18 hours ago, Pdavies99 said:

 Just buy a water tank and pump? Problem ref water finished!

Yes, but unfortunately I live in a small resort where I rent a villa. Landlady would not allow! 

4 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

Yes, but unfortunately I live in a small resort where I rent a villa. Landlady would not allow! 

 

Replace the shower heater with a boiler and use a mixer valve. You'll always have hot water (unless the power is out or you run it out) and you'll never get scalded as the pressure is the same on hot and cold both.

 

Putting HOT! water in the sink on the cheap is an added bonus...

Should have bought a hotel in a civilised country ????????????

22 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

Yes, but unfortunately I live in a small resort where I rent a villa. Landlady would not allow! 

Unfortunate!

Hi, I have been away concentrating on other projects around the hotel but I am back onto this one now.

I have made a map of the grounds showing where the meters, cables and buildings are.

I have made a spreadsheet of the the various meters, cable sizes, cable lengths, etc. I have also run around a few of the building measuring the voltages and voltage drop when a kettle is turned on. My expected voltage drops have been calculated using the calculator on the Bangkok Cable Co website. All our cables are aluminium.

 

My feeling is that the main problems are :

 

1. Cables are not big enough to cope with the distances

2. Transformers on the street are too far away (300m one way and 1750m the other)

 

Please let me know if you agree/disagree.

 

I think the next step is to get an electrician (not local) to perform more measurements and suggest improvements.

 

 

Thanks.

Baan Maka electricity map.pdf Meter spreadsheet 2.xlsx

Your best bet is going to be to add a solar hot water heater to at least boost water temperature, with a large insulated storage tank, and pump that to the individual water heaters.  Yes, you need a hot pipe and a cold pipe, but it will work much better and cost significantly less long term.

 

The electrical capacity and voltage drop is likely your root cause, but reducing the load on the electrical side will pay back much faster.

Your cables are a bit small, but not excessively so (meter 6 does seem to drop more than expected). I suspect that your surmission of volt drop at the street is correct.

 

What's the voltage at the meter off load and with your kettle at the nearest outlet?

 

How much $$$ are you prepared to throw at this issue? Is there HV (25kV) at the road?

Crossy, how do I measure the voltage at the meter? Isn't everything sealed there?

2 hours ago, DrMince said:

Crossy, how do I measure the voltage at the meter? Isn't everything sealed there?

It’s almost certainly not and even if it is, on the outgoing side only, you can break a seal if there is one and nobody will worry. Just make sure your probes are correctly rated and insulated.

 

use them like this

Do not use them like this

4 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

use them like this

 

I've not seen cheapo meters with sheathed probes, but it won't hurt to wrap some tape or slip a bit of sleeving over the bare metal.