007 RED

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