007 RED

There it's straight now.... just for you ????

Is that the Phuket version?

I've just looked back at the log which I kept when I did the installation of my small scale solar system back in October last year and I've found how I learnt about the SolarMan monitoring facility for use on my PC. The details were provided within the installation manual that was provided by Sofar, the inverter manufacturer. It was covered within the section of the manual that deals with "setting up the Wi-Fi option". The manual advised to open the Solarman portal website http://www.solarmanpv.com/portal/ This will take you to the login/registration screen. Click on register and complete the information requested. Once having completed the information, I bookmarked the login page to facilitate easy access. As mentioned previously, the PC version gives access to the full range of monitoring facilities, whereas the mobile app version provides the main information but does not allow the user to manipulate the data or visual outputs.

Sorry @Sophon for the confusion.... my bad ????.... I omitted the 'R' from the word SOLARMAN. As you have indicated "SOLARMAN SMART" is available through Google Playstore specifically for use on Android mobile phones. FYI.... The mobile app has limited functions compared to the PC version. I can't remember how, or where, I got the PC app from, but I use the following https://home.solarmanpv.com/login to access the app through my PC. Hope that helps

Yep, my small scale system still seems to be able to produce something on 'bad' days like you have described, which is better than nothing. My system comprising 4 x 415W half-cut monos should in theory should be capable of producing 1.6kWh under ideal (laboratory) conditions,. However, because of potential efficiency losses I'm lucky to get 75% of the potential output, or 1.2kWh, even on a good sunny day. Under reasonably good sunshine days I would normally hope to achieve approximately 7 units per day. This month, almost every day, it has been overcast for most of the day, with occasional heavy downpours and thunder. The monthly output graph below shows that the system has been averaging about 5.5 units per day, which is about 75% of normal production on a good month. The worse day this month was the on 1st as shown in the above graph when it was very overcast all day, and we had a very heavy downpour and thunder storm which lasted several hours as can be seen by the big dip in the production graph below. Total production that day was only 2.7kW which as mentioned is still better than nought.

As has pointed out by @Muhendis and @Crossy, it is wise to have an appropriate breakers and surge suppressors located either side and as close to your inverter as practically possible. As has been mentioned, it is extremely important to only use a DC breaker on the DC side of the inverter and an AC breaker on the AC side of the inverter. Big flashes and magic smoke are likely to occur if you use an AC breaker on the DC side of the inverter. The breakers enable you to isolate the inverter from DC and AC supplies, so that you can carry out any maintenance on the panels or remove the inverter if necessary. The surge suppressors are there to protect your investment (inverter) in the event of a surge arising from a nearby lightening strike or problems with you local PEA supply. The photo below which I provided in an earlier post shows my small scale set up with the Sofar GTI inverter in the centre. The cables coming down from the top left of the picture are the DC +/- feeds from the 4 x 415W (connected in series) solar panels mounted directly above on the roof of the car port. These cables are connected to the DC breaker and and surge suppressor which are housed in my home made 'safety box' (small empty consumer unit box). From the DC breaker the +/- cables are then connected to the respective input DC sockets on the inverter. With your proposed setup you would have two feeds coming from your solar panel array, e.g. PV1 and PV2, each of which should be connected to their own DC breakers and surge suppressors before being connected to the inlet connections on the inverter. The large black plug and cable coming out the bottom right of my inverter is the AC cable which is feeding power generated by the inverter to my house consumer unit. This cable is initially connected to the AC breaker and suppressor, again in a home made 'safety box' before being connected to the consumer unit in the house. FYI.... Both 'safety boxes' and the inverter have separate earth cables which are connected to the metalwork of the car port. The metalwork inside the main supports of the car port are buried quite deep " meters plus) into the ground, but I have also connected a 2 meter earth rod buried in the soil to the car port metalwork. 'Belt and braces' approach. I hope this helps with your proposed project.

