How about a solar car port on a budget?

[Crossy]

3 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

@Crossy, You have all DEYE inverters, 4 in total, right?

Was there a specific reason for selecting DEYE or will all the major brands do pretty much the same.

What is your opinion on SOLIS inverters?

 

Yup, 4 x 5kW Deye hybrids plus our original Sofar 6kW grid-tie running through one of the Gen ports.

 

When we decided to upgrade our single 5kW Sofar hybrid we needed: -

• Units that could parallel on the Load (UPS) port (Sofar couldn't) 
• Inverters that would interface with Solar Assistant to avoid them being internet connected (Sofar couldn't)
• A sensible degree of programmability, TOU etc. etc. (Sofar didn't)
• Must be on the MEA/PEA list of approved inverters
• Decent bang-for buck without going ultra cheap.

Sofar inverters are very good and robust but just didn't cut the mustard for our requirements.

 

Deye (and their US branded version Sol-Ark) are pretty well regarded in the DIY solar community as being a decent mid-range choice.

 

Thus far they are being exactly what we need.

 

But, as with all these things YMMV 🙂 

[Crossy]

OK, all the panels are on at this end of the car-port and are making power, 13 panels as a string of 9 plus a string of 4 (more of this in a moment). So, we now have about 27kWp of panels.

 

That papaya plant will have to have a haircut as it's slugging the longer string!!

 

 

 

I'm definitely going to need to replace my 250A battery breaker!

My stack of panels is now much smaller.

 

 

My plan is to expand the string of 4 by another 3 at the other end of the car port. The small 100W panel which is for our floodlights will be relocated to near the power pole. There's also space for one more panel at the far end (I need to work out which string it can get added to).

 

 

 

 

[KannikaP]

On 5/1/2021 at 6:10 PM, BritManToo said:

April last year with my old bedroom air-con I used 500 units

April this year with my new inverter bedroom air-con I used 350 units.

 

Replacing the old air-con saved me 150 units in one month.

So how long to save the price of the new a/c, circa Bht 15000 @ Bht 150 per month. 100 months = 8.5 years.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

So how long to save the price of the new a/c, circa Bht 15000 @ Bht 150 per month. 100 months = 8.5 years.

Old one was on it's last legs, new aircon 10kbht fitted.

Aircon power now free now as I paid 2kbht for a 1kw GTI, and another 2Kbht for a 580W n-type mono split, bifacial panel to wind my meter back (around 2 units a day).

[StandardIssue]

Pay for itself in 3.5 years AND saving the environment too. Is it coal fired electricity off the municipal grid there?

It's a win win. 

Very nice. Good going!

[lom]

3 hours ago, KannikaP said:

So how long to save the price of the new a/c, circa Bht 15000 @ Bht 150 per month. 100 months = 8.5 years.

That is true if you believe that 150 units is only 150 baht...

[KannikaP]

10 minutes ago, lom said:

That is true if you believe that 150 units is only 150 baht...

Sorry, maths brain isn't working. 15000/600 = 25 months.

I just fitted TCL Inverters to replace 12 year old Mitsu Mr Slims. Same sort of saving. Cheers.

[Crossy]

23 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Sorry, maths brain isn't working. 15000/600 = 25 months.

I just fitted TCL Inverters to replace 12 year old Mitsu Mr Slims. Same sort of saving. Cheers.

 

If I had a pound for every time the maths brain has gone awry ... 🙂

 

I will say that my beautiful, blue-eyed, blonde haired, large breasted, Essex girl, ex-wife also had some "interesting" ideas on finances.

She once drew a whole bunch of cash at the ATM because the "balance kept getting bigger" - something to do with the "OD" on the same line  

She traded me in for a newer model! (The building contractor who built our extension, of course she told me after I'd paid him).

 

[ExpatOilWorker]

@Crossy, Unistrut, slotted struts, guide rail, C-channel, isn't that something that is commonly used in electrical installation?

Apart from some short sections on Lazada,  I can't find a vendor in Thailand. Do you know where to find it or just the right name in Thai?

Ideally I want it with a similar 17 mm opening to the common solar rails.

 

[Crossy]

Have a look at https://www.facebook.com/VIPFootball123/ (Yes, that link is correct or go direct to bapthailand.com) or one of several manufacturers https://thai.conduitsfittings.com/buy-steel_unistrut_channel.html 

 

How much do you need?

 

if you have a specialist electrical place nearby, they may have or be able to order sensible amounts.

[ExpatOilWorker]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

Have a look at https://www.facebook.com/VIPFootball123/ (Yes, that link is correct or go direct to bapthailand.com) or one of several manufacturers https://thai.conduitsfittings.com/buy-steel_unistrut_channel.html 

 

How much do you need?

 

if you have a specialist electrical place nearby, they may have or be able to order sensible amounts.

I need about 42 m in total, 6 x 7 m, to attach 18 panels in a 3 x 6 configuration. 

