Just curious what people here in Thailand are producing each month. I know some here have huge systems. I have about a 9 kW array (or 9 kWp) and average about 700 kWh a month. I could produce more, but I have no use for the extra power at the moment. If people could post screenshots of their monthly production, it would be interesting to see. Below is mine so far for this year.

Here you go, 30kWP of panels currently.

We don't actually use everything we could make most months although we did actually run out in April when family were over from the UK.

5kwp system with a monthly average of 436kwh

Only 3 times in 48 months, have we exceeded 1000kWh, and never hit 1100. 48 yr average per month is only 625kWh.

Less than 400kWh a month, when first installed and being conserative, to that 1000kWh when abusing the AC and charging the BEV. More than a few months a year, we're out of town for a week or 2.

Lot's of all day local exploring, with ACs off, but then, charging the BEV back up, probably counters that.

This is ours for the year, but this is grid-tied. Our additional PEA bill is around the 100kWh (no back spinning the meter)

(August is falling behind, because we weren't home most of the time)

Edited August 18Aug 18 by MJCM

Inverter

House

Here's the next question(s): What was the payout time? What's the ROI on the investment?

Would you do it again, and what would you do differently? (Bigger system? Smaller? More panels and less inverter? Bigger battery? Etc.)

1 hour ago, impulse said:

Here's the next question(s): What was the payout time? What's the ROI on the investment?

Would you do it again, and what would you do differently? (Bigger system? Smaller? More panels and less inverter? Bigger battery? Etc.)

I'm already on my second system as the first panels (op down to under 50%) and Inverter failed within 3 years.

Second time round,

Just use it as grid tie and wind my meter back.

Still using the old battery from the first install for a bit of emergency power.

Power production the past 2 months down to 60% due to bad weather.

Edited August 19Aug 19 by BritManToo

2 hours ago, impulse said:

Here's the next question(s): What was the payout time? What's the ROI on the investment?

Would you do it again, and what would you do differently? (Bigger system? Smaller? More panels and less inverter? Bigger battery? Etc.)

Mine was expensive, around B500000 but I had to run two lots of 3 phase underground cable about 40m to the shed and back

3 phase invert ++.

Last bill was B500 for 3 phase house 3 phase water heaters big pool etc plus all my aquaponic gear to be restarted.

ROi about 50 years :))

1 hour ago, carlyai said:

Mine was expensive, around B500000 but I had to run two lots of 3 phase underground cable about 40m to the shed and back

3 phase invert ++.

Last bill was B500 for 3 phase house 3 phase water heaters big pool etc plus all my aquaponic gear to be restarted.

ROi about 50 years :))

That was funny! ROI is just a dream without funky math in most cases in Thailand. Someday soon it will be the much easier to have a 5-10 year true ROI on solar. If they figured out a way to get rid of most the red tape and pay us 2-3 baht for what we export, we could pay off our systems in a 3-5 years. PEA has no incentive to do this and until higher ups force them to or provide incentive to PEA they are going to make it impossible.

Still fun to have solar and there are benefits that aren't monetary.

3 hours ago, impulse said:

Here's the next question(s): What was the payout time? What's the ROI on the investment?

Would you do it again, and what would you do differently? (Bigger system? Smaller? More panels and less inverter? Bigger battery? Etc.)

I took my time building my system and previously setup my camper I travelled in during covid with LFP batteries and 1100 kW of panels. Then I asked questions on this forum and came pretty darn close to nailing what I needed. I have added 1000 kW of panels to my then 8000 kW of panels and nothing else. The system could produce close to 900-1000 kWh a month if needed. It isn't pretty but produces good power.

If I did it again I would get a 10 kW inverter to replace my 6.2. It would only cost an additional 10k baht! A bigger battery would also be interesting but really not needed. Lastly, I would fix all the house's electrical issues before installing solar. Adding solar to a poorly designed electrical system in the house is not safe.

