Living with Cave dwellers.

[Tofer]

My frustrations have almost reached boiling point, since we achieved a new record of 3 power cuts within one afternoon. More often than not we experience power cuts on a daily basis, which I find perplexing in this day and age of modern systems and technology. It doesn't help when I see PEA installing, re-erecting / repairing the cable posts without using their simple hanging bar levelling device into a mud hole up an incline. It doesn't need Einstein to predict it isn't going to stay put very long in the heavy rains, and guess what, we've had more fallen posts than a stack of cards in a gale force wind.

 

To be fair, some of this disruption is caused by a new road surface being installed over the approx. 30km East coast road in Koh Lanta, but they don't have any desire to take advantage of this and make a proper job of it, least of all I would have thought they might consider putting the cables underground in a trunking / accessible trough alongside the extensive drainage works.

 

The bill arrives like clockwork every month, but try asking them for compensation when half your electrical appliances / equipment are up the spout as a result of the cuts / power surges....

 

We spent 250,000 baht on a transformer that has needed the main fuse replacing twice in 18 months. At least they haven't had the brass neck to send us a bill. They claim it is a bird, a branch or a monkey, or maybe a flying pig, but never consider installing a protective cage around it.

 

I am convinced we are living in a modern Neolithic age in Lanta....

 

Is your region any better?

Edited July 17, 2020 by Tofer

[pgrahmm]

Outer CM area = rarely an outage.....If there is, it's unusual if it goes for over an hour....In a 6 month span, possibly 5 times counting 10-30 (most) second outages....

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by pgrahmm

[BritManToo]

2 hours ago, Tofer said:

Is your region any better?

Also outer Chiang Mai,

Used to lose power whenever there was a sudden thunderstorm for an hour or two.

Since I bought a battery and inverter (3 months back), no power outrages at all.

But I can now last 2-3 hours if it happens again, cost under 10kbht.

Edited July 17, 2020 by BritManToo

[johng]

2 hours ago, Tofer said:

We spent 250,000 baht on a transformer

Maybe you should have spent that money on a solar power system and backup generator instead.

[WhatupThailand]

Here in Phrae, I experience many short second cuts, just enough to crash the PC.

So I got a good battery backup which solved that problem. 

But every Month there is a Hours long black out, due to BBQ Squirrel,

or any other handy excuse, which is impossible to verify.

My opinion is that they use sub standard equipment, made in China.

Thais seem to always go for the Cheapest Item, never mind the Quality,

or the fact that after several replacements, they would have saved both

money, time, and effort, if they had just gotten a better Quality to start with.

 

[canopy]

I have observed over time the power company does not seem interested in making the power more reliable. They don't follow specifications for their equipment and outages are the predictable result. Coupled with that I noticed the Thai people never blame the power company bad practices, but instead nod it off as caused by wind, rain, always something else to blame so there is no accountability or push for improvement. My area averages a one hour outage a month. Sometimes months go by with none, sometimes a cluster of them in a week. I stopped putting up with it and got a backup generator and it's heaven. A small, quiet honda unit that allows running everything I need at once--air conditioning, lights, computer, and refrigerator. No more lighting candles at night with nothing to do. But huge outages that go long enough the fiber optic and 4G systems eventually go down. Rare, but would have to wait for starlink to solve that.

 

[Tarteso]

Mae Taeng with same problem from yesterday and yet without electricity.  Usually happen with a simple drop of rain. but to collect the monthly bill, they have not any problem.

 

THAILAND 5.0... 

Edited July 18, 2020 by Tarteso

[Yinn]

Why you live in the cave?

[NE1]

We lost ours 3 times last week , that is not counting the numerous blip that snaps off and on again.

 

 

 

[fredwiggy]

Power goes out here daily, for just a minute, and most times for hours. At least 5 times a week it's gone out, and this for years before I moved here. I talked to PEA 3 times at their office, and they assure me it will be fixed. It isn't normal for power to go out this much, and I've tried telling them that when I lived in the US the power maybe goes out 3 times a year, and during storms. Here it goes out during sun, wind, rain, no rain, clouds, no clouds, etc. The women tried to tell me it's the rainy season. I showed her the outside, and explained it's been that way all week, and the power still goes out. The look, duh.

[johng]

30 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

It isn't normal for power to go out this much, and I've tried telling them that when I lived in the US the power maybe goes out 3 times a year,

In London England the power would be up for years without fail..here in my Thai (man)cave the frequent power glitches/brown/black outs play havoc  with  all the "IOT"  and computer equipment  not to mention  the ants that love making nests in anything electronic that are on 24/7 (except during power outs)

Thailand 4.0 ????

[ChakaKhan]

1 hour ago, Yinn said:

Why you live in the cave?

Can rent it to Chinese on airbnb and include bat soup as the promotion..All you can eat...

[Tofer]

23 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Also outer Chiang Mai,

Used to lose power whenever there was a sudden thunderstorm for an hour or two.

Since I bought a battery and inverter (3 months back), no power outrages at all.

But I can now last 2-3 hours if it happens again, cost under 10kbht.

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into that. I had thought about a generator, but your solution would deal with a lot of them.