I am making a ground based frame and the slotted struts are easier to attach to the perpendicular support beams, than the usual solar rails.

Isn't the second link (thai.con...) just Chinese based vendors? I have no luck using the chat function. 

I will contact BAP after the holiday, but looks like they have a limited selection. 

Can you recommend a big electric shop in Bangkok? Map link if u have it, then I will go and talk to them.

[unheard]

On 3/16/2025 at 7:48 AM, Crossy said:

 

 

 

 

 

Crossy,

I really appreciate your invaluable advice on all things electrical.

 

Sorry, I could be totally wrong on this but....

to my untrained eyes (not a structural engineer by any means) the design of that roof add-on looks to be suspiciously structurally deficient to be able to support long term the weight of that many panels.

[Crossy]

27 minutes ago, unheard said:

 

Crossy,

I really appreciate your invaluable advice on all things electrical.

 

Sorry, I could be totally wrong on this but....

to my untrained eyes (not a structural engineer by any means) the design of that roof add-on looks to be suspiciously structurally deficient to be able to support long term the weight of that many panels.

 

Well, a load of 100kg (one DIN standard farang) can hang on the far end without massive deflection, it does of course move, steel is an elastic material (I've not measured the actual deflection mind).

 

But I'm always open to suggested improvements.

 

What do you suggest??

 

EDIT You may wish to look at some of the commercial offerings, many of which I would consider woefully inadequate from looking at photos, but they seem to do the job just fine.

[Muhendis]

On 4/17/2025 at 7:53 AM, ExpatOilWorker said:

Unistrut, slotted struts, guide rail, C-channel, isn't that something that is commonly used in electrical installation?

All this is very correct but also rather posh for ground mounted panels.

Here's a picture of what I did last year when I upgraded/replaced my panels.

[unheard]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

What do you suggest??

IMO, the very least, the newly added structure is missing corner columns.

I think the biggest concern could be strong winds and wind-induced vibrations, leading to significant oscillations and potential damage.

Just to make sure, I'd suggest seeking an opinion from someone with at least a rudimentary knowledge of structural engineering.

[Muhendis]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

I'm always open to suggested improvements.

 

What do you suggest??

Put one of these on each corner and adjust the gas to get enough lift 

The call air traffic control to let 'em know what you done................

https://www.worldhistory.org/uploads/images/18880.png?v=1713880796-1713880893

[ExpatOilWorker]

11 hours ago, Muhendis said:

All this is very correct but also rather posh for ground mounted panels.

Here's a picture of what I did last year when I upgraded/replaced my panels.

That is a very neat and nice made frame.

Did you use 3x2" rectangular tube for the legs and 2x1" x 3.2 mm for the cross beams? Galvanized or painted carbon steel?

What is ur slope? Same as your latitude?

I will drop you a picture when my frame is coming together. 

[Muhendis]

52 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

That is a very neat and nice made frame.

Did you use 3x2" rectangular tube for the legs and 2x1" x 3.2 mm for the cross beams? Galvanized or painted carbon steel?

What is ur slope? Same as your latitude?

I will drop you a picture when my frame is coming together. 

In reverse order:

Slope is same as latitude although there is a valid argument for 17º. Best is to vary the angle say three positions changing every 4 months.

I couldn't be bothered with that since there is enough output from my panels that the difference is not significant.

The main supports are 100mm x 50mm rectangular galv. steel with load spreading square feet where they meet the concrete.

Cross members are 30mm x 30mm galv. steel with intermediate supports of same to counter the sag.

550 Watt panels are 'kin 'evey.

Like Crossy (which we all do), I took advantage of my otherwise unused carport roof.

 

[Crossy]

We just had a major (but short) storm, heavy rain and very strong wind (there was apparently hail just up the road).

 

Nothing solar or car port moved!!

 

However.

 

I was sitting at my computer when a tree about 20m away got hit!! Flipping great bang! Scared the willies out of me! I needed a beer

 

The inverters flipped to grid and reset but no damage and everything came back online after a minute or so.

 

Meanwhile, my step-son who had been on the carport roof when the rain started decided that he wasn't going back up there today. I can't imagine why

 

EDIT Turns out we fried one of the RS485 to USB dongles that connect to the Pi. Had a spare in the bits box 🙂 

[Muhendis]

3 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Scared the willies out of me! I needed a beer

Ha.

Any excuse. 

Nothing happened here but so think I'll join you............

[ExpatOilWorker]

A picture inside @Crossy's head.

 

[Crossy]

Carrying on from the flash-n-bang on Sunday.

Fear!!!

Monday came around and it was obvious something was awry.

The Master inverter was banging along at 4kW or so, but all three Slaves were doing very odd things with their MPPTs. They seemed to be constantly re-scanning, the impact on production was massive.

I checked the wiring and voltages, and verified that the surge-arrestors hadn't triggered (took them out).

A power cycle of the slaves and then the whole system yielded zero improvement.

Terror!!!!