My 2kW Sofar GTI came with plug-in Wifi module which enables the inverter to send a fairly comprehensive range of performance data to a remote server (in China) via my router. It appears that the remote server 'calls' for data from the inverter about every 5 minutes. I can access the inverter's data through either an application on my phone or on my PC. The 2 apps provide slightly different outputs and are very easy to use. The mobile app is fairly basic, whereas the PC is very comprehensive with a wide range of visual and numerical outputs, some of which can be modified to suite your needs. The PC version also allows me to download all the system data into an Excel spreadsheet which I can, if required, produce various graphs etc. to meet my needs. FYI... Both apps are recommended by the inverter manufacturer (Sofar). The PC app = "SOLAMAN" and the mobile app = "SOLAMAN SMART" NOTE: The monitoring facility does not provide information on the performance of individual panels, it only provides data on the overall output performance of the array. I hope this helps.

Just to illustrate the point that @Crossy has made above. The graph below shows the voltage and current output from my small scale system (4 x 415W panels) taken a few minutes ago. Yesterday at about 12:30pm, the voltage was about the same, but the current had risen to 10A thus producing about 10kW.

I’m not surprised by your figures. Sun rise is normally about 6am, so mid-morning is about 9am. If I remember correctly you have 9 x 330W panels which in theory are potentially capable of producing nearly 3kW under ideal conditions, so producing 1kW at 9am with good sunlight is fairly reasonable for a system of that size. FYI.... My small scale system (4 x 415W panels =1.6kW) has also produced nearly 1kW at 9am on a few occasions when the sun has been really strong. I’ve also seen the system peak at 1.5kW on a few occasions at mid-day.

You will find that MC4 plugs and sockets are commonly used for connecting the solar panels and as shown in my case the cables from the panels to the DC 'safety box', and the outlet from the DC 'safety box' to the inverter. The inverter came fitted with the DC input socket and a plug (both MC4). All the panels came with 4mm cables with MC4 plug or socket attached. I could have used 4mm cable to run from the panels to the DC 'safety box'. Because of the length between the furthest panel and the DC 'safety box' I decided to use 6mm instead of the normal 4mm in order to reduce any voltage drop. The MC4 connectors will take a 6mm cable. You will also find a lot of "how too" videos on Youtube showing how to make an MC4 connection. I would certainly endorse @Crossy comment regarding investing in a good quality crimping tool to ensure that you have a good strong/tight connection. It will also save you a lot of time fiddling around with pliers if you have a few connections to make. A good investment so far as I was concerned. FYI.... When I was installing my system, I checked the continuity of all connections with an AVO meter. During the commissioning of the system I discovered that one of the MC4 connectors at the inverter was getting quite warm. Close examination showed that I had not crimped the cable in the correct place. I'm not sure, but if I had not double checked everything I suspect that this could have caused a real problem.

@Encid You are 100% correct when you state that the output rating a solar panel (e.g. 340W or 450W) is determined under ideal (laboratory) conditions. Basically this is a specific light source shining directly perpendicular onto a given area of photo cells within the panel. Also, the temperature of the photo cells within the panel is maintained at a constant 250C during the tests. The biggest efficiency loss of solar panels is created by heat generated by the radiated light from the sun. At mid-day, with the sun overhead, and no haze or clouds it is possible for the temperature of the panels get up to 70 or 800C,. For every 10C above the laboratory test figure of 250C, the efficiency of the panel will reduce by x%, where x% is the temperature co-efficient of the panel which can be between -0.2% to -0.5% depending upon type of panel and manufacturer. Obviously the lower the the figure the better. Other solar panel efficiency losses as you indicate can be caused by cloud, haze, dirt etc. which added to the loss cause by heat can be as much as 25%. It is therefore, generally recommended to build in a potential loss of 25% when calculating the size of a system. For example, when I designed my small scale system I wanted it to produce a maximum of 7 units per day. Based upon a 6 hour day, that means the panels need to produce 1.2 kWh. The panels I choose were rated at 415W, so 4 x 415W should potentially give 1.660 kWh. But because of a potential loss of 25% in reality they are more likely to produce my desired 1.2 kWh. My small scale system has been running for almost a year now and the monitoring system shows an average daily production of between 6.5 and 7 kWh per day. FYI.... 6 hours is normally used for sun calculations as there is very little power being generated by the panels between sun rise and mid-morning, and mid-afternoon and sun set. I'm not sure what you mean by the timeframe for the nameplate output Wattage. All I can assume is that if the panel is rated at say 450W, in theory (lab conditions) it should be capable of producing 450W with a given light source. The 450W will only be produced so long as that specific light source is available to the photo cells of the panel. The graph below from my monitoring facility shows the output of my system during the day a few weeks ago and it clearly shows dips when the sun was obscured by heavy clouds and rain, hence loss of power. On this particular day the system only managed to produce about 3.75 kWh. I hope this helps.

