11 hours ago, BritManToo said:

20kbht for a decent DIY install, hardly expensive.

11 hours ago, BritManToo said:

20kbht for a decent DIY install, hardly expensive.

11 hours ago, BritManToo said:

20kbht for a decent DIY install, hardly expensive.

Can members please share more details / full detals of '20kbht for a decent DIY install, hardly expensive'.

Like many my family is keep to get something solar started.

Just recently my neighbour (big moo bahn, up to date facilities, quality construction) mentioned that lower tariffs when folks (folks with solar) but from the grid was the norm but no longer available, and a second meter / second pole with meter) is no longer available.

Can some members who have full knowledge on all of this please share to get me (and I guess others) into a clear understanding.

I'm guessing the 20K 'start up' is the first thing to get a clear understanding.

1 minute ago, scorecard said:

Can members please share more details / full detals of '20kbht for a decent DIY install, hardly expensive'.

Like many my family is keep to get something solar started.

Just recently my neighbour (big moo bahn, up to date facilities, quality construction) mentioned that lower tariffs when folks (folks with solar) but from the grid was the norm but no longer available, and a second meter / second pole with meter) is no longer available. https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-7917902462200897&output=html&h=250&slotname=6947091229&adk=2748822112&adf=1221288660&pi=t.ma~as.6947091229&w=600&lmt=1776426394&rafmt=12&format=600x250&url=https%3A%2F%2Faseannow.com%2Ftopic%2F1392447-thailand-may-let-households-sell-power-back-to-the-grid-in-energy-shift%2Fpage%2F2%2F%23comment-20468094&aiof=9&asro=0&aiapmid=0.0001&aiactd=0&aicctd=0&ailctd=0&aimartd=4&aieuf=1&aicrs=1&uach=WyJXaW5kb3dzIiwiMTkuMC4wIiwieDg2IiwiIiwiMTQ3LjAuNzcyNy4xMDEiLG51bGwsMCxudWxsLCI2NCIsW1siR29vZ2xlIENocm9tZSIsIjE0Ny4wLjc3MjcuMTAxIl0sWyJOb3QuQS9CcmFuZCIsIjguMC4wLjAiXSxbIkNocm9taXVtIiwiMTQ3LjAuNzcyNy4xMDEiXV0sMF0.&abgtt=6&dt=1776426394199&bpp=4&bdt=1546&idt=548&shv=r20260415&mjsv=m202604140101&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3Dec2214a3326788a7%3AT%3D1764736096%3ART%3D1776425742%3AS%3DALNI_MY7FusKvfyIHU-elvi4OcDkZoyDsA&gpic=UID%3D000011c17cee1844%3AT%3D1764736096%3ART%3D1776425742%3AS%3DALNI_MafrcHg83vndVng0zTEcLO1Acch8A&eo_id_str=ID%3D099108b8d6bc9584%3AT%3D1764736096%3ART%3D1776425742%3AS%3DAA-AfjbwggEXaZvik4vU6xY9LBGD&prev_fmts=0x0%2C784x250&nras=1&correlator=5982926586744&frm=20&pv=1&u_tz=420&u_his=6&u_h=320&u_w=569&u_ah=299&u_aw=569&u_cd=32&u_sd=2.25&dmc=4&adx=25&ady=1685&biw=834&bih=315&scr_x=0&scr_y=748&eid=95366178%2C95382262%2C95385799%2C95386813%2C31097877%2C95387625%2C95386957%2C95373848%2C95387779&oid=2&pvsid=3793209981429770&tmod=1044875187&uas=1&nvt=2&ref=https%3A%2F%2Faseannow.com%2Ftopic%2F1392447-thailand-may-let-households-sell-power-back-to-the-grid-in-energy-shift%2F%3Fdo%3DfindComment%26comment%3D20468094&fc=1920&brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C569%2C0%2C577%2C301%2C857%2C315&vis=1&rsz=%7Co%7CpoeEbr%7C&abl=NS&pfx=0&fu=1280&bc=31&bz=0.67&ifi=3&uci=a!3&btvi=1&fsb=1&dtd=596

Can some members who have full knowledge on all of this please share to get me (and I guess others) into a clear understanding.

