Encid

The method that the worker is using in the photo is also recommended in the QCON Handbook...

Some of the building team are staying on and not going home for Songkran, so our build is continuing (despite the heat), albeit at a slower pace. It is good to see that they are following the recommendations provided in the QCON Handbook for fixing the AAC blocks to the RC columns. It is also good to see that they are using a laser level as well as the string lines for their work...

I was in Pattaya this afternoon and it is full-on water throwing outside the beer bars on Beach Road. Quite a few Russian tourist getting upset at getting wet, but that only makes it worse for them! Complain, and you're a target for everyone! The Songkran fun has been missed for the last couple of years.

I found this section from degrub's reference article particularly interesting... "Cloud-to-ground lightning strokes initiate high in thunderstorms, miles above the surface where ground objects have no effect. Even after initiation of the discharge, the downward-moving stepped leader is 'blind' to objects on the ground until it is very close to the ground, within 50 to 100 feet. At that distance, lightning will strike within the very small area it is already descending in, regardless of any devices nearby that claim to divert or prevent the strike. For example, a photograph exists of a lightning strike to the Merchandise Mart building in downtown Chicago. Merchandise Mart is very close to the 1,700 foot tall Sears Tower, yet not even the Sears Tower influenced the ground connection of this close cloud-to-ground stroke." As a lightning bolt's ground connection is already 'set in stone', so to speak... nothing short of a large telecoms tower or skyscraper will attract or deflect the bolt away from its target... which is a factor of the position of the storm rather than objects on the ground. I wonder if it's worth it?

Where can you get stuff like this? Do they work? My concern is that our new build is out in the middle of the rice fields of Isaan, and will be not only the highest structure, but the only structure around for several kilometers and are highly likely to get struck by lightning during those violent summer storms. A direct strike would take out everything and anything electrical in the house... currently there is no surge protection (no pun intended).

Some of the roof steel has been delivered, but not all... So the workers have started on the erection of the AAC block walls. The building will have a double cavity wall on the west side only, all other walls will be single 75cm blocks. The south side will be fully shaded by the roof over the outside decking and the Thai kitchen, which in turn will be shaded by the carport.

Some more work in progress while we wait for the roof steel to be delivered... the 2" PVC ring main around the pond was laid in a trench, and was also run across to the retaining wall where it will supply the guest house water tank. Power supply cables were also run inside a 2" PVC pipe in the same trench, then the trench was backfilled. We will clearly mark the route of the underground piping so that we don't accidentally dig it up or break it in the future.

I do have PEA supplied 220V AC power available at the storage tanks area... it powers the Mitsu water pump. Could that power be utilized to provide the necessary current to power the relay?

A bit of research led me to this website and Google Translate gives me the following: ADVANTAGES OF DC DD SOLAR PUMP SUBMERSIBLE PUMPS 1. Permanent magnet brushless synchronous motor: efficiency is improved by 15%-20%, saving energy. Reduce the use of solar panels 2. 304S/S pump shaft 3. Brassoutlet/Connector/Oil tank. 4. Japanese NSK bearings, service life is 3 to 5 times longer. 5. Model motor base Doublebearing Able to work under greater axial loads 6. Alloy seals: Longer service life and high reliability. 7. Motorcoil is made by automatic winding machine, with centralized winding technology, motor efficiency is greatly improved. 8. Intelligent water shortage protection: The pump will automatically stop working when there is no water in the well and automatically start 30 minutes later. Controller: has the following properties (1) Waterproof grade: IP65 (2) VOC range: 48V regulator ： 50V-110 V; 72V regulator ： 50V-150 V; 96V controller ： 90V-210 V; 110V controller ： 90V-210 V (3) Ambient temperature: -15 ℃ ~ 60 ℃ (4) Maximum input current: 15A (5) MPPT function, higher solar utilization rate. (u6) LED shows the working condition of power, voltage, current, speed, etc. (7) Frequency conversion function: it can automatically operate with frequency conversion based on solar energy, and the user can also change Manual pump speed (8) start and stop automatically (9) Waterproof and anti-leakage: double seal effect. (10) Soft start: No excitation current protects the pump motor. (11) High Voltage/Low Voltage/Over Current/High Temperature Protection (12) Product warranty 2 years Can any of you electrically-minded gurus use this information to tell me how I can automate the start/stop of the pump from our storage tanks 200m away?

In our current house (15 years old) we have a dedicated breaker for every water heater, every air con unit, electric oven, electric hot plate, range hood, and pool pumphouse. The GPO's are shared across 4 breakers, and the lighting is shared over another 4 breakers. We have an ufer grounding system in the footings of the house.

Well my niece came through with photos of the PV solar panel powered submersible pump control box... powering a 750W pump. Here it is in the off position: And here it is in the on position (with lights flashing apparently):

Well it looks like I will have to wait another day before I can get a photo of the control box... my niece decided that she'd rather go to the market in Phon with her friends this afternoon instead of going to the hot and dusty farm. She is home for the holidays from her (uncle funded) University studies.

One year later and prices have definitely changed... Global House no longer stocks the 340W Poly model from Jinyuan, they now carry the 335W Poly model instead and it's 660 baht more expensive. I thought that prices were coming down...

Sounds logical to me. My own experience with PVC ball valves is limited to those in our pool pumphouse... they get operated 2-3 times a week but they never see the sun so no direct UV exposure. I have not had a problem with any of them in the 15 years that we've had the pool.

May I ask why you used brass gate valves and not PVC ball valves?

I don't have a specification for the box... no documentation at all. I have asked my niece to take a photo of the internals and send it to me this afternoon.