@Sophon, As @Crossy has pointed out above, it is wise to have an appropriate breakers and surge suppressors located either side and as close to your inverter as practically possible. As has been mentioned, it is extremely important to only use a DC breaker on the DC side of the inverter and an AC breaker on the AC side of the inverter. Big flashes and magic smoke are likely to occur if you use an AC breaker on the DC side of the inverter. The breakers enable you to isolate the inverter from DC and AC supplies, so that you can carry out any maintenance on the panels or remove the inverter if necessary. The surge suppressors are there to protect your investment (inverter) in the event of a surge arising from a nearby lightening strike or problems with you local PEA supply. The photo below which I provided in an earlier post shows my small scale set up with the Sofar inverter in the centre. The cables coming down from the top left of the picture are the DC +/- feeds from solar panels which are mounted directly above on the roof of the car port. These cables are connected to the DC breaker and and surge suppressor which are housed in my home made 'safety box' (small empty consumer unit box). From the DC breaker the +/- cables are then connected to the respective input DC sockets on the inverter. The large black plug and cable coming out the bottom right of the inverter is the AC cable which is feeding power generated by the inverter to my house consumer unit. This cable is initially connected to the AC breaker and suppressor, again in a home made 'safety box' before being connected to the consumer unit in the house. FYI.... Both 'safety boxes' and the inverter have separate earth cables which are connected to the metalwork of the car port. The metalwork inside the main supports of the car port are buried quite deep " meters plus) into the ground, but I have also connected a 2 meter earth rod buried in the soil to the car port metalwork. 'Belt and braces' approach.

Hi @Sophon, again FYI…. At present the price of solar panels is quite high compared to this time last year. This has been in no small part due to the worldwide shortage of silicon chips which may have something to do with various sanctions being placed on China who are the biggest manufacture of chips and in our case solar panels. Last year when I purchased my 415W, monocrystalline half cut panels they were approximately 3,800 THB each at a discount price including delivery. Today they appear on the web to be around 5,200 THB each (delivery fee not known). I see from your initial, and a subsequent post, that you are considering 330W solar panels, and I note that you once asked for a clarification between the different types of solar panels. So here's some basic information for you. The most common types of solar panels used for both home and commercial installations are monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels, often referred to as mono and poly panels respectively. FYI…. There are other types of panels, for example; Passive Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC) panels and Thin-Film panels, but these are very expensive and tend to be used in specialist applications. All solar panels have the same purpose namely, to convert sunlight into electricity. However, the crystalline structure of the individual cells, which make up the solar panel, determines the overall performance of the panel. Monocrystalline panel cells are produced from a single silicon crystal, whereas polycrystalline panel cells are manufactured from multiple silicon fragments which have been fused together. By virtue of their manufacturing process, monocrystalline solar panels have a higher conversion efficiency than their polycrystalline counterparts, which means that they (mono panels) can potentially produce more kilowatt-hours of electricity for a given area of panel than their poly counterparts. However, because monocrystalline panels more complex to produce they are more expensive. FYI…. Monocrystalline panels are black in colour, whereas polycrystalline panels are blue. A very important factor if you are colour conscious about your installation. Although the physical size (height/width/thickness) are fundamentally the same, panels can be described as being full or half-cut. This describes the configuration of the individual cells which make up the panel. Half-cut panels are less prone to efficiency loss due to shading, dirt, miss match of cell etc than their poly counterparts. Looking at the Globalhouse website for example, you will see they have various solar panels advertised. https://www.globalhouse.co.th/catalog/catagory/125/1 So based on your desired panel output of approximately 18kWh, you could be looking at: 12 x 330W poly panels @ 4,000THB each = 48,000THB, or 10 x 410W mono half-cut panels @ 5,190 each = 51,900THB, or 9 x 450W mono half-cut panels @ 5,600 each = 50,400THB. Given that mono half cut panels are more efficient, you may wish to consider them and going for the higher W as there is only a couple of thousand THB in it and it will mean you need less mountings and cable etc

