Need advice on running an electric transmission line to a new home

[spidermike007]

15 hours ago, oobar said:

Listen to Crossy.  He knows.   The most expensive route, but the best, as he says, is probably high voltage to your house, with transformer and meter ahead of your panel.  PEA will give you a cost for everything, including poles, lines and transformer.  We have three-phase, with a 50KV transformer.  One phase supplies our small workshop, another the first floor of our house, the third powering the second floor.  This was almost five years ago, so I'm not immediately sure, but I think the transformer was around 60-70K.   You'll pay for the poles -- ours were 9.5k each -- but you don't own them.  They help expand the grid for others.  The 1.2 km from the main road was only a bumpy dirt road, fronted by properties owned by a mix of people, but I am unaware of any issues regarding putting up poles.  The PEA seemed to stick them into the ground wherever they felt they were needed.

Thanks. How far apart are the poles? Sounds like alot of 9,500 baht poles would be required for 1.2km. Plus the transformer (at least 50KV?) at today's prices. And if I wanted to have enough juice for a second or third small home on the property later (a couple of friends may end up joining us there), we are looking at some heavy duty wire too. Am I looking at somewhere between 500,000 and a million baht for the electric alone?

[oobar]

7 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Thanks. How far apart are the poles? Sounds like alot of 9,500 baht poles would be required for 1.2km. Plus the transformer (at least 50KV?) at today's prices. And if I wanted to have enough juice for a second or third small home on the property later (a couple of friends may end up joining us there), we are looking at some heavy duty wire too. Am I looking at somewhere between 500,000 and a million baht for the electric alone?

You need to go see the PEA folks.   They can tell you what expenses to anticipate, and they may recommend a contractor for the transformer-to-house leg.   One caution, however:  Pay the PEA (in advance) yourself.  Our contractor said he would handle this for us, so we made the mistake of trusting him with the PEA share (he was a PEA employee with a private business on this side), and he did not pass the money through, using it instead for his on purposes.   We had to threaten him with showing up with the police at his place of employment.  This problem delayed us by more than two months before he finally coughed up the (our) money.  Again, I'm not absolutely sure, but I think 1.2 km required something like 22 poles.  Our three-phase feed , at 100 amps per phase, should be adequate for an additional two or three houses.

[stud858]

1 hour ago, oobar said:

You need to go see the PEA folks.   They can tell you what expenses to anticipate, and they may recommend a contractor for the transformer-to-house leg.   One caution, however:  Pay the PEA (in advance) yourself.  Our contractor said he would handle this for us, so we made the mistake of trusting him with the PEA share (he was a PEA employee with a private business on this side), and he did not pass the money through, using it instead for his on purposes.   We had to threaten him with showing up with the police at his place of employment.  This problem delayed us by more than two months before he finally coughed up the (our) money.  Again, I'm not absolutely sure, but I think 1.2 km required something like 22 poles.  Our three-phase feed , at 100 amps per phase, should be adequate for an additional two or three houses.

At 1 million baht surely solar off grid is a much better option.  Am I missing something?  Is it illegal to do solar in Thailand? 

Please keep in mind that when you buy your solar equipment it's yours and keeps its value. Say goodbye to monthly bills forever. 

[The Fat Controller]

Our 50kVA transformer was 230,000 about 9 months ago.

[mogandave]

At 1 million baht surely solar off grid is a much better option.  Am I missing something?  Is it illegal to do solar in Thailand? 
Please keep in mind that when you buy your solar equipment it's yours and keeps its value. Say goodbye to monthly bills forever. 

Are you off the grid? If not, why not? If so, how many air conditioners do you have?

Zero maintenance?

Do the batteries and panels last forever?

How much space does it take for all the panels?

If I could run all my AC on solar I would buy it today.

[stud858]

9 minutes ago, mogandave said:

 

Are you off the grid? If not, why not? If so, how many air conditioners do you have?

Zero maintenance?

Do the batteries and panels last forever?

How much space does it take for all the panels?

If I could run all my AC on solar I would buy it today.

 

In Thailand I'm in a condo so not possible. 

My father's and mothers houses have been solarised.

They pay zero plus get a little money back.  Australia uses feed back tariff.no need for batteries. 

Work out how much kW you need.  Size the inverter accordingly and buy the amount of Panels to suit.

 

Let's say 10kw / 400 watt panels = 25 Panels. Sure you need the space on the roof and garage. My father has 20 panels on one side of his angled roof. Panels are expected to last 20+ years.  Grey area for me.  Time will tell. 

Batteries is the main killer.  Need to be replaced.  Cost is coming down.

The batteries need to supply the kwh power to serve air-conditioners.

The inverter air-conditioners will not take full power all the time and not used all day. You may not need as big an inverter and battery bank as you think. 

 

 

Friend is off grid and uses deep cycle lead acid. But I believe lithium is available now.  Pretty much zero maintenance on panels and inverter..  I haven't cleaned panels in 8 years. The rain does its job.  Not worried in the few percent gain from cleaning panels manually. 

