007 RED

Just now, glegolo18 said:

thank you so much, does 12/7 means he can not enter Thailand...

OP… from the picture that you posted earlier of the Immigration exit stamp in your friend’s passport, it is clear that he/she was removed (deported) from the Kingdom under Section 12.7 of the Immigration Act, as indicated on the 3rd line of the stamp e.g. 12 (7).

As I indicated in my previous post, Section 12 of the Immigration Act gives Immigration the power to refuse entry and revoke permission to stay of if the alien falls into any of the categories specified.

Section 12.7 basically states: -

“Having behaviour which would indicate possible danger to the public or likelihood of being a nuisance or constituting any violence to the peace or safety of the public or to the security of the public or to the security of the nation or being under warrant of arrest by competent officials of foreign governments”.

Your friend apparently fell within the above category having assaulted his girlfriend and subsequently served a custodial sentence for that offence.

Regarding being banned from entering the Kingdom, given the reason for his/her deportation, I would say that a ban from entering the Kingdom is almost 100% certain.  The big question being how long is the ban for?

Immigration has what is known as a ‘tariff’, that is to say a maximum length of ban for a given type of crime.  My understanding is that in the case of an assault conviction the duration of a ban could be as long as ‘life’.  However, the actual length of the ban is left to the discretion of a Senior Immigration Officer (Senior Colonel or above) who authorised his/her deportation. 

The problem so far as your friend is concerned is that there is no mention of the length of any ban stamped into his/her passport (there never is).  The details of the ban will only be recorded on his paper file(s) and on the Immigration computer system.

If your friend is banned, and he/she tries to enter the Kingdom by air, it is unlikely that the airline will allow him/her to board the plane.  This is because all international flight to Thailand are required to send passenger biographical details to Thai Authorities via a system known as Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), one hour before scheduled departure.  The system (APIS) is linked to the Thai Immigration database of undesirable persons.  If the system detects that your friend’s biographical information matches that on their database, the system automatically sends the airline a “Do Not Board” code.  No reason is given to the airline. The airline would be heavily fined if they allowed your friend to fly having received a "Do Not Board" code, plus they would have to pick up the cost of flying him/her back to the departure country.  A refusal to allow the person to board the aircraft will mean that the passenger will not be refunded for the loss of the flight (outward and return).

If your friend is banned and was to travel to a neighbouring country and attempt to enter the Kingdom via a boarder land crossing, it is highly likely that the moment the Immigration Officer places the biographical (photo) page onto the desktop scanner, the system will flag a warning on the Officer’s screen.  This will result in him/her being denied entry and he/she will be sent back to the country which they just left.

I am given to understand that some lawyers, and agents, reportedly have connections within Immigration, and for a fee will establish if your friend is banned.  If it is possible to have a ban overturned, is a matter of speculation.

As has been suggested by several other members, his/her best solution to recovering money in his/her bank account(s) and selling off his/her condominium, would be to give a very trusted friend Power Of Attorney to act on his/her behalf to deal with the bank and sale of the condominium.

26 minutes ago, glegolo18 said:

I just spoke to the guy, he didn´t get any stamps whatsoever in Thailand when he was deported....

What can we think about that????

Sorry, but your friend would most definitely have had an immigration stamp placed in his passport indicating that he had been deported from the Kingdom.  It would be red, rectangular and take up almost half a page of his/her passport.  The stamp would be in Thai and provide details under which section of the Immigration Act he/she was deplored.  The deportation stamp will not indicate if he/she has been banned from entering the Kingdom.

I suspect, given the information that you provided in your original post, he/she would have used Section 12.7 which basically states:-

"Having behaviour which would indicated possible danger to the public or likelihood of being a nuisance or constituting any violence to the peace or safety of the public or to the security of the public or to the security of the nation , or being under warrant of arrest by competent officials of foreign governments".

With regards to the question whether or not your friend is banned from entering the Kingdom, I would say that there is a very high probability that he/she is on a list of 'undesirable' persons.  Again if he/she attempts to enter the Kingdom the Immigration Officer will most likely refuse entry based upon Section 12.11 which basically states:-

"Being deported by either the Government of Thailand that of or other foreign countries ; or the right of stay in the Kingdom or in foreign countries having been revoked ; or having been sent out of the Kingdom by competent officials at the expense of the Government of Thailand unless the Minister shall consider exemption on an individual special case basis".

The Immigration Officer can also refuse entry as per Section 12.7, as indicated above, given your friends past history.