Hi @Sophon, me again. I see from your original, and a subsequent, post that you mention that you are thinking that 10 or 12 x 330W solar panels will be sufficient for your needs. Are you sure? Potentially 12 x 330W panels should in theory give you almost 4,000W (4kW) output. Assuming 6 hours of good strong sunlight per day. The key word in this statement is theory. It should be borne in mind that the panel’s rating (e.g. 330W) has been determined under ideal laboratory controlled conditions with a specific light source being directly perpendicular to the panel photocells, and the temperature of the panel being maintained at 25oC. Unfortunately, ideal conditions rarely exist in the big bad world and the rating figures provided by the panel’s manufacturer may well be much higher than is achievable in a ‘real world’. The losses in the panel's efficiency are attributed to the following factors. Firstly as you will appreciate the sun is constantly moving throughout the day from East to West, and depending upon the time of the year it may be closer to, or further away from, the Southern horizon at any given time of the day. As a result, it highly unlikely that the sun’s rays will be hitting the photocells within the panel(s) perpendicularly for much time during the day unless your panels are mounted on a very expensive tracking system. As a consequence, the panels will lose some of their potential output efficiency. Secondly, solar panels can get quite hot from the heat which is radiated from the sun which can make the temperature of the panels raise to as much as 700C or 800C. Unfortunately, the hotter the panels become the greater the loss of the panel’s potential efficiency. Below is a reading which I took with a basic handheld electronic thermometer of my panels at mid-day on a good sunny day. Admittedly not totally scientifically accurate, but it makes the point. The panels were certainly far too hot to touch. Thirdly, reductions in the panel’s efficiency will occur due to shading caused by buildings, trees, clouds/haze or dirt/dust accumulating on the panel and blocking the sun’s rays from reaching the panel’s photocells. Apparently, it may be reasonably assumed that a system might lose as much as 25% of its efficiency due to a combination of the above mentioned problems. Hence, assuming that 12 x 330W panels should in theory produce almost 4,000W, in practice (assuming a 25% loss) they are more likely to produce just 3,000W. Also when calculating how many units (kWh) the system will produce a day, it is advisable to work on 6 hours of good strong sunlight a day as the panels are only likely to produce minimal output between sun rise and mid-morning, and between mid-afternoon and sun set, as will be seen from the graph below taken from my small scale system in February this year. I appreciate that you may well be aware of the points I've made above and taken them into account in your calculations. In which case I apologise for pointing out something that you were aware of. Again, good luck with your proposed project.

