Khaoyaiman

17 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I paid 13,400Bht inc delivery for my 5k5w wifi Hybrid Inverter delivered direct from China.

Very happy with it, they put the price up a bit now.

https://shopee.co.th/5.5KW-Hybrid-Off-Grid-Inverter-48V-MPPT-100A-Pure-Sine-Wave-รองรับโมดูล-WIFI-i.428988356.13409949302

 

That seems so cheap compared to some of the other brands. Does this inverter allow you to feed the solar energy back into the grid? I'm usually away from home for several months of the year and so thought using PEA buyback would make sense. Although I've heard PEA aren't accepting any new buyback at the moment.

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Batteries are expensive, expect to pay at least 50,000bht for a 48V 200AH battery.

These are about the best I've seen available in Thailand at the moment.

 

Do you have any recommendations for a 5Kw inverter to go with this battery pack?

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Batteries are expensive, expect to pay at least 50,000bht for a 48V 200AH battery.

These are about the best I've seen available in Thailand at the moment.

 

This looks a lot better than my best quote so far, that consists of 6 12v Lifepo4 batteries with a one year warranty! Thanks for sharing.

1 hour ago, KhunLA said:

On grid vs hybrid inverter, bit more expensive along possibly needing a 'controller'.

 

Also new at this, and been researching for a while.  Sure someone will chime in with better, actual experienced answer.

Yes, some of the suppliers have already priced for an on grid hybrid inverter, and some say that will cost more than their quoted on grid inverter, but still the inverter supply price difference shouldn't be more than THB10-20k surely. 

Unfortunately I don't have the electrical knowledge to DIY, and I don't trust employing an electrician to install only. I've read about people ending up with systems that don't work. At least with a reputable supplier you have a chance to get it right first time.

I'm also planning on installing a Hybris 5Kw single phase system with 10KWh lifepo4 battery storage. I've been asking for prices from several solar companies. Most of them start off at THB160-180k for an on grid system, then when I ask for batteries, the price goes up from THB250k to THB350k. I understand there are a lot of different batteries out there, but most that I've seen are between THB40k and THB70K so I'm wondering why the massive increase in price just to supply and wire in some batteries? Apologies now for my lack of solar knowledge!

Thanks Ubonjoe for your advice. She will not be able to get a new ED visa because the immigration wrote some wording to that effect on her passport. I've also read recent reports that ED visas are being strictly controlled and schools even being inspected by immigration officers. The child is still too young for school and as their baby was born in Thailand and never left the country they do not have a visa for the child.

My British friend has a Philippine gf and baby with her. She has been living in Thailand for two years on an education visa. Her visa has been cancelled last time she entered at Don Muang, but with some friendly help she was allowed to enter on a 30 day visa. Now she must arrange a new visa so she can continue to live in Thailand with her bf and baby. The baby was born in Thailand. Can anyone offer some advice on what type of visa she can apply for either in Thailand or back in the Philippines? Marriage is not an option for the time being.

Thanks for any useful advice.

I was at CW two weeks ago and was told by one officer that they were conducting a survey to see if PR was still necessary. Another officer, one from the PR section, told me that all backlog PR applications would be cleared within this year. She mentioned something about some foreigners taking the government to court because of the delay in issuing PRs. Maybe I didn't pick this up correctly as my understanding of Thai is less than when I applied for PR 5 years ago.

If you are worried about B&E, breaking & entering, secure your house with good fencing, window bars & steel doors. It would not be worth the trouble for a thief to break in my house. Of course you can do it the Thai way and get several ferocious dogs.

Thanks for everyone's comments.

I live in an estate of approx 80 houses and it has a 20+ ft wall all around, but it doesn't stop the keen thief from using a hook and rope to climb up. We have 15 security guards that work in shifts, along with security cameras on every soi. Every house has been asked to leave some outside lights on at night so the guards can see better. We still get the occassional thief.

As for dogs, yes I agree they are also a deterrent but as I'm out of town a lot I don't want to get one.

I do have a security system and clearly mark on the windows that we have one installed, but again it's not full proof and could easily be breached by a small time thief.

I have a legal question regarding the ownership or use of a firearm in Thailand. I've heard it's illegal for any falang to own a firearm in Thailand. I'm not sure if this is true or not and will appreciate some advice.

The main question I have is this - if a Thai wife was to have a legally owned gun in the house and one or more theives were to break into her house and threaten her or her family's lives in some way, would it be legal for the falang husband to use her gun to protect his Thai family?

I use the airport a lot and have noticed in the last few months that the body scanners are very sensitive. In other words they sound the alarm for just about anything. You then have to walk past the exit of the bag scanner and stand on the small platform to be scanned again by a hand held scanner. While this is happening, and for sure it is not a common occurance to some people, they do not see their loose belonginings comming out of the scanner.

Last time I went through security the guy behind me started screaming because his mobile phone had gone missing after his body scan. Maybe he left it in the bar I don't know!

Here's one from a recent jungle walk in Khao Yai.

Has anyone else had this experience? Maybe he is checking to see if I have adjusted to Thai way of doing things! Anyway, there will be three of them coming to my house next week with their hands out.

Bye the way, I applied for my PR in Dec 2006.

Doesn't sound kosher to me. Are you dealing with Bangkok Immigration or upcountry?

It was the Bangkok Immigration but not the 3rd floor team - they passed on my file to the investigation team who are located elsewhere. Three of them came round and they were very polite. They said they would normally not announce there intentions of investigating but as we were obviously married from the information we had supplied they arranged a time. It is pretty strange because I was told I couldn't apply under "support a Thai family" because we didn't have children. So applying under the business heading, why did they need to prove we were married?

Apparently they check on couples who do not have children. This was the reason given when my wife telephoned to check it was actually immigration officers who had arranged to come and visit us.

My wife received a phone call from the immigration office this week and they said they would be coming round to our house to check on things. After my wife asked what the next step would be after the visit. The officer repeated three times "that will be up to my pen". As he didn't arrange a time to visit my wife called him back to inform him that we will not be around for a few days. He then started complaining about how little money he and his fellow officers had and that could we give them some taxi money to come and investigate us.

Has anyone else had this experience? Maybe he is checking to see if I have adjusted to Thai way of doing things! Anyway, there will be three of them coming to my house next week with their hands out.

Bye the way, I applied for my PR in Dec 2006.