I'm guessing the 20K DIY 'start up' is the first thing to get a clear understanding. Along with some details of that knowledge / skills / tools etc., are needed. Thanks.

1 hour ago, tandor said:

PEA/MEA have got in on the act and are selling/installing their own Solar Panel/Grid Tied Inverter systems up to 10kWh, and of course regulating them by installing a new digital meter. Apparently the property owner and meter renter can apply to register their system with the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission to receive the rate of 2.20 THB per Unit for a Grid Tied system (Net Billing, Direct Credit), or up to 200,000THB in Tax Credits.

The Installer has to provide Technical Data and Certification of the installation to the ERC, then if approved they will advise PEA/MEA accordingly to I presume, adjust the Meter!

This is all very complicated for me, so if anyone has further information or can explain clearer, please do.

(I posed these questions to Gemini AI and received the above information which sounds plausible).

Thanks.

What I have understood, the 200k tax deduction is now law [Royal Gazette] for investing in solar panels with/without batteries.

I am one of the few that has a FIT contract to receive 2.2 baht per kwh. This program has been abolished at the end of 2024.

To get this contract I had to ask a PEA engineer to make a technical drawing with all the specs of panels and inverter and get the system verified by PEA Phetchaburi. The verification was checking the solar breakers and that your inverter is on the PEA approval list and can be set to zero export. They changed the meter to a bi-directional one. However the meter does not have a SIM. so once a month they have to come to my house and read the meter manually. A smart meter will change this situation of course.

Will they launch this program again? I am not sure if the grid is robust enough to handle overcapacity and/or high demand during sunny days. I live outside the city and my neighbour in the street also have solar. On some very sunny days my inverter has to switch off, because the grid voltage is not within the safe limits.

This is my opinion - in order to prevent overcapacity on a dumb Thai grid, I can imagine that the government's plan will need to introduce smart meters with dynamic pricing, only for new solar panel installations that want to profit from net billing. During the day when there is overcapacity, the price is lower than when demand is higher. If the price is low or even negative, then your inverter will lower or even move to zero export.

However without batteries, this dynamic pricing will be less profitable for the consumer than the pre-2025 FIT contract I have.

5 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

There is zero risk to PEA employees no matter how poor the installation if the inverter is PEA approved.

That's the reason they have the list, those inverters will shutdown when power grid goes down.

They don't want some cheap inverter misconfigured sending back to the grid energizing it and shocking the technians.

In some housing developpments the electricity comes in via the managment of the area and no dealings with the official electricyl supply. Thus, it could be tricky to get a refund on any surplus of production.

11 hours ago, cowellandrew said:

Google is your friend!😳

Might not be selling much excess power when the kids leave the fan on!

🤣🤣🤣

Would this fit my 9 aircon units?

2 hours ago, Muhendis said:

Also, it is my understanding that if there is a grid outage then your grid tied inverter will also stop resulting in no house power.

If that is not always the case then please respond.

Alas, you are right .

17 minutes ago, Peter Crow said:

Would this fit my 9 aircon units?

No, but if you are running them all at the same time your electric bill would definitely be over ฿10k a month and a 6 year payback would give you a ฿700k budget for solar.

10 hours ago, 4myr said:

What I have understood, the 200k tax deduction is now law [Royal Gazette] for investing in solar panels with/without batteries.

I am one of the few that has a FIT contract to receive 2.2 baht per kwh. This program has been abolished at the end of 2024.

To get this contract I had to ask a PEA engineer to make a technical drawing with all the specs of panels and inverter and get the system verified by PEA Phetchaburi. The verification was checking the solar breakers and that your inverter is on the PEA approval list and can be set to zero export. They changed the meter to a bi-directional one. However the meter does not have a SIM. so once a month they have to come to my house and read the meter manually. A smart meter will change this situation of course.