OK, from a nurd’s perspective (me). I think that you’ll find most inverters now come with some form of WiFi facility which enables it to send data to either your own computer or to a remote server via your router. Some inverters use an external plug in WiFi module, whilst others have the WiFi facility built into them. My 2kW Sofar inverter came complete with an external plug in module as shown below. FYI… In some cases, you may need to purchase the module as an optional extra. My inverter also comes with a USB + DRMs + RS485 ports so connecting the inverter to your router or PC via cable is also possible. Setting up the communications between the WiFi module and my PC was really child’s play. The inverter came with a very good instruction manual which was in English. There was also a very helpful video showing how to set up the WiFi module on YouTube. Being the lazy old devil that I am, I used the easy option and loaded an app onto my Pc and mobile which enables me to remotely monitor the inverter from anywhere in the world if I wanted to. Just one point to mention. Using the applications suggested by the inverter manufacturer means that your inverter data is being sent to a server in China. In my case, the remote server interrogates the inverter about every 5 minutes. The feedback provided by the application is fairly comprehensive and self-intuitive. I’ve shown a few screen shots below which I've taken in the past few minutes. 1.. Current Production 2.. Schematic Flow Chart Showing Current Production 3.. Graph Showing This Month's Production FYI.... There's a lot more facilities and information available on the application. It's also possible to download all the data into an Excel spreadsheet so that you can produce your own graphs if required. I hope this helps.

I totally agree with your comment about not wanting panels on your roof and that you're considering ground mounting them as per the photo. Once installed they shouldn't need any serious maintenance other than periodic cleaning, but in my case that presents a 'slight' problem in so far as having to climb up onto the car port roof which is constructed with cement sheet tiles and the potential risk of one breaking when l'm standing on it and dropping 4 meters onto the concrete floor. At 75 that's not going to have a 'happy ending'. If l had more land, with hindsight, l would have my panels ground mounted. Good luck with your prposed project and please keep us updated on progress.

Hi @Sophon. To answer your initial question, yes it is possible for someone with little or no previous experience of solar systems to undertake a DIY installation. A couple of years ago at the beginning of the pandemic ‘lockdown’ I was reading @Crossy post “How about a solar car port on a budget” and this inspired me to consider doing something similar. I openly confess to having no previous experience of solar systems and a fairly basic knowledge of electrical/electronic systems dating back to my days at Coventry Polytechnic some 50 plus years ago. In fact, I would happily describe myself as a total nerd when it comes to solar systems. That said, DIY seems to be in my DNA. I have to admit, learning and researching about solar systems was a great experience which helped alleviate the boredom created by ‘self-hibernation’ under the Covid19 restrictions in force at the time. We (my wife and I) had a car port constructed in 2018 on land that we purchased adjacent to our house and this was ideally positioned in so far that one side of the roof was South facing and inclined at about 15o. Most importantly it was not shaded during the day, therefore, any solar panels mounted on the roof should (in theory) capture maximum sunlight during the day and would not be seen from the road. From the information obtained from our local PEA, I discovered that our average usage was 275 units per month (approximately 9 units per day). This info can be obtained by entering a couple of basic details into the PEA ‘s web page https://www.pea.co.th/en/e-Service/Meter-Reading-History . So based upon this info, I decided to go for a simple grid tied solar system with the intention of reducing our monthly subscription to the local PEA by about 75%, (e.g. from 9 to approximately 7 units/day). As a result, I've put together a small scale solar system comprising 4 x 415W half cut mono solar panels plus a 2kW GTI inverter. Total cost was 28K THB including stainless steel mounting brackets, cables/connectors and isolator switches. Note: 4 x415W panels should be capable of producing approximately 1660W under ideal (laboratory) conditions, but in reality such a configuration is more likely to only produce 75% of that due to heat and shading etc. Therefore, with a 6 hour ‘window’ of decent sunlight a day the panels are more likely to produce about 1245W . Hence the panels should produce around 7 units per day which meets my original intention of reducing my monthly bill by 75%. It was a real DIY job from beginning to end. The only physical assistance I had was lifting the panels onto the car port roof. (Don't ask). The system has now been running for 10 months and I’m well on target to recover my initial investment in about 2.5 years. One forum member suggested that saving just a few Baht a month was ‘penny pinching’. Well, if you consider the pathetic interest rate that you get from most bank savings accounts, compared to the potential cost saving per year generated by a solar system, solar way out performs the interest rate by far, so I think it’s fair to say solar is in fact a shrewd long term investment. I think that the real motivation for me was that at the age of 74, designing, installing and commissioning a grid tied solar system, albeit a small one, was a great challenge. Throughout my life, I have always enjoyed the challenges which have been ‘thrown’ at me. Any long term financial payback, or contribution towards assisting the world to become carbon neutral would just be an incidental bonus so far as I was concerned. A few words of caution Firstly, it should be noted that the electric authorities (MEA or PEA) will not approve a DIY grid tied installation. According to their policies, all solar system installations which are connected to the grid must be undertaken by one of their approved installers and it must have an electronic meter fitted. The system must be subsequently certified by one of their engineers. The cost of having a system installed and approved is very overpriced expensive, and the payback for any power which the system might feedback into the grid is very low (approximately half that of the normal purchasing price). Secondly, if you DIY install a grid tied solar system and have a spinning disc type meter any excess power produced by the system can potentially be fed back into the grid and make the disc spin backwards thus reducing the number of units used. This practice is frowned upon by the electric authorities and if discovered (usually by the meter reader) they (MEA/PEA) will at best replace the meter with an electronic one which prevents ‘spin back’ or at worse they may disconnect the supply and demand that the solar system’ be removed and/or impose a fine. FYI... We know from past records that our meter reader visits on, or about the 15th of each month. So I've installed a Crossy 'patented' NO Export Device which is activated prior to the meter reader's visit. This stops the system exporting any surplus power back into the grid and the meter spinning backwards. Once the meter reader has been its switched back into Export mode again. The physical switch shown above has now be complemented with an electronic controlled relay device which can be activated by an application on my phone via the internet as seen below. Best of luck with your proposed venture.