[Tofer]

On 7/17/2020 at 2:26 PM, johng said:

Maybe you should have spent that money on a solar power system and backup generator instead.

You could be right. I thought we couldn't get away with domestic connections for the individual units, but when the time came PEA insisted we install a transformer.

Edited July 18, 2020 by Tofer

[Don Mega]

had a 5 second brown out about 8 months ago - Darkside Pattaya.

[Tofer]

17 hours ago, WhatupThailand said:

Here in Phrae, I experience many short second cuts, just enough to crash the PC.

So I got a good battery backup which solved that problem. 

But every Month there is a Hours long black out, due to BBQ Squirrel,

or any other handy excuse, which is impossible to verify.

My opinion is that they use sub standard equipment, made in China.

Thais seem to always go for the Cheapest Item, never mind the Quality,

or the fact that after several replacements, they would have saved both

money, time, and effort, if they had just gotten a better Quality to start with.

 

Ah, but they have to have some built in redundancy to enable regular new supply contracts, so that the powers that be (pun intended) can  ensure another pay day!

[ravip]

I am convinced we are living in a modern Neolithic age in Lanta....

 

Just enjoy the luxury. Don't be stress out, its bad for your health.

[jmccarty]

Dark side has a brown out now for the past 2 hours.

[johng]

16 minutes ago, jmccarty said:

Dark side has a brown out now for the past 2 hours.

Was there rain earlier ?  we got quite a bit in Na-Jomtien   but often its very localised.

[Tofer]

21 hours ago, ravip said:

I am convinced we are living in a modern Neolithic age in Lanta....

 

Just enjoy the luxury. Don't be stress out, its bad for your health.

You're absolutely right. Never a truer word spoken. I'm chilled now, thanks. In fact I'm usually chilled, just thought I'd try and engender some amusing response.????

 

There was more light on the sea this morning, looked like a million stars.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Tofer

[Tofer]

On 7/18/2020 at 7:32 AM, Yinn said:

Why you live in the cave?

Good one. I enjoyed the humour.

[NancyL]

Our power in Muang Chiang Mai is much more reliable than it was in the most populated county in Michigan.  When we do lose power, it's usually just for an hour or two, not days on end, like it was in Michigan where we had a commercial greenhouse/nursery business. 

 

There, we had a back-up generator, but it wasn't big enough to operate every circuit.  When we installed it, we figured we'd probably lose power in the winter, not the summer and put the circuits for the furnaces, circulating fans, etc on the generator.  Instead, we mostly lost power in the summer and had to jury-rig with extension cords to keep the misters operating in our propagation greenhouse, the power on in the retail store and the outside irrigation system running.  We love how we can enjoy watching a thunderstorm from the windows of our high-rise condo in Chiang Mai instead of quaking in fear of what was to come in Michigan.

[canopy]

17 hours ago, NancyL said:

Chiang Mai is much more reliable than it was in the most populated county in Michigan

I'd love to see a link that supports this.

 

[MisterTee]

3 hours ago, canopy said:

I'd love to see a link that supports this.

 

[AhFarangJa]

On 7/18/2020 at 6:36 AM, canopy said:

I have observed over time the power company does not seem interested in making the power more reliable. They don't follow specifications for their equipment and outages are the predictable result. Coupled with that I noticed the Thai people never blame the power company bad practices, but instead nod it off as caused by wind, rain, always something else to blame so there is no accountability or push for improvement. My area averages a one hour outage a month. Sometimes months go by with none, sometimes a cluster of them in a week. I stopped putting up with it and got a backup generator and it's heaven. A small, quiet honda unit that allows running everything I need at once--air conditioning, lights, computer, and refrigerator. No more lighting candles at night with nothing to do. But huge outages that go long enough the fiber optic and 4G systems eventually go down. Rare, but would have to wait for starlink to solve that.

 

I have been thinking about the same for our village near Surin.

May I ask what generator you purchased to enable running of AC and fridges as you mention, and how is it connected? as being a boatbuilder I know as much about generators as I do flying the space shuttle. Many thanks if you can give an insight.

[canopy]

Calculate how many watts of power you need and get a generator at least that size. You can add everything up by hand or turn on everything and measure with an amp meter at the panel. It's good to be real minimal here. Oversized generators cost more, are larger, eat gas quicker, and generate lots more noise and pollution.

 

There are mainly cheap chinese generators sold at the hardware stores. They are big, loud, have questionable durability, but again they are cheap which is all most people care about. Inverter generators are quieter as they auto throttle to load, use gas sparingly, are smaller, but also pricier.

 

For me the Honda EU22i inverter generator was sufficient and it can be carried with one hand. I just turn off the main breaker and plug it into the house and bingo, power is back up. But automatic changeovers are highly recommended. But I can hardly recommend Honda with a glowing review. Don't get me wrong it works great, is super quiet, and reliable. But even though these are made in Thailand they have the audacity to charge way more money than what they cost in America. The outlets on the front are American type, not Thai type so no plugs fit, an utterly ridiculous oversight though this can be worked around with adapters.  I have also had to return the Honda unit to the factory twice for product recalls which is inconvenient though free of charge. If I had to do it over again I would look for an inverter generator from another brand.