Will they launch this program again? I am not sure if the grid is robust enough to handle overcapacity and/or high demand during sunny days. I live outside the city and my neighbour in the street also have solar. On some very sunny days my inverter has to switch off, because the grid voltage is not within the safe limits.

This is my opinion - in order to prevent overcapacity on a dumb Thai grid, I can imagine that the government's plan will need to introduce smart meters with dynamic pricing, only for new solar panel installations that want to profit from net billing. During the day when there is overcapacity, the price is lower than when demand is higher. If the price is low or even negative, then your inverter will lower or even move to zero export.

However without batteries, this dynamic pricing will be less profitable for the consumer than the pre-2025 FIT contract I have.

thanks for the info, much appreciated.

11 hours ago, scorecard said:

Can members please share more details / full detals of '20kbht for a decent DIY install, hardly expensive'.

Like many my family is keep to get something solar started.

Just recently my neighbour (big moo bahn, up to date facilities, quality construction) mentioned that lower tariffs when folks (folks with solar) but from the grid was the norm but no longer available, and a second meter / second pole with meter) is no longer available.

Can some members who have full knowledge on all of this please share to get me (and I guess others) into a clear understanding.

I'm guessing the 20K 'start up' is the first thing to get a clear understanding.

Already p[osted here ..........

On 4/17/2026 at 4:33 AM, MIke B Bad said:

Electricity is so 'cheap' (for now), the payback time on solar systems is far too long.....especially if you take into account the lost opportunity cost of capital and real depreciation costs, both of which tend to be ignored.

One key aspect imo of Solar is independence, cost is only one aspect.

On 4/17/2026 at 11:33 AM, MIke B Bad said:

Electricity is so 'cheap' (for now), the payback time on solar systems is far too long.....especially if you take into account the lost opportunity cost of capital and real depreciation costs, both of which tend to be ignored.

Our 5kw solar system cost 90k bht and paid for itself in less than a year. We use an EV and saved at least 10k bht per month on fuel and house electricity costs.

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

Our 5kw solar system cost 90k bht and paid for itself in less than a year. We use an EV and saved at least 10k bht per month on fuel and house electricity costs.

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

Our 5kw solar system cost 90k bht and paid for itself in less than a year. We use an EV and saved at least 10k bht per month on fuel and house electricity costs.

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

Our 5kw solar system cost 90k bht and paid for itself in less than a year. We use an EV and saved at least 10k bht per month on fuel and house electricity costs.

"We use an EV and saved at least 10k bht per month on fuel and house electricity costs.

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

Our 5kw solar system cost 90k bht and paid for itself in less than a year. We use an EV and saved at least 10k bht per month on fuel and house electricity costs."
I'm guessing that means:ehicles

1. Zero or much reduced costs in terms of gasoline / diesel fuel because changed to EV?

2. Much reduced monhly bill for electricity from the main grid?

About time they let people do this and help create energy security instead of just pandering to the will of big business monopolies and elites.

1 hour ago, scorecard said:

2 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Our 5kw solar system cost 90k bht and paid for itself in less than a year. We use an EV and saved at least 10k bht per month on fuel and house electricity costs."
I'm guessing that means:ehicles

Correct, we charge our EV almost entirely from the solar panels.

On 4/17/2026 at 7:05 AM, BritManToo said:

20kbht for a decent DIY install, hardly expensive.

What is meant by decent, in this context?

On 4/17/2026 at 7:05 AM, BritManToo said:

20kbht for a decent DIY install, hardly expensive.

Depends what your interpetation of "decent" is! You obviously set your "decent" at a rock-bottom standard. The current permissible grid connected single phase system is a mere 5kW at 100% efficiency and costing in the region of B180k to B220k and that system would not (for the average household) provide enough energy to nullify the monthly electric bill never-mind selling capacity back to the PEA/MEA.

7 hours ago, PJ71 said:

One key aspect imo of Solar is independence, cost is only one aspect.

We just bought a petrol generator to run our fridge freezer and aircon.....much cheaper.

6 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Our 5kw solar system cost 90k bht and paid for itself in less than a year. We use an EV and saved at least 10k bht per month on fuel and house electricity costs.