FYI... It is often suggested that persons' in similar situations to your friend should get a new passport, and if possible change their name.   Sorry but the immigrations systems used throughout the world (including that used by Thai Immigration) are more than capable of matching up previous/current passports.

<Crossy> posts split from the Solar Doghouse thread as off-topic but posted here to serve as a timely warning.

A serious word of caution.  Those fabricated cement can be fragile. So extreme care is required when working on the panels, as I found out recently to my cost.

In my case it was 3 plus meters from roof to floor.  Gravity can take over in a split second and its not the fall that hurts, it’s the sudden stop at the bottom.  Concrete is very unforgiving.

Result was, 5 fractured ribs, collapsed lung, fractured ankle, 16 stitches in various cuts, 2 nights in ICU and a further 2 on a general ward and a massive hospital bill.  All good fun.  On a good note: the upgrade is working as anticipated and producing sufficient power to meet our needs during daylight hours.

Good luck with your project.

UPDATE - ROI After 2.25 Years

Well, as predicted in my original post (above), my small scale grid tied system has really earnt its money over the past 2.25 years.  The system was a DIY install with the hardware costing 28,000THB (give or take a few THB).

According to the systems monitoring facility (as of this morning), the system has produced a grand total of 6,670 units, which at 4.2THB/unit (the total cost per unit on the day the system was activated), has resulted in a saving of 28,020THB on our electricity bills, as per screen shot below.

I appreciate that this is relatively small compared to the ‘big boys’, but it has proved a really worthwhile investment.  Each unit the system produces from now on is ‘profit’   .

In my original post I mentioned that the day may well come when the local PEA come and replace our lovely spinning disc meter with a shinny new electronic one.  Ironically, since I posted that remark, my better half received 2 phone calls from people purporting to be from the PEA and advising her that they (PEA) were coming the following day to install a digital meter.  On both occasions nobody from the PEA turned up and we still have our spinning disc meter.  It turned out that these were scam calls trying to get my wife to disclose her bank details on the pretext that they (PEA) would transfer a refund for the original meter into her account.  Thankfully she never disclosed any details to the callers.

As a result of those 2 calls, and the need to turn the system into NO EXPORT mode for a week (or so) after each call as a ‘safety’ precaution, I decided that I would upgrade my system by installing an additional 2 x 415W panels.  This upgrade would hopefully mean that even with the NO EXPORT mode activated, the system should be able to still meet approximately 75% of our day time needs without feeding back to the grid if required.

Luckily, I managed to get the additional panels from my original supplier (wow, still trading after 2 plus years).  Same make, with free delivery, and only a small increase in the costs of the panels.

The biggest task was getting the panels up onto the carport roof.  Unfortunately, this time there was no large crane available to lift them up there (for a moderate backhander).  It was shear man power, and a good deal of determination, but they are in place and they'll be connected tomorrow before sun rise, with everything being turned off to start with.

So looking forward to seeing a potential 50% increase in output tomorrow, with no 'magic smoke', fingers crossed.  All good fun.

2 hours ago, siwiek said:

 

End speculation on a board full of trolls? That seems unlikely and a pointless reason to expose my identity.

 

@siwiek  I’m not sure why you are being so reluctant to post a photo of either a) your DENIED entry stamp from Phuket or b) the Entry stamp which you claim was stamped into your passport by Nong Kai Immigration and subsequently cancelled.

If you do have these stamps in your passport, I respectfully suggest that you take a close look at them, and then tell us what personal data is included within these stamps that can identify you.  The simple answer is there is none.

I appreciate that you may be reluctant to expose your identity but as has already been said, on more than one occasion, posting a photo of either stamp will put an end to all the speculation.  It’s nothing to do with "speculation on a board full of trolls" as you put it, its more to do with your veracity.

Just in case you are having difficulty in finding the above mentioned stamps in your passport, I have attached below sample photos of a) a Denied Entry stamp, and b) an Entry stamp.  As you will see there is no personal data inscribed on either stamp which can identify the holder of these stamps.

On 12/27/2023 at 1:43 PM, 007 RED said:

Back to the original post = PEA found out meter running backwards.

 

Back in October I posted (ROI After 2 Years) that my small scall GTI system had been operational for 2 years, and that during that time it had produced nearly 6,000 units, which had knocked almost 25,000 THB off our electricity bills.

 

At the end of my post, I indicated that I would not do anything more with the system unless our local PEA decided to swap the lovely spinning disc meter for a new shinny digital one.  Well, that end thought almost came true recently.