14 hours ago, impulse said:

Here's the next question(s): What was the payout time? What's the ROI on the investment?

Would you do it again, and what would you do differently? (Bigger system? Smaller? More panels and less inverter? Bigger battery? Etc.)

Payout time? I have no idea, when I started with this and even now I couldn't care less as that was never a reason, but I know that we are saving approx 1000 THB per month having solar.

Our next system is already in the pipe line. a 10kW Hybrid inverter (up from 5kW on-grid) with at least 16kWh worth of LFP batteries with the possibility to go up to 32kWh. Not planning to go fully off-grid, as our heavy equipment like Water Heaters and Plugs used for Welding etc are wired to go via PEA only, but the grid outages only get more in our area and now even SWMBO is pushing me to get batteries in, where before, when I started with Solar, she was absolutely reluctant.

@Crossy his advice was spot on, Slowly Slowly Catch a Monkey 555555

10 hours ago, atpeace said:

Lastly, I would fix all the house's electrical issues before installing solar. Adding solar to a poorly designed electrical system in the house is not safe.

sorry for the off-topic question, but why could this be a safety problem if it wasn't a problem before installing solar?

isn't the solar setup an independent system (provided ac to the existing system) with its own breaker box, safety cut-offs, grounding, etc.?

25 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

sorry for the off-topic question, but why could this be a safety problem if it wasn't a problem before installing solar?

isn't the solar setup an independent system (provided ac to the existing system) with its own breaker box, safety cut-offs, grounding, etc.?

My house wasn't grounded and a cheap main electrical box was put in. It has an RCBO that didn't shut down once when an air pump fell into the ice bath when I wasn't in it. THe air pump is now far away :) The panels and the house are all basically floating and aren't grounded. The RCBO has worked when tested but it not a safe solution.

THere is one electrician in the area and he is old school as he usually ignores grounding. I feel comfortable working on my 48v system but don't like messing with the 220v from the grid or 400v from the panels. Next week I have plans on getting a person I know and trust that does electrical work on the side to the home and hopefully we can figure out how to ground the panels and the main box as well as things like the ACs and the outlets I charge the EV. It is a mess and I am to blame because I trusted that the electricians would ground the system as I instructed. I should have been at the house when they did the work.

10 minutes ago, atpeace said:

My house wasn't grounded and a cheap main electrical box was put in. It has an RCBO that didn't shut down once when an air pump fell into the ice bath when I wasn't in it. THe air pump is now far away :) The panels and the house are all basically floating and aren't grounded. The RCBO has worked when tested but it not a safe solution.

THere is one electrician in the area and he is old school as he usually ignores grounding. I feel comfortable working on my 48v system but don't like messing with the 220v from the grid or 400v from the panels. Next week I have plans on getting a person I know and trust that does electrical work on the side to the home and hopefully we can figure out how to ground the panels and the main box as well as things like the ACs and the outlets I charge the EV. It is a mess and I am to blame because I trusted that the electricians would ground the system as I instructed. I should have been at the house when they did the work.

Inverters are much safer than normal wiring.

They detect current out and current returning, any loss and they're off before it can shock you.

Most inverters won't allow you to ground the neutral output.

Different game, different wiring.

Not sure if it's a good idea to ground the panel frames, I don't.

Easier to work on the panels when the sun ain't shining.

And normally they're out of reach.

Even in the sun, it's only a tingle.

Edited August 20Aug 20 by BritManToo

16 hours ago, impulse said:

Here's the next question(s): What was the payout time? What's the ROI on the investment?

Would you do it again, and what would you do differently? (Bigger system? Smaller? More panels and less inverter? Bigger battery? Etc.)

Our system, a bit expensive, and more than we needed. Scratch the extra ESS, and if just using for house, then about 10 years, for ROI. We're home all day and abuse the AC, along with a lot of water pump use, watering greenhouse & garden with stored rain water vs city water.

