Led Lolly Yellow Lolly

I have 20 or 30 of these dotted around our hotel. I can control street lights, pool lights, pretty much anything, from an app on my phone, anywhere in the world. You can also set up automatic schedules. . .

https://www.jib.co.th/web/index.php/product/readProduct/20628/24/WI-FI-SMART-PLUG-TP-LINK-HS110

With the greatest respect there's a lot of cobblers being posted here. It's all very well to say "Just use a mate's address, I did it, no problems" and all that, but the law is clear, it is an offence to provide a false address. Further, no insurer will cover you in the event you are found to have been lying about your address or residency. If you have an existing license and continue to use it, you are by default lying, the details on it are wrong.

If you live in Thailand, use your Thai license and forget about your British license. I can think of no advantage whatsoever to renewing your British license.

Hotels have nothing to worry about, believe me. Travellers that want or need the guest services offered by 4 or 5 star hotels (e.g. 24 hour room service, swimming pools, business centres, conference facilities, on site restaurants) are always going to go to 4 and 5 star hotels and the management couldn't give a hoot if flashpackers opt to sleep in someone's living room. There is also the mass market from places like China that are never going to send their coach loads to someone's condo.

Quote

 

 

Never happened to me in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Vietnam or Laos.

They all want cash, a night or two at a time. The airlines like cash too.

I've not been asked for a 'security deposit' in the past ten years.

 

Honestly mate, the inference that airlines won't accept credit cards is just cobblers. I don't know what parallel universe you're in but you any international standard hotel accepts creit cards only, (or cash) for advance bookings and security. I guess the sort of places you stay at can't get a PDQ machine from their bank, hence the cash only option in your case.

Full disclosure: I'm a hotel manager. I'm also an IT consultant and regularly deal with PCI compliance in secured networks. I know what I'm talking about. 

On 9/1/2017 at 9:42 AM, allane said:

A "secured credit card" isn't a credit card, it is a debit card. If you deposit, say, B 20,000, you can charge up to that limit; if you want to charge more, you have to deposit more money first. My credit card is a credit card.

It IS a credit card, you're borrowing on secured money. Credit cards are fundamentally different behind the scenes. Observe the raised digits on the card compared to flat digits on the debit cards. Credit cards can be swiped on carbon paper and the bank guarantees payment (for example, on flights for duty free purchases). Debit cards are not guaranteed by the bank in this way and they'll never be accepted where the bank cannot be contacted electronically, or where future payment needs to be guaranteed (for example, making advanced bookings where payment is later deducted).

I have no ties at all with my home country, all bank accounts closed etc. In fact, on the rarefied occasions I have to visit the UK for whatever reason, I use my Thai driver's license to rent a car etc (people don't realise that is actually what you're supposed to do but please don't make me get into a debate about that). It seems reasonable to me that UK banks won't allow you to maintain a resident account if you are not a resident.

I'll post my experience in case someone finds it interesting. Credit cards are important to me for a couple of reasons. I stay in a lot of hotels, it's hard to reserve rooms with only a debit card, and generally if you can't swipe a credit card upon check in you have to pay cash security deposit. This is a convenience issue. Further, debit cards are not accepted on flights for purchases, they will only accept credit cards.

The cash on deposit option is hit and miss because the bank staff don't generally know about it. I have an SCB credit card, not because I need or want credit, but purely for the convenience issue when travelling as I highlighted above. I have work permit and there are large volumes of cash going through my account every week. I believe the minimum salary they expect for foreigners is 50K/month. I didn't find the process any harder than in my own country. You won't get a credit card anywhere without salary, legal residency and form.

The PEA regularly come to our hotel to let us know they'll be switching off the power all day tomorrow, in order to cut back trees, or swap out a transformer, or some such like. Makes my p:s$ boil, on the one hand it happens a lot, and on the other I don't find it sufficient to be informed at 17:00 HRS on the afternoon they'll be switching off the power. So, generators are a favourite subject of mine. Presently I only have a three phase diesel genset capable of running reception, restaurant, swimming pool pumps and other essential services. It's capable of cranking out around 50Kw per phase but it's old and doesn't work properly. I'd like to run the entire business on backup power but we have 4 transformers so realistically we'd need 4 generators to keep it simple. I've not convinced 'the money' that this investment is necessary yet.

In summary you need to calculate your power needs and diversity. Depending on the size of your business you might want to get a consultant in, this is a costly error if you get it wrong. If you're a very small enterprise, the key decisions (other than power needs) are petrol vs diesel, single phase vs three phase, noise a problem, noise not a problem.