Suddenly! All output went off!! The inverters were all running but were displaying "OFF".

Looking at Solar Assistant showed that the Remote Switch option was set to OFF.

Tried to change the state without success, other parameters changed but not that one!

I'm facing a bricked system!!

I actually put the Deye dongles back on and tried to turn the inverters on via Deye Cloud. No joy.

In desperation I did a factory reset on the Master and got the beast to come to life in stand-alone mode.

Happy. At least we were able to carry local load.

Then.

Turned on comms to the slaves, 30 seconds later, "clunk", the master goes to OFF.

OK back to stand-alone.

Factory reset the slaves and set their RS485 addresses.

Relief!!!!!

Set the master to parallel and held my breath.

It didn't go off.

Turned on the load breakers and everthing started working much to my relief.

I had a very relieved beer!!

Of course, Brain of Britain here hadn't made a backup of the system settings, so I'm still messing around getting it right again, and making a backup!

Evidently something got corrupted in the slaves but exactly what I have no idea.

 

[Muhendis]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

Evidently something got corrupted in the slaves but exactly what I have no idea.

Sounds to me like an unserious problem.

My guess would be that the EMP caused a factory rest of all inverters which would make them all think they were all masters or something like that.

Being as how it's unconstitutional for more than one master to run the show they would all figuratively say "I not 'aving that on my patch" then they all very quickly switch off.

What you need, prior to liquid anesthesia, is a button to press to reset all inverters to previous settings which the machines would all have stored in rad hardened novol memory.

As it is you did well to get back up and running. It seems the machines are built strong enough and your added EMP protection has..... well....... protected them.

Trouble is you don't know if anything has been stressed to the point of almost breaking ready for the next strike.

Now where did I leave that beer.

[Crossy]

Yeah, the RS-485 to the packs has a long, currently unprotected, lead to a PC.

 

I'll put money on that being the ingress point for the nasties as it was that RS-485 dongle that died 😞 

 

RS-485 surge arrestor on order 🙂 

[Muhendis]

10 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Yeah, the RS-485 to the packs has a long, currently unprotected, lead to a PC.

 

I'll put money on that being the ingress point for the nasties as it was that RS-485 dongle that died 😞 

 

RS-485 surge arrestor on order 🙂 

You're PC's OK then?

While your at it have a quick look at any other interconnections between your parallel Deyes and see if they would benefit from a bit of protection.

[Crossy]

Yeah, the PC lives 🙂 

 

Numbers for April.

 

 

 

[ExpatOilWorker]

15 hours ago, Crossy said:

Yeah, the RS-485 to the packs has a long, currently unprotected, lead to a PC.

 

I'll put money on that being the ingress point for the nasties as it was that RS-485 dongle that died 😞 

 

RS-485 surge arrestor on order 🙂 

Lightning 🌩 strike directly to any of your equipment or nearby and the EMP cause the havoc?

Did the fault happen Sunday and you just noticed it Monday?

Having this kind of "Spanish" moment is what I fear the most of being an independent power generator. 

At least with the grid, you know it is someone else's headache to fix it.

[Crossy]

12 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Lightning 🌩 strike directly to any of your equipment or nearby and the EMP cause the havoc?

Did the fault happen Sunday and you just noticed it Monday?

Having this kind of "Spanish" moment is what I fear the most of being an independent power generator. 

At least with the grid, you know it is someone else's headache to fix it.

 

 

Strike was a tree about 30m from the arrays. This is the closest strike we've had since 2012 when we took a direct hit to the house!

 

We noticed the RS-485 issue straight away, but the upset MPPTs only made themselves felt on Monday coz it went dark on Sunday.

 

Keeping a grid connection for backup is cheap insurance.

 

[ExpatOilWorker]

27 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

 

Strike was a tree about 30m from the arrays. This is the closest strike we've had since 2012 when we took a direct hit to the house!

 

We noticed the RS-485 issue straight away, but the upset MPPTs only made themselves felt on Monday coz it went dark on Sunday.

 

Keeping a grid connection for backup is cheap insurance.

 

Since even a nearby strike can cause a glitch, would it even help installing a lighting rod on the roof with some heavy 50 mm2 wire direct to ground?

Would it make things worse by attracting more lighting striks?

 

 

 

[Muhendis]

33 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Since even a nearby strike can cause a glitch, would it even help installing a lighting rod on the roof with some heavy 50 mm2 wire direct to ground?

Would it make things worse by attracting more lighting striks?

 

 

 

 

This from Google:

"A typical direct lightning strike carries a current of approximately 30,000 amps (30 kA). However, this can range from 10,000 to 200,000 amps, depending on the specific strike. The voltage associated with a lightning strike can be as high as 300 million volts, with some strikes reaching one billion volts."

 

It would be very difficult for any domestic lightning rods etc to deal with that as they found out in 1984 when York Minster was burnt down following a lightning strike. The lightning conductor system was upgraded soon after.