Sophon

9 minutes ago, bigt3116 said:

Maybe the branch of Bangkok Bank in London would be able to help?

 

https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/International-Banking/Europe-and-North-America/United-Kingdom-Business-Banking

 

They will not.

1 hour ago, Muhendis said:

True. Especially expecting any solar activity at 3 a.m.

Did you really mean 3 p.m.?

I think he meant that his batteries run out at 3 a.m.

The due date is included in the seven day count, so today is your last day. But if you show them your online report, I doubt that they would fine you for reporting late.

2 hours ago, phetphet said:

Excuse me for asking. What's a BM? As in the title.

Board member.

2 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Your Lazada Fuu is remarkably weak, it took me 30 seconds to find this

 

also any competent welder can make one up in a short time.

That link is helpful if you want to buy cable, not so much for someone looking for a cable dispenser/reel.

3 hours ago, vinny41 said:

Australia’s cheapest electric SUV to be axed: MG ZS EV

The MG ZS EV Excite – the most affordable electric SUV in Australia – will be discontinued later this year with the arrival of the new MG 4 electric hatch.

https://www.drive.com.au/news/mg-zs-ev-excite-to-be-axed/

 

Not sure why ZS EV is being discontinued isn't ZS EV and MG4 aimed at different customers SUV vs hatchback

They are not discontinuing the MG ZS EV, they are just eliminating the cheapest version.

Quote

More expensive Essence ($47,990 plus on-road costs, or $49,284 to $52,701 drive-away) and Long Range ($55,990 plus on-road costs, or $57,284 to $61,367 drive-away) versions of the ZS EV will remain available.

2 hours ago, rwill said:

It could be a tarantula.  There are a few varieties in Thailand.

A photo would be helpful.

 

Tarantulas are not normally found indoors.

15 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Who else is going? 

 

Probably not many from AseanNow:
 

Quote

• The exhibition is open to trade and business visitors only.

Quick update.

After being frozen for two weeks, our PEA meter started running again today. PEA didn't change the meter, as a matter of fact I don't think they did anything as our dogs would have alerted us if they came by and started working on the meter, which is only a few meters from our land. So the meter must somehow have come unstuck on it own.

The neighbor's meter still isn't spinning though.

5 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

Another question or two

What it the maximum open circuit voltage of the panel array?

What is the maximum solar input of the inverter?

The panels are in two strings of 7 panels, and the panels have a Voc rating of 47.1V, so a theoretical maximum of 329.7V. The inverter allowed a maximum of 500V from the PV panels.

5 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

Your PEA meter and that of your neighbour both became u/s at the same time so something happened on the PEA line.

What is the distance from the PEA meter to your PEA input surge protector?

What is the distance from your PV fuse to your PV surge protector?

 

What is the distance from the PEA meter to your PEA input surge protector?

As the crow flies, 4 meters. Following the wires 10-12 meters.

What is the distance from your PV fuse to your PV surge protector?

Again approx. 4 meters as the crow flies, 6-7 meters following the wires.

40 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

You have almost certainly had an EMP event from a nearby lightning strike. It seems your surge arrestors in the solar panel incoming circuit did not trip the DC isolator quick enough and the pulse(s) were big enough to bypass the built-in surge arrestor components inside the inverter.

The PEA meter damage also indicates a surge. Probably the same lightning EMP.

Yeah indeed as I would also. 

 

Sometimes natural events can be bigger and stronger than we can anticipate. 

The only thing I can think of to prepare for the next time is to put some high speed fuses in the solar panel feed. This should ensure that when the surge arrestor conducts, the surge current will instantly cause the fuses to blow and break the connection before damage is done. Maybe the DC MCB was a bit too slow.

I do have fuses like this (only 25A) on the leads for the PV panels, and they didn't blow.

As mentioned, there was no lightning at the time, but perhaps we had a hit sometime during the night before that did damage, and that damage eventually caused the inverter to fry.

14 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

Is the incoming surge arrestor in good health and did the incoming breaker trip?

Not sure if the incoming breaker tripped, I was concentrating on the inverter which was blowing smoke. The battery and PV panel breakers did trip. The surge arrestors looks OK, but other than visually, I don't know how to check.

16 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

Do you have surge arrestors on you incomer from PEA?

If you do. 

Are they located immediately after the incoming power breaker/isolator?

Yes, you can see them on the picture. It goes like incoming breaker => power meter => surge arrestor. 

Interesting development.

A couple of weeks ago, the power in our house suddenly went out around 10 in the morning. The solar equipment is in the corner of our land, so when I went to investigate it probably took me a couple of minutes to get down there. As I was about 10 meters away I heard a pop from the inverter, and smoke started pouring out of the vent opening. Sure enough, the inverter was fried and refused to turn on again. I took the cover of the inverter off to see if a jingjok had gotten itself fried, but nothing was immediately obvious and I didn't want to mess around in there and accidentally touch a capacitor.