Add charging the EVs, and knocks that in half. On my solar thread I estimate 4+ yrs recently, before calculating actual kms away from the house, overnights with the EV. oops

Will have about 68k kms on the car at 4 yr mark, and 40k of those will be charged away from the house, so a bit more, way more, than I estimated. With the EV, 5+ yrs ROI, instead of 4+ years.

Edited August 20Aug 20 by KhunLA

That makes sense. So in your opinion, it is OK to float the panels? I have a hard time grasping the flow of electricity in a home. You are saying that the inverter is the main component that will detect shorts and shut down. I also have the RCBO on the main box. I assume if the inverter missed the short the RCB on the main box would shut the grid power down.

I still think grounding the panels that are on my roof vs off the roof like your panels is a good idea. Also grounding the main box in the house and not relying on the RCBO is a good idea. If a hot water heater shorts and doesn't have a ground, it is dangerous even with the RCBO. How dangerous it is is beyond me but you will get shocked.

29 minutes ago, atpeace said:

That makes sense. So in your opinion, it is OK to float the panels? I have a hard time grasping the flow of electricity in a home. You are saying that the inverter is the main component that will detect shorts and shut down. I also have the RCBO on the main box. I assume if the inverter missed the short the RCB on the main box would shut the grid power down.

I still think grounding the panels that are on my roof vs off the roof like your panels is a good idea. Also grounding the main box in the house and not relying on the RCBO is a good idea. If a hot water heater shorts and doesn't have a ground, it is dangerous even with the RCBO. How dangerous it is is beyond me but you will get shocked.

If a hot water heater shorts live/neutral the overcurrent fuse will turn it off (if Amps selected correctly) or it'll burn the wires. It won't shock you.

You don't seem to understand how electricity shocks a person.

A shock only happens when live finds an easier path through your body to ground.

My niece tried a live to neutral short on a socket in our house through her fingers, my inverter turned itself off before she felt any shock.

If unsure when working on possibly 'live' wiring the rules were always, keep one hand in your back pocket, to prevent hand to hand shock through chest. Hand to foot shock is not so damaging.

Edited August 20Aug 20 by BritManToo

2 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

If a hot water heater shorts live/neutral the overcurrent fuse will turn it off (if Amps selected correctly) or it'll burn the wires. It won't shock you.

You don't seem to understand how electricity shocks a person.

A shock only happens when live finds an easier path through your body to ground.

Yes, I understand this but not how a short impacts the flow. I thought that in many situations the wires in the water heater wouldn't melt and the hot water heater would become a live. A person touches the heater and the current flows through them to the ground. The RCBO trips and power is shut off.

This scenario is what kills people ( I think :) )
A heating element corrodes and ruptures, or vibration shakes a 230V live wire loose so that it touches the copper heating tank, internal water stream, or metal shower chassis.

1. In that scenario, Live does not touch Neutral. It only touches the water and the metal casing.

2. Because no short to Neutral exists, the current draw does not exceed the breaker's amp rating (e.g., 20A or 32A). The "overcurrent fuse" sits there completely blind while 230V sits directly in the water pipe waiting for someone to turn the valve.

   Is this as common as the internet gurus claim? I haven't a clue.....
   

25 minutes ago, atpeace said:

This scenario is what kills people ( I think :) )
A heating element corrodes and ruptures, or vibration shakes a 230V live wire loose so that it touches the copper heating tank, internal water stream, or metal shower chassis.

1. In that scenario, Live does not touch Neutral. It only touches the water and the metal casing.

2. Because no short to Neutral exists, the current draw does not exceed the breaker's amp rating (e.g., 20A or 32A). The "overcurrent fuse" sits there completely blind while 230V sits directly in the water pipe waiting for someone to turn the valve.

   Is this as common as the internet gurus claim? I haven't a clue.....
   

