unheard

I have a very limited knowledge on anything electrical. But from what I understood reading your original post you might be mistaken by assuming that your refrigerator doesn't draw any power while on "stand-by". My limited understanding is that modern refrigerators don't just operate on the simple on/off cycle. Your thinking is that the fridge goes into stand-by because you don't hear its compressor running, while the fridge is still performing other energy consuming tasks, like running a coil defrosting cycle.

Absolutely! With my grid problems I have almost all of smaller type electronics running on multiple UPS's, so I could use those devices without much of interruption, short of the multiple hour blackout. With so many blackouts in my area it would be very frustrating not to.

A NAS, TV, Router have even more robust power supplies which are even less succeptabe to those problems. The main and normally the only reason to put those devices on a UPS is to either prevent service interruption or in the case of NAS to allow for a safe and orderly shutdown.

Could be many things. Ask your neighbors. If their fridges don't experience any failures then you could eliminate the grid factor as the culprit of your problems. I bet they're running no UPS's.

The surges are not good but from my limited knowledge and experience there's enough of endurance built in not to be a problem. btw, I experience the similar multiple 1 sec on/off grid "fluctuations". Any modern refrigerar has a delayed restart built-in, and probably other safety features to make it non-issue.

From what I understand the modern grid is safe enough for all modern appliances, otherwise you would constantly hear stories all around you from people complaining of damaged refrigerators.

What made you think that all those multiple micro blackouts/brownouts and service return surges will damage your refrigerator? In our area we have the similarly bad grid "behavior" but my refrigerators (3) are still running just fine. The oldest one is more than 3 decades old, has experienced the worst of it during the prior years when the grid was even worse: still running like a champ! Another one is much newer non-inverter - no problems. The newest one is of the inverter type and is also running fine.

Sadly it seem to be a normal practice in Thailand, especially when the owner has no ability to closely monitor the construction site. All various junk generated by the construction crew gets covered by a few cm/inches of soil/sand. They call it "site cleaning". ???? As the result the owner is stuck with a miniature landfill evenly distributed all around the perimeter of the newly built house. I don't know if it's the main cause of the OP's problem though.

Two guys in Nebraska running a pool servicing company are now referenced as a research authority on filtering media?

is that how it's done? I always wondered how they achieve that look. And yeah, polished concrete is virtually non-existent here in the non-commercial settings.

@chiman "preventing some of the soil and dirt from going under the house, slowing down the erosion process? Gut telling me thats not a good idea for now .. maybe let it fill up under the house for a few years?" A foundation built on columns? Your house has probably been mostly constructed in the dry season. Soil needs water to allow it to settle quickly. You need to allow rain water to keep the soil around columns moist. It shouldn't take more than a full wet season for soil to get compacted.

OK, maybe the OP can clarify the nature of the material in more details? The only thing I can say that it's very, very uncommon (as in unheard of) to find an actual polished concrete countertop in Thailand. And I'd be very grateful if someone could point me to an actual example at a reasonable cost.

double

I'm not sure why you keep bringing up polished concrete. By the looks of it his countertop is not polished concrete. Seems to be a common epoxy based product. His problem is that he needs to identify which exact product has originally been used so he can remove the damaged section and reapply a new, matching in finish coat.

Here's a picture posted a while ago by the local member named Saanim. If the finish looks similar to yours you might want to contact him for more information:

If you don't know the used materials it might be impossible to match up the damaged section to the rest of the counter. Also, chances are, that in a few short years the undamaged, for now, parts might also go bad.

Unfortunately polished concrete is not a common option for residential niche in Thailand.

I like this one - seems to be a good quality unit with many reviews: https://shopee.co.th/วัตต์มิเตอร์-WATT-METER-Monitor-3000W-วัดแรงดัน-วัดกำลังไฟฟ้า-วัดกิโลวัตต์ฮาว-i.29944350.435387808?sp_atk=128f4a31-5e8d-41a4-87f2-e98a39861244&xptdk=128f4a31-5e8d-41a4-87f2-e98a39861244

Yeah, it's common to have 3-pin outlets in the older houses where there's no earth. As I understand they commonly change to the 3-pin outlets so there's no need for an adapter when using modern 3-pin appliances. That way they just deal with what they already have in their house - no much of a choice short of re-wiring the whole place. btw, can anyone share here on when has Thailand officially switched to the earthed electrical system code requirement in private construction?

If you're a good swimmer then a lap pool is what you're looking for. 15 m in length should be enough. The width can be kept to a minimum (2.5-3m) so is the depth if you want to save on construction costs. An example of a high end lap pool:

Yeah, that's precisely my dilemma. How good those 4000-5000 Baht systems are (and the replacement filters). I have never owned a RO system before. The compact high-tech systems are very expensive and very proprietary which guarantees their authenticity. As compared to the traditional systems. There is a million of them on the market, all coming from unknown sources with unknown quality of bundled filters. The same applies to the replacement filters.

You're right, I've missed that. Thanks for pointing it out on the AUT3234 not being RO. The RO filters claimed to have a very long service life - 3 years.

Has anyone purchased and used any of those? Or at least has a relevant info on the subject? Below are links to 3 different Philips systems. There's a significant price difference between the first one and the rest: https://shopee.co.th/-เหลือ3999-บ.-โค้ด-YOUPWATER-Philips-AUT3234-เครื่องกรองน้ำ-ชุดเครื่องกรองน้ํา-ระบบกรอง-4-ขั้นตอน-ใต้อ่างล้างจาน-i.236393783.12071375829?sp_atk=92d4a485-bc91-4a45-b0e2-92b3c0ce22bb&xptdk=92d4a485-bc91-4a45-b0e2-92b3c0ce22bb https://shopee.co.th/Philips-water-AUT2015-เครื่องกรองน้ำ-เครื่องกรองน้ํา-ro-เครื่องกรองน้ําดื่ม-เครื่องกรองน้ําประปา-เครื่องกรองน้ําระบบ-ro-i.310902722.7957156848?sp_atk=9c117894-1902-40ac-8ce4-ddfbba6656f9&xptdk=9c117894-1902-40ac-8ce4-ddfbba6656f9 https://shopee.co.th/Philips-water-AUT7000-เครื่องกรองน้ำ-เครื่องกรองน้ํา-ro-เครื่องกรองน้ําดื่ม-เครื่องกรองน้ําประปา-เครื่องกรองน้ําระบบ-ro-i.310902722.18903301225?sp_atk=141fdaee-6ee3-42e0-9420-747b1d18f1e1&xptdk=141fdaee-6ee3-42e0-9420-747b1d18f1e1

That's strange. Maybe I'm talking apples and oranges... Shouldn't the genset be maintained by conducting maintenance runs for a predetermined amount of time (30-60 mins), usually at least couple of times per month? That schedule would keep the genset's battery from discharging. Unless the battery itself went bad.

But those are installed on the outside. From what I've seen it's only common to use plastic conduits in the walls and attics. As per OP question what would be an incentive for a Thai electrician to use metal pattress boxes when working with plastic conduits instead of going all parts plastic? So far in this thread I came acrross two reasonable conclusions: 1. digbeth: metal is mallable - easier to align the screws if installed misaligned. 2.1 phetphet: over time plastic deteriorates and brakes away where the screws hold the socket 2.2 HauptmannUK: metal boxes are more durable, plastic gets brittle and cracks