13 hours ago, In the jungle said:

Abstraction of electricity where I live in redneck country is very common.

 

Just about any event such as a wedding or funeral a guy is hired who turns up with marquees, plastic chairs and tables.  They usually bring enough lighting to light up a football stadium and they power it all by illegally connecting to the grid upstream of the property owner's meter.

 

Many market traders power their market stalls in a similar manner.

Absolutely correct. We recently had two funerals at our house within a few weeks of each other. All connections were kosher going through our meter. Bills increased considerably, probably mostly due to the casket refrigeration units.

19 hours ago, MJCM said:

Send a PM to member @Thaifish and asking him how long he is already waiting.

 

He has done everything legal and he already send in the paper work BUT zilch progress.

 

I guess it's well over 1 year now Fishy???

Has been 2 years now waiting for a digital meter... Countless phone calls and a visit in person to local PEA Nang Rong 6 months ago. Digital Meter was paid for up front 2500bht with the Soar instillation as a package.  Had a visit from PEA and they checked the installation out also. Now I'm seeing digital meters around the place and am told they are only for new installations!!!! Am traveling back to Ozz soon and when I return in May with the Issan Luv Machine we will start hounding them again. Looking at last years export 6.64Mwh (@2 Bht return 1kw) and Import of 4.05Mwh if PEA came to the party we would only have paid for .73Mwh consumption. All legit...

2 hours ago, In the jungle said:

We do not have solar but I am considering installing a grid tie system next year.

 

On the subject of meters we had a new meter fitted in the last week.  This was done at the initiative of PEA in Chumphon as they said the old meter was faulty.  I had not noticed any problem.  The new meter is of the spinning top variety so we got lucky I guess.

I too would like PV panels but Mrs has other priorities and I get overruled! How did your PEA office establish that your existing meter was faulty? 

 

When we had a water leak the PWA performed a meter accuracy test and found that the meter was overrecording (fast) by 8%. They installed another one free of charge. I calculated that it will take 24 years to recover the cost of the water leak. However, that assumes that the new meter is accurate!

22 minutes ago, The Fugitive said:

I too would like PV panels but Mrs has other priorities and I get overruled! How did your PEA office establish that your existing meter was faulty? 

 

When we had a water leak the PWA performed a meter accuracy test and found that the meter was overrecording (fast) by 8%. They installed another one free of charge. I calculated that it will take 24 years to recover the cost of the water leak. However, that assumes that the new meter is accurate!

I do not know how they concluded the old meter was faulty.  My wife spoke to them on the phone.  I have been recording electricity usage and bills for the last ten years and there was no significant difference in units used.

Just for amusement I looked back at a costing I did in December 2009 for a 400w off grid system.

 

At that time the total system cost was going to be 122,000 Baht including 3 x 130w panels at 24K each!

 

Unsurprisingly I did not go beyond producing a costing.

Update:

 

My wife received a phone call from an automated system (and unknown number) which said it was from the PEA. As we receive many of those calls and those are usually from spam calls my wife hung up on them.

 

When she said PEA, I thought <deleted> why did you hung up. I tried calling back the number but all we got was “no acknowledgement from number etc etc”

 

So I said call the PEA contact center, she did and they said the number is really a PEA number but is used for a satisfactory survey

Maybe they are asking how was the visit from PEA recently. f….. me 

 

ps: they will call back, the contact center said

As always, there is a solution.

 

https://www.novuslight.com/camouflage-for-solar-panels_N10722.html

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately

 

Quote GDI is working to commercialize the technology both as part of the manufacturing process of solar panels and as an aftermarket option for camouflaging or beautifying existing panels. Interested in partnering in this venture?    Link: https://solar-image.com/   So at the moment I guess more expensive then your panels

 

 

Yeah, like those satellite dishes printed to look like brickwork or siding, seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

I've not seen one for years. They must be really good now

 

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

As always, there is a solution.

 

https://www.novuslight.com/camouflage-for-solar-panels_N10722.html

 

 

 

 

Solar panels aren't unsightly, they simply show your intelligence.

Update and a heads up:

 

Re the Visit, no news. We still have our old METER but will wait and see what tmrw brings.

 

Heads up: Because this month is February, which is shorter then "normal" months our Meter reader already comes tmrw so for the guys that EXPORT, turn it off today.

 

Our Meter reader normal schedule is:

- Months with 31 days he comes on the 16th

- Months with 30 days he comes on the 15th

- February No Leap Year he comes on the 13th

- February Leap year (2024) he comes on the 14th.

5 hours ago, MJCM said:

Update and a heads up:

 

Re the Visit, no news. We still have our old METER but will wait and see what tmrw brings.

 

Heads up: Because this month is February, which is shorter then "normal" months our Meter reader already comes tmrw so for the guys that EXPORT, turn it off today.

 

Our Meter reader normal schedule is:

- Months with 31 days he comes on the 16th

- Months with 30 days he comes on the 15th

- February No Leap Year he comes on the 13th

- February Leap year (2024) he comes on the 14th.

Like you, my meter reading is due tomorrow according to my past records.  So this morning I switched my small scale system into NO EXPORT mode just in case the meter reader makes an early appearance.

 

As of this morning, my little system has generated 176 Units and we've only need to purchase 23 Units from the local PEA during the current billing period.  This will result in the smallest bill that we've ever had. 

 

Because of the good sunshine that we've been having during the past month, I even turned the system off for a couple of days because the meter was in serious negative reading at one time.  I just hope that the local PEA don't suspect something suspicious with the low reading and decide to investigate or replace the meter ????????. 

40 minutes ago, 007 RED said:

I just hope that the local PEA don't suspect something suspicious with the low reading and decide to investigate or replace the meter

????

 

if they come around, just say we have been away.

 

We had a "Visit" of the PEA and nothing happened to us yet (???? also), maybe tmrw we will get an updated bill (but that is just guessing).

 

Our System has been dismantled since the visit, but when I don't hear anything tmrw (or nothing is added to our Bill etc) it's going back to normal (read: Export) tmrw after the meter reader has left as it's just a 10 min Job 

12 minutes ago, MJCM said:

????

 

if they come around, just say we have been away.

 

We had a "Visit" of the PEA and nothing happened to us yet (???? also), maybe tmrw we will get an updated bill (but that is just guessing).

 

Our System has been dismantled since the visit, but when I don't hear anything tmrw (or nothing is added to our Bill etc) it's going back to normal (read: Export) tmrw after the meter reader has left as it's just a 10 min Job 

Good thinking! Logically, once they are satisfied no electricity is being stolen, the next option for them would be to insist that your solar system is closed down until it has been checked over and approved from a safety point of view. You would probably have to stand the cost of that inspection. Very little (if anything) to worry about IMHO.

Update:

 

PEA Bill Received. The guy got here at 6:29am

 

We used more then last month but strangely enough we got a DISCOUNT on the FT.

 

Do others see that as well for example @007 RED as your bill should be coming today as well

 

Edit: NO added amounts only Discounts thus GTI's are going back into action again today.

 

Edit 2: Maybe the Visit by the PEA the guys thought "hey he is helping making the planet a little greener by using Solar Panels let's give him some discount"

Ps: I calculated the discount and it's inline with the OLD discount figures

 

So this one. We got the less then 300 Discount so Ft rate of 0,0139.