 

About 6 weeks ago, my wife was at a hospital in BKK for a routine medical check up and was just about to be called in to see the doctor when she received a phone call. 

 

The caller stated that he was from the PEA and that he was coming to the house the following day to fit a digital meter.  He asked if she would be home around 10am.  He then asked if she had claimed a refund on the original meter installation.  My wife advised the caller that she would be at home but that she couldn't remember if she had claimed the refund.  Because she was being called into see the doctor, she had to end the call.

 

After seeing the doctor, she called me to advise me about the phone call.  You can image what was went through my mind, namely, how the heck did the PEA find out that we had solar?  The system can’t be seen from the roadway outside the house/car port.  Did they see the meter spinning backwards whilst we were not at home?  Had someone ‘grassed’ on us?

 

When my wife got home, she spoke to several of the neighbours whose meters share the pole outside our house, and none had received a call from the PEA.  So, were we the only one to have our meter changed?

 

So, with the possibility of the PEA turning up next day to replace our spinning disc meter, I decided to play safe and turn the solar system completely off.

 

The following day we waited patiently for the PEA to arrive.  10am came and went.  12 noon passed.  5pm elapsed and still no sign of anyone from the PEA.  So, my wife called the mobile number that had rung her the previous day to try and find out what was happening.  Despite several attempts to call the number there was no reply.

 

As we were usure as to when the PEA might turn up, I decided to leave the system turned off until they had been.  A week passed and still no sign of the PEA.  After another week I turned the system back on in ON EXPORT mode, so that at least we would get some power produced by the system, but the meter should not spin backwards.  After a further week, and still no sign of the PEA, or further phone calls, I turned the system back on into EXPORT mode.  To date, other than the normal meter reader, there has been no sign of any PEA, thankfully.  Perhaps I should not speak to soon.

 

In hindsight, I now believe that this may have been some sort of scam call that did not play out because: a) my wife needed to end because she had been called to see the doctor; b)  my wife is certain that the caller did not mention the house number during their brief conversation; c)  why did the caller not answer the phone (it was a mobile number); and d) if he was from the PEA as he said, he should have been able to look up on their computer system if my wife had claimed/received a refund for the original meter.

 

Because of this event, I’ve decided to upgrade my small system, as @Crossy suggested in my ROI post, by initially adding a few extra panels and possibly running the system in NO EXPORT mode to just cover day time needs.

 

Thinking longer term, a hybrid inverter with more panels is a possibility, but without being attached to any ESS.  Given my age (77), with the probability that I will fall off my perch at some time, my darling wife has indicated that she does not feel confident enough to look after a battery system.

 

Moral of the story.... Spinning the disc backwards has its rewards, but also its downside.

Well blow me down.  Yesterday at around 6:30pm my better half received a phone call from a woman who introduced herself as being from the local PEA.  She asked my wife if she lived at number XX.  My wife replied yes.  The woman then said that they (the PEA) were going to replace the meter tomorrow and would my wife be at home at 10 am.  Strange that this was exactly the same time as mentioned by the caller the last time in November.  My wife again replied that she would be at home in the morning.

The woman then asked my wife if she had claimed a rebate from her original meter.  This obviously rang a bell with my better half as it was the same question that the man had asked the previous time, but my wife had to terminate the call as she was being called in to see the doctor at hospital.  So my wife decided to play along and indicated that she had not.  The woman then said that she would send my wife an SMS and instructed her to click on the link and complete the questions so that a refund could be transferred to her account.  This really stunk of being a scam to get her bank details.  It was also very obvious that the woman was reading from the same script as the previous caller from the PEA in November.

Bless her, my wife really had her head screwed on.  She asked the woman why it was necessary to change the meter again as it had only just been replaced in November.   The phone suddenly went dead.  My wife tried to call the number back but there was no reply. 

As my wife said,  the PEA don't make appointments to change the meter.  They just turn up and change it.  Apart from that she's cute enough to realise that the SMS link was highly likely to contain a bug which would hack her phone and any bank details she had on it.

Today just as a precaution I put my small scale GTI system into NO EXPORT mode.  Dam, it was a nice sunny day and the system should have produced 7 or 8 units.  Like the last time in November there was no sign of anyone from the PEA and thankfully we still have our nice spinning meter, so tomorrow were going back to Export mode.

