How much to set up solar for 40-50 kwh per day

[kwak250]

At the moment we are looking at building a new house which will be similar to our usage currently.

 We are using around 40-50kwh a day

What would an approximate cost be and how many panels would be needed with a suitable battery?

We have 2 inverters running 24/7 (at the moment )

When it is not so crazy hot we probably only use 25kwh per day maximum

We will have a swimming pool which will also use more energy but will keep using the meter when needed

Many thanks just trying to price everything up

[Crossy]

Any indication of day/night usage split - To size your battery pack?

Peak load - To size your inverter?

 

Do you actually want to be off-grid or maintain a PEA supply for backup?

 

Finger in the air: -

40-50 x 340W panels @ 2,500-3000 Baht each - say 150,000 Baht (that's 100m² of panels!!)

30kWh battery pack - say 4kUSD (as a kit from China) so about 150,000 Baht

10kW hybrid inverter (2 x 5kW) - 90k Baht the pair.

 

So, a ballpark 400k Baht for the kit, add 50-100% if you use a contractor to install.

[JensenZ]

Assuming the cost is 600k with installation, that's equivalent to 20 years' PEA charges at my current usage, not considering rising electricity prices in the next 20 years. I'd be curious about how long these panels and batteries will last, and the ongoing maintenance costs of such a system.

[Crossy]

Even using a contractor, you should expect to see payback in around 7-10 years. From then on, the energy you get is free!

 

Panels are usually warrantied for 20 years to 80% rated capacity.

LiFePO4 batteries are good for 6-10k cycles (>16 years) to 80%, treat them gently and they will last forever.

Barring accidents your inverters should last as long as any other modern piece of electronics, many have 5-year warranties.

 

As far as maintenance goes, it's really limited to cleaning your panels and any fan filters your inverters may have.

[Hugh Cow]

1 hour ago, kwak250 said:

At the moment we are looking at building a new house which will be similar to our usage currently.

 We are using around 40-50kwh a day

What would an approximate cost be and how many panels would be needed with a suitable battery?

We have 2 inverters running 24/7 (at the moment )

When it is not so crazy hot we probably only use 25kwh per day maximum

We will have a swimming pool which will also use more energy but will keep using the meter when needed

Many thanks just trying to price everything up

If Crossy's figures are in the ball park I cant see how it is worth it. allowing for 6 months@ 50kwh and 6 months at 25 kwh That should be about 70K baht per annum on mains power. That's 6 years pay back time for the parts alone. For starters I'd ditch the battery. Maybe fit one later when the price goes down unless you have worries about low voltage or power disruptions. I am putting an 11k/w system in (no battery) when my house is completed around July.

I do have the advantage of my wife's cousin owning a solar panel company and he directly imports so I get the system at import cost with free installation. I will post on savings etc in the future when completed but that wont help you now. I believe there is a 2 baht per kwh feed in tariff which can be handy if you spend extended periods away from the house.

[Crossy]

25 minutes ago, Hugh Cow said:

For starters I'd ditch the battery. Maybe fit one later when the price goes down unless you have worries about low voltage or power disruptions.

 

Many modern hybrid inverters can run with or without battery, so you can start with no or a small pack and add later.

 

Do beware of inverters which use proprietary packs (e.g. Huawei) where the OEM packs are silly money and no second-source is available.

 

The only system component that I recommend you max out on initially is your inverter(s). If you need a system where two or more inverters are going to be required then I suggest you buy all of them at the start. There's no guarantee that you will be able to parallel more modern units with your existing ones when you decide you need more oomph.

 

[BritManToo]

I always think people go about this the wrong way!

 

Learn to conserve, fit led lights, learn to switch off items you aren't using, do you really need that chest freezer and air con everywhere?

 

I built my own 10 x 340w panels 25kbht, 5k5 hybrid inverter 13kbht, 6kwhr batteries 45kbht.

 

Shower heaters, air con and electric oven connected to grid, everything else on solar.

