How about a solar car port on a budget?

[peterfranks]

Apologies of this is a stupid question.

 

My roof is only 18°, as I use high quality imported clay tiles with double lock etc, which according to the manufacturer brochure have been tested and proven watertight at 17°.

 

Would you think it is possible to replace the tiles with solar panels, and make it waterproof?

[sezze]

4 hours ago, peterfranks said:

Apologies of this is a stupid question.

 

My roof is only 18°, as I use high quality imported clay tiles with double lock etc, which according to the manufacturer brochure have been tested and proven watertight at 17°.

 

Would you think it is possible to replace the tiles with solar panels, and make it waterproof?

Not replace the tiles , just get the right mounting system .

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/cpac-solar-mounting-i2149586530.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.11.1c396f05YgxJn6

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/cpac-solar-mounting-i3365338956.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.13.1c396f05YgxJn6

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/psi-solar-cell-rail-mounting-i3538421834-s13202715717.html?

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/solar-cell-tile-roof-hook-i3226792818-s12020723114.html?

There are for each type of tile options to make them fit on a roof .

[Crossy]

4 hours ago, Pink7 said:

This is a average month? You have around 10kw panels? 

 

Pink

 

February is a short month, here are the numbers for each month since we've had the full set of panels.

 

 

 

[Pink7]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

 

February is a short month, here are the numbers for each month since we've had the full set of panels.

 

 

 

Thanks for that info, how much panel kw is that? I want to try compare my calculations with real productions numbers.

 

Pink

[Muhendis]

15 hours ago, 007 RED said:

no problems with wind.

Good to know you're eating the right things. ????

[Crossy]

45 minutes ago, Pink7 said:

Thanks for that info, how much panel kw is that? I want to try compare my calculations with real productions numbers.

 

10.6kWp of panels.

 

Figures are from my metering at the distribution board.

[Pink7]

8 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

10.6kWp of panels.

 

Figures are from my metering at the distribution board.

Thanks, i guess im a bit low on my 20 x 330 (6600kw) to expect 800kw+ month. I might ad some more kw to my plan.

 

Pink

[Pink7]

9 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

10.6kWp of panels.

 

Figures are from my metering at the distribution board.

How much usable average wh per month could i expect from 6600w panels? Could i calculate from your numbers, or your different setup will make it different? Battery limits not counted for now. Expect unlimited capacity for estimate

 

Pink

[Crossy]

Just now, Pink7 said:

How much usable average wh per month could i expect from 6600w panels? Could i calculate from your numbers, or your different setup will make it different? Battery limits not counted for now. Expect unlimited capacity for estimate

 

I'd just do the simple maths proportion.

 

Solar is so variable that there are no guarantees.

 

[Crossy]

Well, the August generation numbers are in, not such a good month as several really miserable days knocked production for six ???? 

 

Still, 905kWh from solar vs 222kWh from PEA is not to be sneezed at ???? 

 

[BritManToo]

My bill was OK at 66 units, 271bht.

[Pink7]

5 hours ago, Crossy said:

Well, the August generation numbers are in, not such a good month as several really miserable days knocked production for six ???? 

 

Still, 905kWh from solar vs 222kWh from PEA is not to be sneezed at ???? 

 

Thats not bad at all considering the Aug weather..

 

Pink

[Pink7]

How much is your total battery capacity Crossy?

 

Pink

[Crossy]

3 hours ago, Pink7 said:

How much is your total battery capacity Crossy?

 

Real capacity with our used cells is around 9kWh but we don't use all that at present since exporting is available ???? 

 

More capacity will be added if PEA come along with electronic meters.

[Crossy]

 

Here we go with the September numbers, a pretty crumby month overall, not helped by the hybrid being out of service from the 22nd leaving us at about 6kWP of active panels.

 

[KhunLA]

On 9/1/2022 at 5:10 PM, Crossy said:

More capacity will be added if PEA come along with electronic meters.

Small development nearby just finished building and about eight new houses over there all have brand new digital meters.

 

Anyone considering solar do consider there is a good chance you will not be feeding back to the grid, especially if it's a new build.