I have already obtained a couple more 415W mono half cut solar panels (same make and nearly the same price that I apaid 2 years ago) and started installing the mounts on the car port roof.  The next job is to get the panels up there and installed.  Hopefully this additional capacity will allow us to go full time on NO EXPORT if required and produce sufficient power to meet our day time needs whilst keeping our PEA bill down.

All good fun.

Back to the original post = PEA found out meter running backwards.

Back in October I posted (ROI After 2 Years) that my small scall GTI system had been operational for 2 years, and that during that time it had produced nearly 6,000 units, which had knocked almost 25,000 THB off our electricity bills.

At the end of my post, I indicated that I would not do anything more with the system unless our local PEA decided to swap the lovely spinning disc meter for a new shinny digital one.  Well, that end thought almost came true recently.

About 6 weeks ago, my wife was at a hospital in BKK for a routine medical check up and was just about to be called in to see the doctor when she received a phone call. 

The caller stated that he was from the PEA and that he was coming to the house the following day to fit a digital meter.  He asked if she would be home around 10am.  He then asked if she had claimed a refund on the original meter installation.  My wife advised the caller that she would be at home but that she couldn't remember if she had claimed the refund.  Because she was being called into see the doctor, she had to end the call.

After seeing the doctor, she called me to advise me about the phone call.  You can image what was went through my mind, namely, how the heck did the PEA find out that we had solar?  The system can’t be seen from the roadway outside the house/car port.  Did they see the meter spinning backwards whilst we were not at home?  Had someone ‘grassed’ on us?

When my wife got home, she spoke to several of the neighbours whose meters share the pole outside our house, and none had received a call from the PEA.  So, were we the only one to have our meter changed?

So, with the possibility of the PEA turning up next day to replace our spinning disc meter, I decided to play safe and turn the solar system completely off.

The following day we waited patiently for the PEA to arrive.  10am came and went.  12 noon passed.  5pm elapsed and still no sign of anyone from the PEA.  So, my wife called the mobile number that had rung her the previous day to try and find out what was happening.  Despite several attempts to call the number there was no reply.

As we were usure as to when the PEA might turn up, I decided to leave the system turned off until they had been.  A week passed and still no sign of the PEA.  After another week I turned the system back on in ON EXPORT mode, so that at least we would get some power produced by the system, but the meter should not spin backwards.  After a further week, and still no sign of the PEA, or further phone calls, I turned the system back on into EXPORT mode.  To date, other than the normal meter reader, there has been no sign of any PEA, thankfully.  Perhaps I should not speak to soon.

In hindsight, I now believe that this may have been some sort of scam call that did not play out because: a) my wife needed to end because she had been called to see the doctor; b)  my wife is certain that the caller did not mention the house number during their brief conversation; c)  why did the caller not answer the phone (it was a mobile number); and d) if he was from the PEA as he said, he should have been able to look up on their computer system if my wife had claimed/received a refund for the original meter.

Because of this event, I’ve decided to upgrade my small system, as @Crossy suggested in my ROI post, by initially adding a few extra panels and possibly running the system in NO EXPORT mode to just cover day time needs.

Thinking longer term, a hybrid inverter with more panels is a possibility, but without being attached to any ESS.  Given my age (77), with the probability that I will fall off my perch at some time, my darling wife has indicated that she does not feel confident enough to look after a battery system.

Moral of the story.... Spinning the disc backwards has its rewards, but also its downside.

Sorry but this is almost doomed to failure before it gets anywhere near the ‘drawing board’, it’s just a big dream that’s going nowhere.

According to earlier reports the ‘Joly Green Giant,’ indicated that the overland bridge proposal will knock of 14 days sailing time around the Straits of Malacca and thus save both time and money for the shipping companies.

I seriously question his previously reported 14 days sailing time around the Straits of Malacca.  Sure, the Straits of Malacca is a busy shipping lane, but it only takes a couple of days to sail from say Chumpon to Singapore, and a further 2 days to get up to Phuket.   A total of 4 days, and perhaps allowing another day for ‘traffic jams’ or slow movement through the Straits.

The average SMALL container ship has a capacity of around 500 (40ft) containers.  So, when the vessel docks at Chumpon the ‘Joly Green Giant’ is proposing that these 500 containers will be off loaded onto either trucks, or trains, and transported overland to Ranong, where they will have to be reloaded onto another vessel which will be waiting at that port for those containers.

With one 40ft container per truck, that would mean having 500 trucks on standby at Chumpon.  Oh, and then there is the little matter that some containers may well require refrigeration. Will there be enough trucks capable of providing such facilities?