As it turned out, it wasn't only the inverter that was fried:

I have a DIN rail power meter with over- and under voltage protection on the incoming line from PEA so I can monitor my usage. That power meter refused to stay on and kept restarting.

The surge arrestors on my solar panels are blown (or at least I assume they are, they look like this):

As you can see, the surge arrestors on the incoming PEA supply looks OK.

The BMS for my battery works, but is acting strange. The Bluetooth keeps turning off on it's own, and some of the functionality doesn't seem to work. When I turn off charging/discharging in the app nothing happens.

So I ordered a new inverter, and this time went for a larger 8.2kW model even though the old 5.5kW was big enough for our needs, hoping the components would be a little sturdier in a larger model. It also gives me flexibility to add more PV panels in the future, should I so wish.

Of course, while waiting for the new inverter to be delivered we have had to rely on power from PEA, so imagine my surprise when the bill was delivered this morning and it showed a usage of zero kWh. As it turns out the PEA meter is also blown, even though there is nothing visibly wrong with it. As a test I turned off my battery and started charging my EV with PEA power (supplemented by a little solar, it's mostly overcast this morning), and the disc in the PEA meter is frozen in place. Even when charging both the EV and the house battery with PEA power, nothing moves in the meter.

A quick visit to the PEA meters of our two closest PEA up-stream neighbors show one meter spinning and one frozen in place. I don't (yet) know for sure if that neighbor meter should be spinning, but one would imagine that there would at least be a fridge running or something on stand-by in the house. SWMBO saw the neighbor collect his bill this morning, and he spent a long time examining the bill seemingly confused by something. So maybe he was surprised by the bill amount, which would be approximately half of normal if his meter is also broken. We will talk to him later, when he comes back.

There was no lightning at the time, so I don't know what kind of event could knock out a PEA meter (possibly multiple meters), an hybrid off-grid solar inverter, a power meter with over voltage protection on the incoming supply and mess with the electronics in my BMS. Nothing in our house was effected. I have a hard time seeing how a fault originating in my off-grid hybrid inverter could knock out our PEA meter, so I am leaning towards the most likely reason being some kind of voltage/power spike event coming from PEA.

So now I have a moral dilemma. If the cause of my blown equipment came from PEA, then they kind of owe me a new inverter. We all know that the PEA is not going to compensate me for equipment in an unofficial solar installation, so should I compensate myself on their behalf by not reporting the defective meter and let them find out on their own? As they know we have solar (the panels are five meters from the PEA meter and in plain sight), it might take a while for them to connect the dots. That is, unless our PEA meter isn't the only one that broke.

As we are almost completely self-sufficient when it comes the electricity because of our solar installation, the savings won't be all that significant. The only reason we used the PEA in the last month was because our inverter burned out and we had to wait for a new one. 

So, what say ye? What kind of event do you think happened to cause this kind of damage, and would you report the broken meter to PEA or wait for them to find out on their own?

23 minutes ago, Sophon said:

There is definitely some catching up on discounts for previous months going on. This is our bill for April-May delivered an hour ago:

 

According to the PEA online calculator, the bill should have been for THB 48.60.

Just a guess, but I think that maybe the discounts quoted "4.49/40.93", means that I got a discount for this month of THB 4.49 and THB 40.93 for previous month(s). THB 4.49 for this month seems about right, seeing that the FT charge is 4.56.

5 minutes ago, BenStark said:

Yes you will get only 0.5% on the total amount in your MTD account.

 

I have moved funds to Thai Military No Fixed account. 1.10%  minimum 2 million, maximum 30 million.

 

SCB Jad tem 1.25% maximum 3 million -  EZ savings 1.5% up to 1 million

 

LH Bank Pro fit account 1.5% up to 3 million (You may have to engage headoffice to get an account as foreigner)

 

UOB Stash account 1.25% up to 10 million

 

All interest rates are available on the web and I think they will increase next month.

 

Krungthai MTD account, once the most favourable, is now the worst one

That should be "Krungsri MTD account", not Krungthai.

The OP doesn't specify which country he is from, but the rules are the same for most of the countries that qualify for visa exempt entry so I have used the UK as an example. As Crossy mentioned your passport is only required to be valid for the length of your stay.

From IATA via KLM:

And as for the poster claiming that the rules are different when arriving visa exempt, they are not:

I don't know about future road tax cost, but I would guess that it's the same as for any other car i.e. after five years the tax falls by 10% p.a. and stabilizes at 50% of the original. But at 200 Baht per year it doesn't really matter.

I am very happy with the car. Once a month I take the old Nissan Navara out for a trip to keep it running, and after getting used to the ZS turning the wheel in the Navara is quite a workout.

The first year road tax for my MG ZS EV was 200 Baht.

Because Bangkok Post won't allow it.