You are correct... I am not electrically minded at all with only basic knowledge of that field of engineering, so any suggestions would be highly appreciated. I don't have a photograph of the control box but I have asked my niece to take a photo of it later today. I do have a photo from when it was installed exactly 1 year ago... the control box is mounted directly under the PV panels which are directly over the bore/pump. 2 cables were originally connected to it and run alongside the pipeline before it was buried... the cables went to a switch at the power pole at the pond but it never worked... the guy who installed it said that the distance was too far. I will look for them when I re-visit the farm again after Songkran.

My wife likes to have clean toilets in our house. Currently (living in Najomtien) we have 3 toilets inside the house, and another which serves as the maid's toilet in the garage. We don't have a maid because my wife likes to do all the cleaning herself. Currently she is using a product called Magiclean to clean all the sanitary ware, as she is happy with the results. I however worry a bit about the chemicals in this product (which are supposed to be 99.9% deadly for bacteria) killing all the "good" bacteria we have in our septic tanks. Sure it is diluted considerably by the time it is flushed into the septic tank, but would it be diluted enough not to have a negative effect on the "good" bacteria? Anyone have any experience or suggestions?

Good idea... I'll pass it on.

Yesterday the additional raw water tanks were placed on the concrete base and piped together with a common 2" suction header to the 250W pump. The pump will provide water to a 2" ring main around the pond and also a 2" feed line underground across the plot to the concrete slat wall and then to the Guest House. Various 1/2" offtakes will be located for gardening/watering purposes along the route. The suction header will also act as a common fill line for all 5 tanks so the level inside the tanks will be the same. The fill line comes from our PV solar panel powered submersible pump in a bore/well. All 5 tanks will have an overflow line each which will discharge to the pond when the tanks are full. It will initially be a manually operated system, but I hope to automate it one day with a float switch and a relay to the sub pump which is about 200m away. (If anyone has some ideas on how I could do this I would much appreciate it.) I do not want to have a repeat of the problem I saw just a few weeks ago... Our single tank had run out of water and FIL had turned on the solar powered pump to fill it, then he headed off to burn some wood in another part of the farm to make charcoal. BIL had stayed by the pond and was supposed to turn off the pump when the tank was full. He forgot and was just watching the water jet out the overflow without a concern in the world. He was sitting in the shade at the other end of the pond so would not have had a clear view of what was actually going on. I happened to walk past at the time and noticed that the overflow was gushing out of the tank and that the energy of that water exiting was enough to push the tank backwards off it's base. It is a 2" supply line but only a 1" overflow line. I yelled at him to turn off the pump before any damage occurred. After he returned and the tank had settled back down onto it's base I showed him the photo and he was genuinely shocked. We inspected the fill piping for any damage but none was visible so we were lucky that the LDPE line was flexible enough to take the bending without breaking. Lesson learned and that is why all 5 raw water storage tanks are going to be piped together... so that they all fill (and get emptied) at the same time, and that they all will have overflow lines so the situation above cannot happen again.

Thank you Hopefully that won't happen with our build. The under-roof area (or attic if you like) steel should not be subjected to wide ranging temperatures as we will be using 50mm thk PU foam-backed Bluescope steel for the roof, and the ceiling will be covered in 150mm thk SCG "Stay Cool" insulation, so the actual steelwork will not see any direct heat from the sun nor radiant heat from the roof steel. If the steelwork does creak a bit hopefully the insulation will deaden the sound somewhat.

I know what you mean... I have seen many houses built by local "builders" who do not work to approved architect's plans and just construct something to a budget, not to a design. And most Isaan village houses are not "approved" by any government agency either. We searched for a builder within a 120km radius who had a proven track record, built quality houses, and took pride in his work... and could also work to a budget. We were not going to use the local "builders". We were lucky to find one based in Khon Kaen and happy that he agreed to undertake our project.

Our builder has a couple of qualified structural engineers on his staff (I have seen their qualifications) and he runs things like this past them to determine the actual sizing, but I think that he (like so many other experienced people) can offer a qualified opinion based on his experience of building many houses. Same as me when I saw the mesh that was originally placed for the raw water concrete slab... it just looked wrong.

Today the mesh for the raw water storage slab was replaced by RB12 rods, and the roof frame partially assembled: This afternoon the concrete was poured: And the additional 2000L tanks and the 2" PVC pipe has been delivered.

Now... our second change to design... removal of one column. When we were walking around the build and getting a feel for the internal dimensions of the GH, both my wife and I agreed that if possible, we would remove one column as it took up too much space in the open living area. (They are all 20 x 20cm in size.) It was a "hangover" from the original architect's design when we had a flat concrete roof, and this column was needed to provide structural support for the heavy mass of reinforced concrete. But when we changed the roof design to a sloping steel roof behind a rendered AAC block façade, we didn't change the size of the columns, just the amount of reinforcing steel inside them. This is the column that we wanted removed: We discussed this with our builder and asked him what it would take and cost to remove this column. He answered that the roof steel (which he was just about to order) would need to go up one size as it would be spanning 6m instead of 4m and it was no big deal. We asked about cost and he said about 3000 baht plus the labour to demolish the column, to which we readily agreed. He then informed us that he wanted to change the plan due to 1) the hot weather, and 2) some of the workers did not want to go home for holidays at Songkran... they wanted to work through, so the next step would not be the erection of the AAC walls but the installation of the roof so the workers could have some shade. No problem for me… I’m sure that they will be happier and not take (so many) shortcuts if they are working in more comfortable conditions. I still bring my laser level with me every time that we visit…