You were paying 7,500B per month for electricity???

We just installed Solar on our two story home in Vietnam. Twenty 400 watt rooftop panels, three 16KW batteries inverter - supposedly it has an automatic xfer of power to the company, who buys it from you. I can’t tell from the menu because it is all in Arabic - with no way evident to change the language - Solar Company is working on it remotely. I think they shipped the wrong set to us, but such a large system, cost about 8,000 USD, maybe 250K Baht. I know, overkill, but we have six bedrooms, 8 AC’s, Water pump for Koi Pond etc etc - installed in 2 days, most of the first day was getting everything on the roof by hand, all in all we’re happy with it to finally be free from the grips of the electricity company.

5 hours ago, edwinchester said:

Correct, we charge our EV almost entirely from the solar panels.

What size is the bat on your EV and how long does it take to charge? Does it restrict other consumption at the house when charging the car?

Considering EV car.

Thanks

1 hour ago, Explorator en Action said:

but we have six bedrooms, 8 AC’s,

16Kw 'usable' for each battery?

with total 48Kw, can you run ALL the aircons thru the night?

2 hours ago, MIke B Bad said:

We just bought a petrol generator to run our fridge freezer and aircon.....much cheaper.SHo

2 hours ago, MIke B Bad said:

We just bought a petrol generator to run our fridge freezer and aircon.....much cheaper.

How much was the genny? how much fuel does it use?

I also have a genny, a noisy one!

2 hours ago, MIke B Bad said:

You were paying 7,500B per month for electricity???

If running multiple AC's, it's easy done.

Nice dog btw.

2 hours ago, MIke B Bad said:

You were paying 7,500B per month for electricity???

11 hours ago, MIke B Bad said:

You were paying 7,500B per month for electricity???

No, the combined savings on diesel fuel and electric for our house were over 10k per month.

We did have a diesel pickup and an EV but switched to purely EV when we had solar installed.

8 hours ago, PJ71 said:

What size is the bat on your EV and how long does it take to charge? Does it restrict other consumption at the house when charging the car?

Considering EV car.

Thanks

We have a Riddara RD6 and a Neta V. Charging times vary on what you use. The emergency charger supplied gives about 6% an hour, the wall box about 15%.

The Riddara has a 73kw battery the Neta 40kw. During the day we can charge an EV between 9-10 am and about 4pm and run the house as normal with no draw on the grid. We also have a nighttime low cost meter, TOU, for backup up use from PEA.

When we do need to charge from the grid the Neta uses roughly about 0.3 bht per km, the Riddara, big beast that it is, about 0.5 bht per km.

We're planning to install at least another 5kw of solar sometime this year along with either battery backup or use one of the EVs for nighttime electric.

3 hours ago, edwinchester said:

We have a Riddara RD6 and a Neta V. Charging times vary on what you use. The emergency charger supplied gives about 6% an hour, the wall box about 15%.

The Riddara has a 73kw battery the Neta 40kw. During the day we can charge an EV between 9-10 am and about 4pm and run the house as normal with no draw on the grid. We also have a nighttime low cost meter, TOU, for backup up use from PEA.

When we do need to charge from the grid the Neta uses roughly about 0.3 bht per km, the Riddara, big beast that it is, about 0.5 bht per km.

We're planning to install at least another 5kw of solar sometime this year along with either battery backup or use one of the EVs for nighttime electric.

thanks for the info.

On 4/17/2026 at 6:08 AM, ikke1959 said:

At this moment only the upper middle class has solar panels as it is very expensive to install them

Yet another wealth transfer to the haves from the have nots. Didn't the government announce some sort of tax break for solar instalations?

19 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

About time they let people do this and help create energy security instead of just pandering to the will of big business monopolies and elites.

The problem is that solar and alternative energy sources do just the opposite. The paradox is well studied and documented. The energy is produced in the daytime whilst most is consumed in the afternoon and evening, necessitating large storage capacity which is very expensive.

If I do migrate to the countryside I'd install solar right away, but for my own energy security and not that of the entire grid.