Hello khyron and welcome to the Alternative and Renewable Energy Forum and hopefully when/if you eventually move to Thailand you will consider installing an alternative energy system. Your idea of using solar panels to directly provide power to ‘drive’ an air conditioning system sounds plausible, but unfortunately in practice there a few minor (well major) problem actually, namely the sun, or the lack of it. It would be wonderful if the moment that the sun appears above the horizon that the solar panels instantly generate their maximum power output. If this was to happen, with sufficient solar panels and accompanying inverter you could enjoy AC from dawn to dusk, but sorry that just isn’t going to happen. The problem is that from dawn to mid-day the panel’s output power gradually increasing until the point when the sun is perpendicularly above the panels at mid-day, at which point the panels should be producing their maximum output power. Then from mid-day until dusk the panel’s output power is gradually decaying. So unfortunately, such a system will only allow you to use the AC during the day. What will you do in the evening or night? In reality the other big problem are clouds which will considerably reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the panels and thus reducing the output power of the panels. At present here in Thailand we are in the monsoon season, so can potentially expect lots of clouds during the day and the occasional heavy downpour. To illustrate the problems that I have explained above I’ve attached below an output graph from my small scale grid tied solar system taken a couple of days ago to show the havoc that clouds and rain can, and will, play with any solar system. To overcome these problems the best solution would be to consider what is known as a Hybrid System, that is having the solar panels and possibly the grid power charging batteries which can then provide power when sun or grid are not available. The only problem with this type of system is that it can be very, very, expensive. I suggest that you take a look at @Crossy great introduction. I hope all goes well with your plans to come to Thailand.

