ago, Pink7 said:

Looks good. I use a heavy duty type lug for high current. see photo

That is flat lug and it should only be used in a switch that has a flat bottom, not a round bottom like your switch has.

Its connection to the switch is only on the side edges when you use it as you do

Looks like you are using some kind of lug on the wires, maybe DZ47/C45 lugs like this:

the switch however is intended for bare wire which you can see from its rounded bottom.

I use DIN-rail enclosures for all my other switches but the battery DC switch I used is this one:

it has proper M8 hex bolts and not weak Philips type screws..

On 4/18/2024 at 6:53 PM, djeetyet said:

Yes Schwab reimburses, but I find the cash advance most convenient and can get large sums of money rather than withdrawing many many times from the ATM machine

Maybe you could do a one-time exception to your rule just for test purpose?

500 baht

you or your Samui landlord must have done a TM30 report

1 hour ago, ryandb said:

Because it's Tao it'll be suspicious but could be as simple as fell and hit head on a curb while drunk

It most likely is.

39 minutes ago, Red Phoenix said:

Unfortunately that SIM card will expire in 1 week (18 april), so I am looking for a new 1-year dTac unlimited download SIM. 

Some 1-year dTac cards does not have to expire, you can fill them up at a dTac shop for another year.

Elon should have built his mega-battery in Grünheide instead of building it in Australia.

2 minutes ago, scott1999 said:

Interesting I can understand about the single phase wiring. But the three phase has a 50 amp fuse. Would that not be OK for a continuous draw of amps?

That means that you can temporarily overload your meter up to 50++ Amp somewhere above that your fuse will trip but your meter could withstand up to 100A (before it heats up so much that it starts to spin slower ☺️ )

A 15/45A single phase meter can withstand 15A continuously and 45A for a short time, not 45A continuously!

The same goes for a 30/100A 3-phase meter, it is 30A per phase continuously.

Interesting to see that I'm not the only one to have a consumption peak 31/3, our daily consumption during March was 52KWh ± 3KWh with 0.5KWh daily purchase from the grid (because current transformers in wrong place) and no feed-back to grid.

31/3 we had the record consumption of 68.4KWh and we had to buy 6KWh, I'll have to rectify that purchase today 😁