 

And of course an automatic kick in petrol generator when the batteries run dry is needed.  

 

Unless you sit down and do all the figures you will never know.  If I had a house here I could give you more accurate quotes but by going on what I've done in Oz and keeping a pulse on the industry I see people are too quick to dismiss solar as the best option.

 

If you've passed on solar please let us know why? 

 

Unavailable parts? Cost on an item was too high?  payback period not practical. Please show your quotes and working outs. 

 

 

 

[mogandave]

In Thailand I'm in a condo so not possible. 
My father's and mothers houses have been solarised.
They pay zero plus get a little money back.  Australia uses feed back tariff.no need for batteries. 
Work out how much kW you need.  Size the inverter accordingly and buy the amount of Panels to suit.
 
Let's say 10kw / 400 watt panels = 25 Panels. Sure you need the space on the roof and garage. My father has 20 panels on one side of his angled roof. Panels are expected to last 20+ years.  Grey area for me.  Time will tell. 
Batteries is the main killer.  Need to be replaced.  Cost is coming down.
The batteries need to supply the kwh power to serve air-conditioners.
The inverter air-conditioners will not take full power all the time and not used all day. You may not need as big an inverter and battery bank as you think. 
 
 
Friend is off grid and uses deep cycle lead acid. But I believe lithium is available now.  Pretty much zero maintenance on panels and inverter..  I haven't cleaned panels in 8 years. The rain does its job.  Not worried in the few percent gain from cleaning panels manually. 
 
And of course an automatic kick in petrol generator when the batteries run dry is needed.  
 
Unless you sit down and do all the figures you will never know.  If I had a house here I could give you more accurate quotes but by going on what I've done in Oz and keeping a pulse on the industry I see people are too quick to dismiss solar as the best option.
 
If you've passed on solar please let us know why? 
 
Unavailable parts? Cost on an item was too high?  payback period not practical. Please show your quotes and working outs. 
 
 
 

I don’t think I have enough area. I have 64 m^2 of roof and 320 m^2 of living area with 6 air conditioners.

[stud858]

30 minutes ago, mogandave said:

 

I don’t think I have enough area. I have 64 m^2 of roof and 320 m^2 of living area with 6 air conditioners.

 

64 sqm could hold up to 30 panels.

Do you use all 6 air conditioners at the same time? Are they inverter type? Do you know therir max amp usage. A clamp amp Meter will get an accurate reading on sartup.

May I ask what your monthly power bill is.  I pay around 1500 a month for 1 air con condo.  

 

For a person thinking of having to pay a large sum like the OP for setting up connection to the house the situation of 6 air con should not make solar not doable and I still suspect the better choice 

 

For a house to do the changeover it may have too great a pay back period. There is a lot to consider and if you can plan and project manage yourself there will be good savings. 

 

[Fruit Trader]

3 hours ago, stud858 said:

At 1 million baht surely solar off grid is a much better option.  Am I missing something?  Is it illegal to do solar in Thailand? 

Please keep in mind that when you buy your solar equipment it's yours and keeps its value. Say goodbye to monthly bills forever. 

Yes you are missing something.

 

The OP said he may eventually have another home and a small building on the land, for a fruit operation. 

If the OP has a decent size piece of land with future potential then a grid connection is the way to go.
 

 

 

[stud858]

3 minutes ago, Fruit Trader said:

Yes you are missing something.

 

The OP said he may eventually have another home and a small building on the land, for a fruit operation. 

If the OP has a decent size piece of land with future potential then a grid connection is the way to go.
 

 

 

Buy more panels expand solar.  more savings.  Electricity prices going up.  Don't be afraid to go big solar. My advice stands. Don't throw away hundreds of thousands of baht on power poles etc.

[Fruit Trader]

9 minutes ago, stud858 said:

Buy more panels expand solar.  more savings.  Electricity prices going up.  Don't be afraid to go big solar. My advice stands. Don't throw away hundreds of thousands of baht on power poles etc.

It mostly goes like this. Our land around the house has had many sale enquiries since the family contributed to the high voltage grid connection and public water supply a few years back. The increase in value is quite scary but that's the way it work here in LOS and some even catch a free bonus.

[stud858]

7 minutes ago, Fruit Trader said:

It mostly goes like this. Our land around the house has had many sale enquiries since the family contributed to the high voltage grid connection and public water supply a few years back. The increase in value is quite scary but that's the way it work here in LOS and some even catch a free bonus.

Great point..if the investment in the line extension increases value in the house that's a bonus,  changes the equations unless the owner of the property never intends to sell.  That money won't be realised. Whereas the solar savings will be realised. Oh my, oh my,  so many decisions in life.  

[Fruit Trader]

8 minutes ago, stud858 said:

Great point..if the investment in the line extension increases value in the house that's a bonus,  changes the equations unless the owner of the property never intends to sell.  That money won't be realised. Whereas the solar savings will be realised. Oh my, oh my,  so many decisions in life.  

Take a tip , never say never when making an investment.