Can you imagine a convoy of 500 trucks ‘racing’ down the highway from Chumpon to Ranong.  The return trip will likely feature on the next instalment of ‘Fast and Furious’.  What could possibly go wrong? 

The alternative would be to transport the containers by train.  Given that modern freight train can haul about of 50 (40ft) containers, that would mean having 10 trains on standby at Chumpon for this one vessel.  Then you need more trains on standby for the next vessel etc.  A possible safer and more environmental solution.

It must also be remembered that the order in which the containers were originally loaded onto the vessel has been determined by their eventual destination.  So, when the first container is off loaded at Chumpon, it is imperative that it must subsequently be the last container to be reloaded at Ranong.  This will require good planning (again, what could possibly go wrong?) and necessitate sufficient storage area at Chumpon or Ranong to put the containers prior to being loaded onto truck/trains/vessel.

Now consider the LARGE, or SUPER, container ships which can have a capacity of 20,000 plus (40ft) containers like the one on the photo above.  These would be a complete nightmare.

How much will the off-loading, overland transportation and subsequent re-loading cost the shipping company, plus the cost of having to have 2 vessels tied up?

Will the off-loading, overland transportation and subsequent re-loading be quicker than the possible 5 days sailing around the Straits of Malacca?

I personally doubt very much that investors, or shipping companies, will want to buy into this 'hair brain' scheme as the numbers just won’t add up for them.

Now if the ‘Joly Green Giant’ was to suggest constructing a real canal, like the Suez or Panama canals, then that would be more likely to attract investors and shipping companies.  Also, the cost of such a project would be considerably higher than the ‘land bridge’ proposal, thus there would be far more opportunities for ‘commissions’ to be had .

Congratulations on your DIY solar project.  It looks a really good job and hopefully it will pay its way in a relatively short time frame.

Regarding cleaning your panels:  Its not really a good idea to use soap to clean them, for a couple of reasons: -

Firstly, you never know what chemicals the manufacturer has put into the soap to give it that ‘extra’ cleaning boost.  There is a danger that these chemicals may cause the seal between the glass and the frame to break down over time and allow water to get onto the photovoltaic cells, which will cause the panel to fail.

Definitely do not use standard window cleaning solutions to clean your panels as these contain alcohol-based substances which will cause the panels seal to degrade fairly quickly.

Secondly, even if you flush the panels off with water after soaping them, the soap will still leave a very fine film on the glass which tends to attract dust, so you will be back in the same situation of having to clean the panels again soon.

The best solution for cleaning solar panels is rainwater, as opposed to tap water.  Tap water inevitably contains calcium and when the panels dry off, the calcium sticks to the panel’s glass.  Initially this will have little, or no, effect on your array’s output, however, each time you clean the panels this calcium film gradually builds up and will eventually reduce the amount of sun light that strikes the photovoltaic cells of your panels, hence, reduced output.

The small-scale system on my carport roof (4 x 415W panels) tends to get dirty fairly quickly due to the fact that we live in an area where there are a several food producing factories nearby which are far from pollution free.  See photo below of my panels after about a month during the ‘dry season’.

The best solution for cleaning the panels is rainwater.  During the ‘rainy season’ my panels get a good regular clean without any input from me, which is great, and there is always a noticeable slight increase in the array's output following a good shower.  I collect rainwater in a 1k Liter tank (very basic filtering to eliminate any large particles) which I use specifically for cleaning the panels.

Initially I used a hose and soft brush to clean the panels. This was followed by a squeegee to remove any surplus water, and then a cloth to dry them off.  This was hard work, especially at my age. 

So, I decided to invest in a commercial solar panel cleaning brush.  It was a bit expensive, and some would consider it ‘over the top’, but it has made cleaning the panels a lot easier.  The brush cleaner comes with its own small pump, which is connected to the rainwater tank.  Once the panels have been washed, I now use a small battery powered garden blower to remove any surplus water.  It now only takes about 10 minutes to set up and clean my 4 panels.

I’ve attached below some photos of the brush kit and a short video of me using it.

FYI…. I’ve attached a PDF of the brush spec.   Solar Panel Cleaning Brush Cleaning Equipment Solar Panel Cleaning Rotating Brush For Customized - Buy Solar Panel Cleaning Rotating Brush For Customized,Solar Panel Cleaning Brush,Solar Panel Cleaning Equipment Product on Alibaba.com.pdf

Hope this helps and gives you some ideas.