Sophon

26 minutes ago, unheard said:

Thank you for the detailed write-up.

I'll ask my builder to install a 180cm (8ft) copper-clad ground rod combined with a clamp.

 

8 feet is 240 cm, which I believe is also the required length of the ground rod. This illustration is from a PEA/MEA electrical system description posted by Crossy many times:

3 hours ago, Muhendis said:

How unpleasant for the frog.

I think it's a tree frog.

Definitely a tree frog, but even tree frogs lay their eggs in water which I guess is why the frog was there in the first case. We had lots of tadpoles in the ditch we dug to get access to the cables running to the house, but unfortunately (for them) that have dried out over the last couple of weeks.

And besides, we have trees growing around the pond. 

My system has only been online since the 19th of last month, so don't know yet what my peak production is. But back on the 22nd of March at 11.18 (when we also had air pollution but not as bad) I got around 3.5 kW:

Today at noon it was hovering around 2.2 - 2.3 kW.

So, Sunday morning I read the meter exactly one week after the official meter reader person came by. For that week we had used 21-22 kWh from PEA, while our consumption for the previous month without solar (and the first month with our new EV) was 450 kWh. 450 kWh for the month comes out to about 100-110 kWh per week, so the 21-22 kWh equates to savings of about 80%.

I'm pretty happy with that, especially considering that:

We only turned on the solar panels on the afternoon of the day the meter was read,

The battery was not connected until the afternoon of the day after the meter date,

The BMS is still trying to calibrate to the battery, initially it was showing battery at 25%, when it was really 90% full. To teach the BMS when the battery is full/empty, I intentionally let the battery run way down by dumping the energy into the EV. So we ended up using PEA more than necessary because of the empty battery. 

21 hours ago, KhunLA said:

After  6 months, just noticed the MG ZS EV 2022 doesn't have a navigation app ????

 

No loss, as wasn't a fan of the TomTom app in the ICE version.  

 

Guess that's obvious, since a couple road trips and just now noticed it not there ????

Are you sure about that, that would be very strange and my ZS EV does have a Navigation app. Also, in one of your earlier posts, you posted this pic which shows a shortcut to a navigation app:

So, we got the panels connected on Sunday, which coincidentally was the same day the meter reader came by. Not much production though, since I still hadn't assembled and connected the battery. Got that done on Monday, so now fully up and running.

This is from around 11 this morning while charging the EV and producing 3.47 kW:

Some friendly advice, don't put your hammer on top of a ladder. I did, and when I accidentally brushed against the ladder, the hammer fell about a meter and hit me dead square center on the top of my head. And not just any normal hammer, no one of these big guys I had been using to hammer in the ground rod:

 I had a baseball cap on, which softened the blow slightly, but still not a pleasant experience.

Since the system basically started on meter reading day, I expect the next bill to be drastically lower. Hopefully by at least 80%.

8 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Of the banks I have had business over the years...

 

1. Bangkok Bank

2. Krungsri Bank

3. SCB 

4. Kasikorn Bank

5. Krungthai Bank.

 

But it really depends on the individual branches here.

I have accounts in all those five banks, and would probably rank them in the same order as you.

For me, Bangkok Bank and Krungsri come in far ahead of the other three banks, SCB and Kasikorn is on about the same level and Krung Thai comes in as a distant last.

3 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Yeah I too could buy an out of province vehicle and do nothing and keep the same number plate, but then the book would not be in my name.

Iam one of these old fashioned types that believe if I own it then it must be in my name.

That is not true, you can keep the same number plate and have the car registered in your name even if the car is registered in a different province to where you live.

I bought a used car with Petchaburi plates and had it registered in by name even though I at the time lived in Bangkok. You can just go to the DLT in the province where the car is registered, and they will do the transfer no matter where you live.

I just last week bought a new car from a dealership in Chiang Mai. We now live in Lamphun, so the dealership asked us if we wanted Chiang Mai or Lamphun plates (the wife chose Chiang Mai). The dealership will just register the car in the province of your choice, the DLT doesn't care if it's not in the same province where you live.  And no, it has nothing to do with corruption, there is no rule that says te car has to be registered in the same province as your address.

9 hours ago, Pink7 said:

32  x QSO LF380K arrived this morning. Just started unpacking. Until now all look very good condition. Delivery was just over a week from China.

 

Pink

Quote

32  x QSO LF380K

I assume that the "380" part was just a typo, and that what you ordered (and got) was LF280K batteries?

4 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

Quick summary of the cost of my system and payback

 

Payback:
Main Components
20,000 Watts of PV @ ฿9/W = ฿180,000
9kWh LiFePO4 Batteries ฿68,000 x 3 = ฿204,000
Inverters ฿36,000 x 3 = ฿108,000
= ฿492,000
 
Savings: 
Gasohol saving ฿5,000/month
PEA saving ฿3,500/month
= ฿8,500/month 

฿102,000/Year saving 
Payback = 5 Years

 

these figures are over a year old so have changed a bit.

But the gasohol savings are not really (or not entirely) a result of installing solar. Even without installing solar, you could still have bought an EV replacing your THB 5k gasohol bill with lets say an additional THB 2k on your PEA bill for charging. 

In reality, only THB 2k of your savings on transportation costs is down to installing solar, the remaining THB 3k is because you invested in an electric vehicle. So your monthly savings from installing solar is THB 5.5k giving a payback time of 7.5 years.

Note, I don't know how many kWh you use driving, so the THB 2k I quoted is just an example.

10 hours ago, Greenside said:

Thanks for the info.  Nowhere could I find the battery comparison for Thailand but the overall higher specs were the main deciding factor for me so I'm not disappointed that both D and X are the same size. 

The specs on MG's website show a capacity of 51kWh for both MG4 models:

13 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

MG EP Plus ... ฿771k

https://www.mgcars.com/th/mg-models/new-mg-ep/overview

 

Our MG ZS came with wall charger (free install), 1 yr insurance. V2L cable.

Wait time, 'was', 6 months of less, got ours in 5 months

 

Yeah, forgot about that one, which I shouldn't have as I saw one just yesterday in Chiang Mai (I also saw my first Neta V) . The OP should note that the MG EP currently sold in Thailand is the old model, in other markets it has already been replaced by a facelifted model.

The base version of the MG 4 at THB 869k may meet your criteria of "a little above 800k".

That is going to be a short list, the only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Neta V:

14 minutes ago, macahoom said:

You're almost right!

 

It's actually 10 minutes before the booking slot. I know Bjørn says 5 minutes in the video, but I'm pretty sure he's wrong.

It might be different for different charging networks, but I did see one of his earlier road trip videos where the charger stopped charging five minutes before the hour.

1 minute ago, macahoom said:

10 minutes.

Plus the five minutes before the booking slot.