In this case as soon as someone touches the 'live' valve additional current will flow to earth. This will cause an imbalance between the current flowing through live and neutral at the control box. if this amount exceeds the RCBO rating (commonly 30mA) then the RCBO will trip turning off the power.

1 hour ago, atpeace said:

That makes sense. So in your opinion, it is OK to float the panels? I have a hard time grasping the flow of electricity in a home. You are saying that the inverter is the main component that will detect shorts and shut down. I also have the RCBO on the main box. I assume if the inverter missed the short the RCB on the main box would shut the grid power down.

I still think grounding the panels that are on my roof vs off the roof like your panels is a good idea. Also grounding the main box in the house and not relying on the RCBO is a good idea. If a hot water heater shorts and doesn't have a ground, it is dangerous even with the RCBO. How dangerous it is is beyond me but you will get shocked.

Solar inverters often include residual current monitoring, array fault detection and insulation monitoring which can vary immensely between models and manufacturers. In almost all cases the inverters internal protection cannot replace an external RCD protecting the cable between the inverter and the supply or distribution board.

There are several reasons why we ground solar panel metalwork but one very important reason is to help the inverter detect ground faults in DC wiring and panel frames. Without good reference the inverter might not detect a dangerous leak that could endanger life.

45 minutes ago, atpeace said:

Yes, I understand this but not how a short impacts the flow. I thought that in many situations the wires in the water heater wouldn't melt and the hot water heater would become a live. A person touches the heater and the current flows through them to the ground. The RCBO trips and power is shut off.

This scenario is what kills people ( I think :) )
A heating element corrodes and ruptures, or vibration shakes a 230V live wire loose so that it touches the copper heating tank, internal water stream, or metal shower chassis.

1. In that scenario, Live does not touch Neutral. It only touches the water and the metal casing.

2. Because no short to Neutral exists, the current draw does not exceed the breaker's amp rating (e.g., 20A or 32A). The "overcurrent fuse" sits there completely blind while 230V sits directly in the water pipe waiting for someone to turn the valve.

   Is this as common as the internet gurus claim? I haven't a clue.....
   

Inverters (and RCBOs) measure current leaving live, and current entering neutral.

If there's a mismatch, then it shuts off' hopefully fast enough for no shocking.

Metal casings on electrical devices are supposed to be connected to earth (short to earth so inverter or RCBO off).

Most devices these days have plastic casings

How often do you finger a metal cased water heater/fridge/kettle/oven while having bare wet feet? (or touching a copper pipe with the other hand)

Edited August 20Aug 20 by BritManToo

5 hours ago, Fruit Trader said:

Solar inverters often include residual current monitoring, array fault detection and insulation monitoring which can vary immensely between models and manufacturers. In almost all cases the inverters internal protection cannot replace an external RCD protecting the cable between the inverter and the supply or distribution board.

There are several reasons why we ground solar panel metalwork but one very important reason is to help the inverter detect ground faults in DC wiring and panel frames. Without good reference the inverter might not detect a dangerous leak that could endanger life.

Stupid question, but hope you can dummy down the answer so I can grasp it :)

If I bond all the panel frames and mounting rails together to a copper ground wire and there is a DC leak or chafed wire touching the frame, will that leak always be forced down the ground wire so the inverter catches it?

1 hour ago, atpeace said:

Stupid question, but hope you can dummy down the answer so I can grasp it :)

If I bond all the panel frames and mounting rails together to a copper ground wire and there is a DC leak or chafed wire touching the frame, will that leak always be forced down the ground wire so the inverter catches it?

That's not a stupid question.

The answer is no because most solar inverters used in the home leave the DC or string side floating with no leg grounded. If part of the string cable grounds itself there is no safe current path but the inverter in theory should detect the fault and shutdown. That's of course if everything is sharing the same ground.

When an inverter detects ground leakage one should approach the string with care just in case one end or part of it has gone hard to ground and you grab another part while your body shares the same ground.