If you are referring to an electronic chip, then your 100% correct. However, if you have a pink card and look at the reverse (back) side you will see a black strip running horizontally across the top of the card. This is a magnetic strip which is embedded within the plastic of the card and can be, and in the case of the pink card is, programmed with binary data which can be read by drawing the magnetic strip through card reader. FYI... I have a simple card reader (purchased from Shoppe 1,000 THB) which is connected to my computer. A simple programme confirms that the information held on the magnetic strip of my pink card comprises my 13 digit ID number plus the character and 8 numbers engraved in the white block in the bottom left of the reverse of the card. If you look at the reverse side of your bank cards (credit and debit) and even the new Thai QR driving licence they also have the same magnetic strip embedded in them. Because it it very easy to read and subsequently clone the data held on theses magnetic strips their use by many organisations (banks etc) have been made redundant and replaced by the electronic chip which offers far better security feature. FYI... the card reader used by the cashier at the hospital looks like the one below. It appears to be a multi function device that can read cards with chip or magnetic strip. The device also produces a printed receipt slip similar to the one you will get when you use your credit/debit card in store. The receipt slip has my pink ID number on it.

What I’m about to share with follow forum members is based upon my practical experience and not some hearsay from a friend of a friend. As a couple of members have muted in earlier posts, expats who have a pink card and are legally married to a Thai who is a, or a retired, civil servant can obtain a discount on treatment and medication at their nominated government hospitals. In my case I’ve been married for the past 15 years to a wonderful Thai woman who was (now retired) a civil servant. Shortly after our marriage my good lady was informed by her finance department when she informed them about her change of status (single to married) that she could apparently have me registered against her Social Security number. It appears that as I was on an extension of permission to stay based upon retirement not working in Thailand, I was eligible to ‘piggyback’ onto benefit which were provided by her SS provisions. At the time she was informed that it was possible to have me register with the Ministry of Finance using my passport number. However, she was strongly advised that it would be far better for me to obtain a pink card as the 13 digit ID number on the card can more easily be linked into the various ministries computer systems. Based upon that advise we initially obtained the yellow book from our local district office (which was obtained with minimal difficulties). Once the yellow book had been issued I was able to obtain the infamous pink card which my wife subsequently took to her finance office together with a copy of my passport. A few weeks latter she was informed that I had been registered against her SS ID and with the Ministry of Finance and that I should contact the admin department of the government hospital that I was registered with and give them my pink card so that they can enter my pink card ID number onto their system which will then link into the Ministry of Finance. Some 3 years ago during a routine eye check-up for glasses it was discovered that I had intraocular hypertension in both eyes and I was advised by the optician to see an ophthalmic consultant. As a result, my good lady made an appointment for me to see an ophthalmic consultant at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok (government hospital) where I was registered. The consultant confirmed that the fluid pressure in both eyes was high and if not controlled would lead to glaucoma and potential blindness. The treatment was simple, eye drops in both eyes’ morning and evening plus check ups every 4 months to make sure that the pressure in both eyes was within acceptable limits. The actual cost of each check up is 750 THB plus 3,500 THB for 4 months’ supply of 2 types of eye drops. Total cost = 4,250 THB. However, when I present the invoice to the cashier and hand over my pink card the amount I actually have to pay is reduced to approximately 700 THB. There appears to be a small discount against the medical service part of the bill and the medication appears to be ‘free’. I note that the cashier swipes my card in a card reader on her desk and always gives me a receipt showing the actual amount and the discounted payment amount. I note that my pink card ID number is always shown on the receipt. More recently I found it necessary to have cataract operation on both eyes. The same ophthalmic consultant I have been using at Ramathibodi Hospital advised that the cost would be between 35,000 and 40,000 THB per eye for single vision lens, which I was perfectly happy to self-fund. The ops were done under local anaesthetic, so I was able to go home shortly after the ops. To my great surprise, I was only required to pay 10,000 THB for each eye op on presenting my pink card to the cashier. It appears that that I qualified for a very substantial discount. So, in my case (being married to a Thai civil servant, now retired) and having the pink card has proved a tremendous benefit in more ways than one. As mentioned at the beginning it may well have been possible for my wife to initially register me using my passport number but having, and using the pink card expedites a discount payment and negates the need to carry my passport with me whenever I go to the hospital.

