Solar Power is cheap and it’s going to get even cheaper very soon.

[lom]

13 minutes ago, Startmeup said:

How can solar get cheaper when wages are rising everywhere and the input costs (inflation) to build solar panels are alot higher now than last year?

Robots don't get a wage rise.

[Muhendis]

44 minutes ago, Startmeup said:

How can solar get cheaper when wages are rising everywhere and the input costs (inflation) to build solar panels are alot higher now than last year? Solar/inverters and commodity prices will be going up if anything imo.

 

When a company that manufactures solar equipment first starts up, development and tooling costs are seriously scary high. It will take that company many months if not years to get their products to market. So, to recover their costs, these companies have to sell at grossly elevated prices. This if fine and normal especially if competition is thin on the ground.

After a time development and tooling costs are recovered and production becomes streamlined. Profit margins are huge (1000% is not unusual at this stage) but then in comes the competition and down go market prices. Market forces prevail and the likes of you and I get happier and happier.

 

Natural events like covid tend to chuck a spanner in the works which causes prices to rise later which enables companies to recover their pandemic losses. But that is normally temporary in the world of technology and prices can get back to normal fairly quickly. Once again, market forces take care of that.

Edited May 1 by Muhendis

[billd766]

5 hours ago, Denim said:

 

Which is about the only thing I would want it for. Already have cheap solar lights ( garden type ) in every room so interior lighting sorted. Cook with gas, mains water ( no pump ), watch movies on tablet , so the only thing we would miss without grid power is our 13,000 btu air con , which recently has been going about 20 hours a day.

I know this is an odd question or 3, but the solar lamps that I have at the moment run out of charge  after about 6 hours. The power cables from the charging panels are only about 2 metres long around 6 or 7 mm thick, expending to perhaps 10 or 12 mm thick where they plug into the light itself. Do you have a special cable or connector of extra length and thinness to get them into the house some how or do you drill a big enough hole in the wall and then put sealant in the hole as well?

 

If the panels are on charge all day how do you run the lights as well?

 

Can you run fans from them as well during the day or do you have an external solar array?

 

So far this year except for April I am using an average of 21.5 units of electricity per day.

 

Because April was so hot and the main a/c downstairs has been on 6 hours a day, during April I was using 31.5 units on average per day.

 

I am 79, and the heat downstairs has been getting to me during April. Even my wife who is Thai and 58 is coming in when the a/c is on.

[KhunLA]

6 hours ago, billd766 said:

So far this year except for April I am using an average of 21.5 units of electricity per day.

 

Because April was so hot and the main a/c downstairs has been on 6 hours a day, during April I was using 31.5 units on average per day.m 79, and the heat downstairs has been getting to me during April. Even my wife who is Thai and 58 is coming in when the a/c is on.

21.5 & 31.5 kWh  a month is quite a lot, for being very conservative with your use.   When we first got solar, new house, we were conservative, sort of, on AC use, at least.   The rest normal; electric components in kitchen (2 frigs). gas hob (my preference unless baking), and fans if no AC running.  

 

We averaged 33kWh a day last month (April 2024),and I'd consider our use extremely abusive with AC use & EV.  So just a tad more than your usage.

 

House new & well built, insulated, extended roof shading, and minimal wall exposure to sun.  But after first couple months, stopped being conservation, as simply wanted to know how little we could get by with, and still be comfortable.   

 

Here's our usage for following year, 2023, and except for March, April, May & August, we used the same as you are, but very abusive with the AC's (two; 13&24k BTU inverters), and 65" TV/monitor for laptop on most of the day/16+hrs.

 

Only 4 months did we use much more than 20kWh a day, AND, we have an EV.

Is your house & AC units older ?  Some ceiling insulation, )R+37/38) if not having already, would go a long way to help cooling your AC'd room.

 

Here's our use being conservative, 2022, and we got the EV, on 30th of Oct 2022:  August we were exporting for 2 weeks, so that's artificially high (production).   Sept & Oct normal conservative use without the EV.

 

Edited May 1 by KhunLA

[Denim]

8 hours ago, billd766 said:

I know this is an odd question or 3, but the solar lamps that I have at the moment run out of charge  after about 6 hours. The power cables from the charging panels are only about 2 metres long around 6 or 7 mm thick, expending to perhaps 10 or 12 mm thick where they plug into the light itself. Do you have a special cable or connector of extra length and thinness to get them into the house some how or do you drill a big enough hole in the wall and then put sealant in the hole as well?

 

If the panels are on charge all day how do you run the lights as well?

 

Can you run fans from them as well during the day or do you have an external solar array?

 

So far this year except for April I am using an average of 21.5 units of electricity per day.

 

Because April was so hot and the main a/c downstairs has been on 6 hours a day, during April I was using 31.5 units on average per day.

 

I am 79, and the heat downstairs has been getting to me during April. Even my wife who is Thai and 58 is coming in when the a/c is on.