 

This runs 80% of my house, leaving me with a bill for 40-80 units/month and no power cuts when it's windy or raining.

Edited April 19 by BritManToo

[kwak250]

Many thanks crossy for your advice.

I will check about day/night usage but will not be off grid as will need it sometimes for sure.

Maybe worth looking at doing a smaller system and no battery to start with and I can always add more later.

As we don't usually go over 25 units for around half the year a smaller system might be better but will need to see the size and consumption of a swimming pool as it would surely bring the usage back up

Was that 40-50 panel's needed as might need a bigger garage roof

Well worth the investment 

 

[Pink7]

7 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

Many thanks crossy for your advice.

I will check about day/night usage but will not be off grid as will need it sometimes for sure.

Maybe worth looking at doing a smaller system and no battery to start with and I can always add more later.

As we don't usually go over 25 units for around half the year a smaller system might be better but will need to see the size and consumption of a swimming pool as it would surely bring the usage back up

Was that 40-50 panel's needed as might need a bigger garage roof

Well worth the investment 

 

my usage/production is 20-43kw per day and my 300k DIY setup is 2 x 5K inverters. 28 x 330w pannels and 30kw batteries. My electric bill used to be around 3000/month upto 4500/month, now its 38-1xx bt/month

 

Pink

[Crossy]

27 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

Many thanks crossy for your advice.

I will check about day/night usage but will not be off grid as will need it sometimes for sure.

Maybe worth looking at doing a smaller system and no battery to start with and I can always add more later.

As we don't usually go over 25 units for around half the year a smaller system might be better but will need to see the size and consumption of a swimming pool as it would surely bring the usage back up

Was that 40-50 panel's needed as might need a bigger garage roof

Well worth the investment 

 

 

Read your meter at about 9AM and 4.30PM for the day/night split, you need to generate all your energy in the 9-4.30 slot.

 

Have a look at my Solar carport thread 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1120934-how-about-a-solar-car-port-on-a-budget/ 

although the "on a budget" tag isn't really relevant now with the latest planned enhancements

 

[kwak250]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

 

Read your meter at about 9AM and 4.30PM for the day/night split, you need to generate all your energy in the 9-4.30 slot.

 

Have a look at my Solar carport thread 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1120934-how-about-a-solar-car-port-on-a-budget/ 

although the "on a budget" tag isn't really relevant now with the latest planned enhancements

 

I will do this tomorrow many thanks

[kwak250]

1 hour ago, Pink7 said:

my usage/production is 20-43kw per day and my 300k DIY setup is 2 x 5K inverters. 28 x 330w pannels and 30kw batteries. My electric bill used to be around 3000/month upto 4500/month, now its 38-1xx bt/month

 

Pink

Now that's great.

DIY set up sounds good

What sort of price would this be?

[kwak250]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I always think people go about this the wrong way!

 

Learn to conserve, fit led lights, learn to switch off items you aren't using, do you really need that chest freezer and air con everywhere?

 

I built my own 10 x 340w panels 25kbht, 5k5 hybrid inverter 13kbht, 6kwhr batteries 45kbht.

 

Shower heaters, air con and electric oven connected to grid, everything else on solar.

 

This runs 80% of my house, leaving me with a bill for 40-80 units/month and no power cuts when it's windy or raining.

This sounds ok but it's our air cons that use the most electric.

Wouldn't mind just having air con on solar .

 

[Pink7]

4 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

Now that's great.

DIY set up sounds good

What sort of price would this be?

I used THB 300K. You can see some more details here

 

 

 

Pink

[Seeall]

5 hours ago, Crossy said:

Any indication of day/night usage split - To size your battery pack?

Peak load - To size your inverter?

 

Do you actually want to be off-grid or maintain a PEA supply for backup?

 

Finger in the air: -

40-50 x 340W panels @ 2,500-3000 Baht each - say 150,000 Baht (that's 100m² of panels!!)