Actually, there were 5 stamps which were spread over 2 pages as shown below.

I renewed my passport late last year through VFS in Bangkok. When I collected my new passport, they (VFS) handed me a template letter from the British Embassy which I apparently needed to fill in and present to my local immigration office together with both my old and new passports in order to facilitate the transfer of certain stamps from my old passport to the new one. FYI…. The Embassy letter, including the signature of the Vice Consul, was (in my opinion) a very poor quality photocopy produced on cheap (thin) paper. The embossed Embassy seal was virtually non-existent. I scanned the Embassy letter which VFS had provided and produced a PDF copy of it. I was then able to fill in the required details using PDF form filler. I printed the completed PDF copy of the Embassy letter and submitted it to my local immigration office with the original and new passports, plus copies of the relevant pages/stamps from the old passport. The IO never ‘batted an eyelid’, in fact I am fairly sure that she never really took any notice of the Embassy letter whatsoever. She appeared to be more interested in comparing copies of the stamps/pages that I had provided with those in the old passport. That said, within a few minutes she had stamped my new passport with 4 stamps and handed both the old and new passports back to me. I have attached a PDF copy of the Embassy letter below should anyone wish to make use of it. Please note the disclaimer at the bottom of the Embassy letter which basically indicates that the letter does not certify anything. Embassy Letter for Immigration.pdf

Solar is certainly the way forward. I have a small scale DIY installation on my car port roof comprising 4 x 415W half cut mono panels which feed into a 2kW grid tied inverter. Total cost 28K BHT. On average my little system is producing 7 units per day which at the current cost of electricity will have paid for its self in approximately 2.5 years. Obviously any increase in the cost of electricity will mean that payback is quicker. For more info on alternative renewable energy take a look at https://aseannow.com/forum/319-alternativerenewable-energy-forum/

Re: Solar Cell run fan.... you might like to take a look at the link below to Roove Solar who have such a beastie. https://www.facebook.com/commerce/products/พัดลมโซล่าเซลล์-แบบตั้งพื้น-16นิ้ว-25w-5ใบพัด-ช่องเสียบ-usb-แบตเตอรี่ในตัว/5222693214407344/?ref=mini_shop_storefront&referral_code=mini_shop_page_header_cta FYI... The shop is based on the Western outskirts of BKK and they have a presence on Shopee. I've used them to purchase my solar panels - good service. Hope this helps.

When I was initially considering a small scale DIY grid tied system a couple of years ago one of the first problems I encountered was establishing how many units we (my better half and I) had been using as this was an essential figure needed in order to size our potential system. We paid the monthly bill automatically from a specific bank account and never really took much notice of the bill which the meter reader pushed into our letter box. The bills tended to be put in the WPB whenever we opened the box to retrieve letters. So, in order to establish our electrical usage for the past 12 months, my wife and I popped into our local PEA office and asked them if they would be kind enough to provide us with details of our past 12 months usage. At first we were met with blank looks, but after lots of nice smiles and pleas we were referred to a supervisor who asked lots of questions as to why we would want such information. We told her a ‘little porky’ in so far that we thought that the bank may have been over charging us and we wanted the information to enable us to check. She (fell for it) accepted our explanation and a few minutes later produced a nice printout itemising our monthly usage in terms of: - meter reading date and time; current & previous meter readings; number units used; cost. The printout showed that during the previous 12 months we had been using an average of 275 Units per month. As I said I was looking at a small scale system as our average monthly usage was relatively small. This figure (275 Units per month) would form the basis for the sizing of my proposed solar panel project. FYI…. I was subsequently informed by a fellow forum members that I could have obtained the same information by entering a couple of basic details from your bill (CA/Ref. No.1 & PEA No.) into the PEA ‘s web page https://www.pea.co.th/en/e-Service/Meter-Reading-History This will provide you with data of your monthly usage for the past 2 years ‘You live and learn’. Good luck with your project.