Imagine you have a 50V battery, touch one end you feel nothing touch both ends and you get a tingle. Now connect one end of the battery to ground then with bare feet on the ground touch the other end and you will likely feel a tingle.

On 8/20/2026 at 9:48 AM, atpeace said:

This scenario is what kills people ( I think :) )
A heating element corrodes and ruptures, or vibration shakes a 230V live wire loose so that it touches the copper heating tank, internal water stream, or metal shower chassis.

1. In that scenario, Live does not touch Neutral. It only touches the water and the metal casing.

2. Because no short to Neutral exists, the current draw does not exceed the breaker's amp rating (e.g., 20A or 32A). The "overcurrent fuse" sits there completely blind while 230V sits directly in the water pipe waiting for someone to turn the valve.

   Is this as common as the internet gurus claim? I haven't a clue.

An RCBO will protect you from being killed.

The current flowing in the Live wire will also flow in its return path which is the Neutral wire.

The RCBO measures the current flowing in both of them and is satisfied if there is equal current flow in both.

If there isn't equal current flow then it means that current has found an additional return path, for instance a human being touching the Live wire creating a current flow to earth. The RCBO will trip.

On 8/20/2026 at 7:41 AM, BritManToo said:

Inverters are much safer than normal wiring.

They detect current out and current returning, any loss and they're off before it can shock you.

Most inverters won't allow you to ground the neutral output.

Different game, different wiring.

Not sure if it's a good idea to ground the panel frames, I don't.

Easier to work on the panels when the sun ain't shining.

And normally they're out of reach.

Even in the sun, it's only a tingle.

Maybe getting myself in trouble again but you can ground the DEYE 3 phase 20kW inverter.

We grounded the panel casing as well, anything metallic.

Had an MEN link in the house CU, then installed the solar panels on the garage and inverter, batteries, ATS in a room of the garage.

The earthing for the solar system was extended back to the main CU in the house so everything was tied together earth wise.

Then removed the MEN link in the house CU and installed it in the ATS so that earth neutral are bonded in PEA selection or Inverter selection.

Twas difficult to get my electrician and his advisors to do this as they just wanted to bung earth rods everywhere.

Anyway ain't blown up yet.

Time for the real electricians to pile on. :)

13 hours ago, lom said:

An RCBO will protect you from being killed.

The current flowing in the Live wire will also flow in its return path which is the Neutral wire.

The RCBO measures the current flowing in both of them and is satisfied if there is equal current flow in both.

If there isn't equal current flow then it means that current has found an additional return path, for instance a human being touching the Live wire creating a current flow to earth. The RCBO will trip.

RCBOs are essential, but they aren't a 100% guarantee on their own—field studies show real-world failure rates around 5–10%, especially on untested units. If "both"your main box and your water heater have an RCBO ( not sure how to verify??? ) then the odds of electrocution are extremely low. I still plan on grounding my main box and running the shower heaters ground to the ground in the main box. Honestly I'm unsure of the correct setup but I want to reduce the risks to a level that doesn't cause anxiety.

32 minutes ago, atpeace said:

I still plan on grounding my main box and running the shower heaters ground to the ground in the main box.

Yes you should always provide a real protective earth to appliances that requires it, ie those have a connection or a plug for it.

As for essential, I'd say that a protective earth connection is more essential than an RCBO.

Edited August 22Aug 22 by lom

7 minutes ago, lom said:

Yes you should always provide a real protective earth to appliances that requires it, ie those have a connection or a plug for it.

As for essential, I'd say that a protective earth connection is more essential than an RCBO.

Meanwhile, my Thai house doesn't even have a connected earth in any of the wall sockets.

Just now, BritManToo said:

Meanwhile, my Thai house doesn't even have a connected earth in any of the wall sockets.

Funnily enough I just bought a little gadget to check ours.....all the ones in the main house came up trumps.....but none of the ones in the "guest house", outside living area and kitchen, restaurant or bar are Earthed......guess the guy who did the wiring just CBA.