30kWh battery pack - say 4kUSD (as a kit from China) so about 150,000 Baht

10kW hybrid inverter (2 x 5kW) - 90k Baht the pair.

 

So, a ballpark 400k Baht for the kit, add 50-100% if you use a contractor to install.

50-100% if you use a contractor to install. Is a bit greedy, isn't it?

[kwak250]

Just now, Seeall said:

50-100% if you use a contractor to install. Is a bit greedy, isn't it?

I thought that

How hard can it be?

Here hold my beer!

😃 

[hughrection]

19 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

Wouldn't mind just having air con on solar

Here ya go. 🙂

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/gree-solar-cell-solar-hybrid-power-12000-btu-i4031886559-s19954844303.html?

[Crossy]

9 hours ago, kwak250 said:

This sounds ok but it's our air cons that use the most electric.

Wouldn't mind just having air con on solar .

 

The beauty of running grid-tie or grid-synchronised is that you can size your system to carry as much, or as little of your load as you want (or can afford). Size for your daytime A/C load and if you're not running the A/C then the energy offsets whatever else is running.

 

A 1,000Watt micro-inverter and 3 x 340W panels will offset your bill by about 3kWh per day on average (1,095kWh per year). At current prices that's about 5,400 Baht per year that you're not paying to PEA.

 

3 x 340W panels = 9,000 Baht, 1kW GTI 2,500 Baht, say 2,000 for mounting hardware, cables etc. and you're online for 13,500 Baht.

 

So, using simplistic numbers and DIYing you are getting free electricity within 3 years!

[kwak250]

23 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

Read your meter at about 9AM and 4.30PM for the day/night split, you need to generate all your energy in the 9-4.30 slot.

 

Have a look at my Solar carport thread 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1120934-how-about-a-solar-car-port-on-a-budget/ 

although the "on a budget" tag isn't really relevant now with the latest planned enhancements

 

Many thanks for the info

just checked our consumption 9am-4.30pm

16 units

We are using around 26 units between4.30pm-9am

This is only when its this time with April-July around the highest 

Saying that our eldest son just finished school so the aircon in his room is taking a belting

 

[lom]

17 hours ago, kwak250 said:

Saying that our eldest son just finished school so the aircon in his room is taking a belting

I know exactly what you're experiencing, I have two grand children living with us and they have each their own room..

Me: Not a degree below 27 on the remote or I'll cut down on your candy and your school money!

[Crossy]

6 hours ago, lom said:

I know exactly what you're experiencing, I have two grand children living with us and they have each their own room..

Me: Not a degree below 27 on the remote or I'll cut down on your candy and your school money!

 

My UK grandkids just went home.

 

Down to a reasonable 60kWh/day total usage (Thai grand-daughter is still with us or it would be 30kWh/day) from >>90kWh per day whilst they were here.

 

[kwak250]

5 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

My UK grandkids just went home.

 

Down to a reasonable 60kWh/day total usage (Thai grand-daughter is still with us or it would be 30kWh/day) from >>90kWh per day whilst they were here.

 

You use more on some days that some people do for the month.

Is that all solar?

[Crossy]

6 hours ago, kwak250 said:

You use more on some days that some people do for the month.

Is that all solar?

 

A big chunk of that is used by Madam's koi pond. With their filters, air pump and UV light along with their special koi food those ruddy fish get a better life than I do!

 

We've just added (yesterday) another 6 panels bringing us to 15.3kWp on the car-port, that should give us around 45kWh per day.

 

Our aim is to be grid-independent (rather than off grid) so we will retain a grid connection for backup purposes.

 

There's 56kWh of storage currently in boxes waiting for me to actually assemble battery packs. In order to use all that energy I'm going to have to upgrade our inverters probably to 3 x Deye SUN-5k-SG05LP1-EU running in parallel

https://www.lazada.co.th//products/i4978816678-s20977309094.html

 

Madam has designs on an EV and enclosing (and air-conditioning) our large downstairs living space so even more panels are in the plan.