 

The panels are mounted on the roof near the eves. I then ran the supplied cable around and under the roof tile into the attic. From there made a small hole in the ceiling to connect to the light mounted high on the wall in the corner. The panels get enough charge during the day to run right through the night if necessary but start to gradually dim about 4.00 am. Usually  turn them off at bedtime except ones in bathroom and kitchen which automatically turn off at sunrise. No extra cable needed.

 

Really these were fitted so we have light during power cuts but Murphys law has kicked in and have hardly had an outage since I spent the money.

 

You can buy solar powered fans on Lazada. The cheap as chips solutions to solar power.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2 by Denim

[billd766]

5 hours ago, Denim said:

 

The panels are mounted on the roof near the eves. I then ran the supplied cable around and under the roof tile into the attic. From there made a small hole in the ceiling to connect to the light mounted high on the wall in the corner. The panels get enough charge during the day to run right through the night if necessary but start to gradually dim about 4.00 am. Usually  turn them off at bedtime except ones in bathroom and kitchen which automatically turn off at sunrise. No extra cable needed.

 

Really these were fitted so we have light during power cuts but Murphys law has kicked in and have hardly had an outage since I spent the money.

 

You can buy solar powered fans on Lazada. The cheap as chips solutions to solar power.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the information. One of the problems that I have found since we built the house 20 years ago is that we have no access in the house to get into the roof space. I at 79 am too old to make one and TBH the number of times that I have needed to go into the roof space, I can count on one hand with fingers left to spare.

[Denim]

27 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Thank you for the information. One of the problems that I have found since we built the house 20 years ago is that we have no access in the house to get into the roof space. I at 79 am too old to make one and TBH the number of times that I have needed to go into the roof space, I can count on one hand with fingers left to spare.

 

Second option would be to drill a big enough hole through the wall as near to the light as possible.

 

When building our house apart from having a service hatch to the attic I also got the builder to weld a steel walkway 1 foot wide the length of the house in case I needed to get easy access up there for any repairs that might occur.

Came in handy as last year a mouse got up there and chewed through the internet cable. Repair man was pleased with the easy access.

[renegade2000]

 

I've calculated my daily usage for April at 14kW, factoring in one air conditioner, two fridges, and LED lighting. My plan involves installing 7 Era panels, each with a capacity of 450 watts, along with a Sofar inverter, giving a total output of 3.3kW.

 

I won't initially include a battery and will depend on the grid for nighttime power.

The combined cost for the panels and inverter is 30,000 baht (purchased from Lazada), with additional expenses for cables and fixtures totaling 40,000 baht. Since my neighbor constructed my roof, I believe they can assist with panel installation.

 

I also intend to hire an electrician for mounting fuses and breakers, with an estimated cost of 6,000 baht inclusive of equipment. This brings the total anticipated expense to 50,000 baht, a significant saving compared to the initial estimate of 140,000 baht.

 

 

Considering potential future upgrades, I may integrate a 5kW battery into the system. Do you think this addition would be feasible given my current setup?

What are your thoughts on this plan?

 

[Bandersnatch]

11 minutes ago, renegade2000 said:

Considering potential future upgrades, I may integrate a 5kW battery into the system. Do you think this addition would be feasible given my current setup?

What are your thoughts on this plan?

worth checking out your upgrade route ahead of times.

 

What batteries is your current inverter compatible with etc

 

 

[Ludzilla]

On 4/23/2024 at 10:13 AM, Ludzilla said:

Here in Phuket i've been quoted 850k for 22kw of 1st tier panels(40x550w) + 1 growatt inverter 5kw + 1 alphaess smile-T10-HV with one LFP module of 8.2kwh. Installation is 3 phase on a flat concrete roof. I can add up to 6 modules of 8.2kwh at the price of 150k for each module.

After reading this thread i have the feeling that i can get something similar (other brands or technology) for much less. I'd like to have around 40kwh of batteries, it would bring the total to 1.450.000 thb(850k+4x150k)

Can you share with me in DM the name of the companies?
Another question to others, what would be the price range according to you for my requirements? DIY is not an option.
Thanks.

Answering to myself here and maybe give useful price range to other forum users.
I got 2 new quotations between 600k and 650k for the following installed system.
25kwh of N-type mono bifacial panels. 1st tier
2x10 khw deye hybrid inverters
30 kw lifepo4 batteries (80%dod)
Cheaper than i thought. it's about half price of my initial quotation 2 years ago by one of the major player in Phuket.

[billd766]

1 hour ago, Ludzilla said:

Answering to myself here and maybe give useful price range to other forum users.
I got 2 new quotations between 600k and 650k for the following installed system.
25kwh of N-type mono bifacial panels. 1st tier
2x10 khw deye hybrid inverters
30 kw lifepo4 batteries (80%dod)
Cheaper than i thought. it's about half price of my initial quotation 2 years ago by one of the major player in Phuket.

Thank you for that information. I, for one find it very useful.