[MJCM]

2 hours ago, KhunLA said:

 

Anyone considering solar do consider there is a good chance you will not be feeding back to the grid, especially if it's a new build.

Thx for this.

 

We were thinking of switching our PEA Supply to a 30/100 from 15/45 to support a "hide-away/man cave" in the back of the property but those plans are on hold because of the weather. Maybe after reading your comment, I guess this plan will be cancelled if it means that we will get a Digital Meter.

 

Running it on Solar (off-grid) will be out of the question because of the Massive cost involved, Aircons, Pumps etc etc running. (Need to spend more on the Solar install then the cost of building the "man cave". )

[Crossy]

51 minutes ago, MJCM said:

We were thinking of switching our PEA Supply to a 30/100 from 15/45 to support a "hide-away/man cave" in the back of the property but those plans are on hold because of the weather. Maybe after reading your comment, I guess this plan will be cancelled if it means that we will get a Digital Meter.

 

I would definitely avoid changing meters, but a 15/45 will power an awful lot, it won't just explode at 46A ???? 

 

With the solar helping it along I'd expect it to be just fine.

 

[Crossy]

Normal service has been resumed!

 

 

[Muhendis]

I am curious to know how all this grid feedback works with regards to inverter protection.

What protective device do you have between the output of the inverter and the grid?

RCBO, MCB, nothing?

[Crossy]

Each inverter has a regular RCBO at the board.

 

It "should" really be a Type-B (which isn't blinded by DC over 6mA) same as is supposed to be used for EV chargers, but finding them here is somewhat ...

 

Everything has good, solid grounds of course.

[Muhendis]

3 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Each inverter has a regular RCBO at the board.

 

It "should" really be a Type-B (which isn't blinded by DC over 6mA) same as is supposed to be used for EV chargers, but finding them here is somewhat ...

 

Everything has good, solid grounds of course.

I take it you're using a common or garden RCBO at 30mA then?

[Crossy]

6 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

I take it you're using a common or garden RCBO at 30mA then?

 

Yup.

[Crossy]

October generation figures, slightly better than last month but still not wonderful.

 

[Crossy]

On 10/13/2022 at 3:26 PM, Crossy said:

Each inverter has a regular RCBO at the board.

 

It "should" really be a Type-B (which isn't blinded by DC over 6mA) same as is supposed to be used for EV chargers, but finding them here is somewhat ...

 

Everything has good, solid grounds of course.

 

Well, a little more up to date research reveals the availability of Type-B RCDs e.g. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/rccb-type-b-ev-car-2p-c-4p-32a-40a-i3112938453-s11534562001.html? 

 

Note that these are RCDs and so require a separate MCB for over-current protection.

 

Some useful info on RCD selection https://www.technosun.com/descargas/SCHNEIDER-CONEXT-nota-corriente-residual-EN.pdf

 

[Crossy]

November generation figures, slightly better than last month.

 

[Crossy]

Happy New Year everyone! Let's see what 2023 has in store.

 

Meanwhile, the generation numbers for December are in.

 

 

Over the past week or so we've been generating more than we've used (cool weather = no A/C and it's been nice and sunny) so our "Monthly Energy" has been on a downwards trend. Must ensure we don't actually go negative!

 

Blue = Total consumption

Green = Solar generation

Red = PEA usage. 

 

[Crossy]

And for an annual perspective (thanks @KhunLA for the idea).

 

Averaged over the year we generated 84.46% of our electricity needs from fusion power.

 

EDIT Over the year we totalled 10,897kWh from solar, at 4.5 Baht per kWh that's 49,000 Baht I've not paid to PEA. Madam is happy ???? 

 

EDIT 2 I've not updated my ROI spreadsheet for a while so I got a nice surprise when I punched in the numbers to date. We are just under a year from break-even and truly free energy ???? 

 

[Crossy]

I just read our meter.

 

Reading on the last bill (19/12/22) 14,831, today's reading 14,821.

 

Oops.

 

If the good weather continues, I'll have to turn off export earlier than usual.

[Muhendis]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

If the good weather continues, I'll have to turn off export earlier than usual.

So it must be down to you that we are having such a dull, overcast day today.