 

All good fun (and $$$).

 

[KhunLA]

On 4/19/2024 at 4:10 PM, JensenZ said:

Assuming the cost is 600k with installation, that's equivalent to 20 years' PEA charges at my current usage, not considering rising electricity prices in the next 20 years. I'd be curious about how long these panels and batteries will last, and the ongoing maintenance costs of such a system.

If you PEA bills are that low, it wouldn't cost you ฿600k for a system.

OP is estimated up 50kWh a day, 1500kWh a month = ฿7500 PEA bill

฿600k / ฿7500 = 80 months = 6.66 yrs ROI 👍

 

If 40kWh a day = 8.33 yrs ROI

 

For 20 ROI, your PEA bill is only ฿2500 a month (<530kWh)

Edited April 21 by KhunLA

[sezze]

On 4/19/2024 at 12:22 PM, BritManToo said:

I always think people go about this the wrong way!

 

Learn to conserve, fit led lights, learn to switch off items you aren't using, do you really need that chest freezer and air con everywhere?

 

I built my own 10 x 340w panels 25kbht, 5k5 hybrid inverter 13kbht, 6kwhr batteries 45kbht.

 

Shower heaters, air con and electric oven connected to grid, everything else on solar.

 

This runs 80% of my house, leaving me with a bill for 40-80 units/month and no power cuts when it's windy or raining.

40-80 units a month which powers shower (ok) , electric oven (ok) , aircon ??? The aircon for 40-80 units per month , i think is not possible , unless you do not turn it on .

[kwak250]

17 minutes ago, sezze said:

40-80 units a month which powers shower (ok) , electric oven (ok) , aircon ??? The aircon for 40-80 units per month , i think is not possible , unless you do not turn it on .

  On 4/19/2024 at 11:22 AM, BritManToo said:

 

 

Shower heaters, air con and electric oven connected to grid, everything else on solar.

 

This runs 80% of my house, leaving me with a bill for 40-80 units/month and no power cuts when it's windy or raining.

 

 

Yes i thought that who can use 40-80 units a month with aircon ?

They must use the air con for 15 minutes a day and what are you cooking a brussel sprout?

Edited April 22 by kwak250

[BritManToo]

37 minutes ago, sezze said:

40-80 units a month which powers shower (ok) , electric oven (ok) , aircon ??? The aircon for 40-80 units per month , i think is not possible , unless you do not turn it on .

I only use Aircon occasionally, at the moment 1-2hrs/day as it's very hot, normally not at all. The fans all run from solar. Better to get acclimatised to the Thai weather IMHO.

[KhunLA]

I don't know about y'all, but I got solar so I could abuse the sh!t out of the ACs  Bedroom is on 24/7 almost, set @ 26-28C, rest of the house set the same, from 0800 - 1700 hrs.

 

We use 5.5kWh - 8kWh during non producing hours (14), ~1800 - 0800 hrs.  About 18-25kWh a day, and a bit more when charging the EVs.

 

Have used as much as 50kWh in one day, and use <4kWh when not home.  If not home for the whole month, we would use ~110kWh, just keeping the 2 frigs & 1 light running.  Last month used 552kWh, but we weren't home for 11 ish days.

Edited April 22 by KhunLA

[kwak250]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I only use Aircon occasionally, at the moment 1-2hrs/day as it's very hot, normally not at all. The fans all run from solar. Better to get acclimatised to the Thai weather IMHO.

Tried that but no chance much prefer air-con.

[kwak250]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I only use Aircon occasionally, at the moment 1-2hrs/day as it's very hot, normally not at all. The fans all run from solar. Better to get acclimatised to the Thai weather IMHO.

If I wasn't using air-con I very much doubt I would even be looking at solar energy .

The whole point is to have a comfortable environment and with the heat and humidity for a good few months of the year a few fans in the room are not going to help much 

I'm with crossy on this.