For quick and safe verification of a circuit status, I have one of these in my pocket at all times. It also doubles as a handy little pocket torch. . .

https://www.fluke.com/en-th/product/accessories/lights/fluke-lvd2

You can buy them in Thailand from https://www.es.co.th

The fusing eliminates the risk of a corroded or oxidised connection (corrosion or oxidation increases resistance, heat, and is commonly a source of connection failure or fire). I actually liked what I see, although I would have used two or three layers of heat shrink. I might start using that method myself! (my fingers suffer from 'wire nut fatigue', probably an age thing).

My personal feeling on the above is that nearly all taxation is fraudulent and the benefits system encourages a culture of dependency. About the issue of discrimination, which I think we are in agreement on, is that marrying the person you love should never be written off as a lifestyle choice and any spouse of a British citizen should NOT be paying thousands of pounds in fees while their Polish neighbours (with no UK connections) bring their entire family to Britain free of charge with no hurdles to jump. The whole system is screwed up.

Real cute, and no. 

I'm sorry I don't have time to answer your PM. I'm happy to offer free advice in passing but the reality is you're not going to be able to fix these problems yourself and the local dimwit spark is probably only going to make things worse and tell you everything is just dandy. If this is a hospital you frankly should have the resources to get a certified electrical engineer on site. 

I watched the guy cut a hole in the concrete and set up the 'earth' thing. Then he laid concrete over it. Thus I know earth safety is installed

The problem with that is that if it's buried in anything it needs to be exothermically welded, otherwise the connection will potentially corrode away in months. In any case, as others have mentioned, a ground connection should ordinarily be ready for inspection at any time.

There is a serious arc flash danger there with those improvised bus bars, personally I would condemn the installation on that point alone.

That is not true. She didn't start the charging but the overall cost of application went up by orders of magnitude with her in Home Office. She also implemented the minimum income system, forcing families apart. 

PETA are freaks, but there is no arguing that elephants drew a bad hand anywhere they naturally roam. About Thailand, I wouldn't advise anyone ride elephants, not just because it perpetuates their captivity and abuse (even at 'ethical' elephant farms) but because of the dangers it presents to those riding. I've been taking friends and guests to various elephant camps in Chiang Mai and Chiang rai for over ten years, the most alarming experience for me was being almost shoulder to shoulder with high voltage electricity cables during one particular elephant 'experience', to name one of the many dangers.

Many years ago (15+) or something like that, ILR applications were free. Can you believe that? We have Theresa May's Home Office years and EU triggered kneejerk to thank for that change of direction.

Quote

What baffles me is people acting so extremely hostile towards this without knowing much of anything about us.

You don't even know eachother for phvk's sake. Human behaviour is pretty easy to predict and understand. It's just a calculation of sex, money and love. You're girlfriend stopped taking the pill because she wanted to get pregnant and now you're failing to understand what's happened to you. She'll keep the baby anyway so stop kidding yourself.

Forgive me for not reading through all of this topic but here's my advice anyways. Nothing would separate me from my son. When the news was covering the boys stuck in the caves in Chiang Rai, I remember wondering how the parents could sit and wait for news, because I'd be tearing up the mountain with my bare hands to get him out. There are three takeaways from this. . .

• Nothing could separate me from my son
• Nothing could separate me from my son
• Nothing could separate me from my son

Good luck.

If you're using the fan in a bedroom you should look at DC fan motors. They are completely silent even when 'dimmed' to low speeds. I buy a lot of hotel type fans from this company (I have no association other than being a volume customer). . .

http://www.mrken-fan.com/

8 hours ago, peleid said:

There is the old saying never burn your bridges

When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.

- Dylan Thomas

Someone explain to me how I burned my bridges? I could go to the UK tomorrow if I chose to. DUH!!!

I honestly don't get this burning bridges hyperbole. Robbing a bank and going on the run is burning bridges. I see nothing stopping me returning to the UK in the unlikely  event I should choose to do so. 

If you think it likely you'll go home in the future, yes I'd say it's useful to keep things 'live' so to speak. If not live and you have to go home, it's a mere inconvenience to walk into a GP and register, get a SIM card etc etc. 

About the pension being increased, I'd imagine you're risking putting yourself on the benefit fraud team's radar. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a disgrace British expats in Thailand don't get pension increases... but claiming residence when you are not there just to beat the pension system is almost certainly considered fraud.