Experiences With Solar Power

[cjustice]

i am looking for some help on locating the most reasonalble and quality for the money solar power company to purchase and install at my home, i am not looking to save the world but run some a/c's, i just don't have enough electricity where i live,,any help would be great, i have gotten some quotes back and what i am looking at is about 50 to 60 thousand american for 10-12 KW, a good bit of money, i see where the panels are what is high and need many, i live in Nondindeang about 200 km east of Korat,thanks before hand,,

Charlie

[jubby]

I suppose its all relative and you obviously have the money or you wouldn't be asking. Can we assume you have considered all options. I mean you could build a Cool House that didn't need Aircon for that sort of money or maybe two. Have you checked with the Electric company , they maybe willing to put you a three phase system in for a fraction of that price or even upgrade the whole Area.

Anyway, good luck with the project.

[bankruatsteve]

I would be really interested in hearing more input on solar power in Thailand. As usual, trying to "go green" is probably going to be expensive for a while.

So, I suppose you could go "black" and buy a gas generator for your A/C's. Probably cheaper in the very long short term.

Cheers

[cjustice]

I suppose its all relative and you obviously have the money or you wouldn't be asking. Can we assume you have considered all options. I mean you could build a Cool House that didn't need Aircon for that sort of money or maybe two. Have you checked with the Electric company , they maybe willing to put you a three phase system in for a fraction of that price or even upgrade the whole Area.

Anyway, good luck with the project.

[cjustice]

i will check into the 3 phase for installing, the house is almost finished and it design is not to take advanged of no ac,,,my plan was to move in first and see how my power is,,then go to generator 10 KW for awhile for some extra power durning day,,i have enough power now for 1 ac i believe,,thanks for reply

[jubby]

i will check into the 3 phase for installing, the house is almost finished and it design is not to take advanged of no ac,,,my plan was to move in first and see how my power is,,then go to generator 10 KW for awhile for some extra power durning day,,i have enough power now for 1 ac i believe,,thanks for reply

3 phase shouldn't be a problem unless your stuck on a mountain somewhere, I'd guestimate a couple of thousand Dollars max. You can send the other 50K to me if its burning an hole in your back pocket I'd like a few Solar panels myself, after building another small house and perhaps changing the truck

What colour is the Cable that comes from the meter ? you could be on the blue 5amp wire, and may only need upgrading to the 15/45 amp Black wire. That would probably just be a couple of thousand Baht.

There will almost certaily be some info in the Housing Forum.

[Naam]

"i am not looking to save the world but run some a/c's"

a several million Baht investment might solve your problem.

[Crossy]

I'll move this to DIY, but IMHO PV solar is prohibitively expensive unless you're way off-grid.

Forget running AC

[TigertheCat]

Crossy is correct,of course.

I have looked at solar hot water,a home brew system using plain old plastic pipe but in the end you really need an evacuated glass tube type.

Wind power,1 million for anything useful.

Solar PV,much too expensive.

I will still go for my solar hot water home brew as its cheap to make and implement and will save some electric for the 2 showers.

[bankruatsteve]

Speaking of sun powered home brew hot water....

An Aussie friend of mine made about 5 loops of PVC on top of his kitchen roof, wrapped them in black plastic and piped down to his sink. When the sun comes out, THAT IS HOT WATER! You can't hold your hand under very long.

Maybe not pretty if you happen to have a view of kitchen roofs but very effective. I will try the same some day.

Cheers.

[manarak]

I have studied the numbers in another thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Money-saving...en-t291118.html

I stopped researching when it became clear that the cost of solar power is huge and cannot compete with a cost of 3.5 baht per KwH from the grid.

The only thing that can work is solar powered water heating, with an average return on investment of approx. 5 to 7 years if you are willing to take some downsides, like limited hot water, i.e. there's a tank and when it's empty, water finit.

And the involved sums are really small (about 50k baht over 5 to 7 years), and chances are the stuff must be maintained and/or repaired at some point or another.

Not worth the hassle.

[siamkiwi]

Does anyone know where I can buy a solar hot water heater in Phuket.

I am interested in alternative energy as we do not have access to the grid.

Currently use diesel generator at night and charge a truck battery with a battery charger while the generator is running.

I then use a 500 watt inverter to provide power during the day. I can watch a dvd charge phones or computer even run a fan for a while.

Does anybody know about building a bigger system that can be recharged using natural energy.

We use gas for cooking and have no hot water so energy requirements are pretty low.

Edited February 26, 2010 by siamkiwi

[cjustice]

Does anyone know where I can buy a solar hot water heater in Phuket.

I am interested in alternative energy as we do not have access to the grid.

Currently use diesel generator at night and charge a truck battery with a battery charger while the generator is running.

I then use a 500 watt inverter to provide power during the day. I can watch a dvd charge phones or computer even run a fan for a while.

Does anybody know about building a bigger system that can be recharged using natural energy.

We use gas for cooking and have no hot water so energy requirements are pretty low.

[cjustice]

i think you can make that on your own with some pvc contact with the sun,,but if wanted hot water at night would have to do some solar, i am about fed up with this solar power,, so expensive, i am going to maybe go another route, which i am connected to the grid but it is single phase out in the boonys and no juice,,i may have to pay the city about 400 thousand baht for 3 phase my wife told me yesterday, she want me to go look at another farang house who just did it, she says he has number 1 now,,i hate giveing the city that much money,, i know it doesnt cost that much,, but in the long run,, buying 12 kw of solar,, i have 3 quotes already,, normal in thailand is about 55 - 60 thousand american,, right at or about 2 million baht, i already paiid them 160,000 baht to run 17 poles 10 meters each frorm the road to my place and the 2 cables, but i believe 3 phase hook up is way up the road a good km,,i don't know ,, i am no electrician or no smarts about it,,just i want power and plenty of it for my ac's units,,, when i was in Korat last and there is a DO HOME there,, big store all about everything,, i saw a contraption out front for sell,, it was some thermal water heater, looked like pvc rolling up and down and the sun did the work,, but never asked about it, look a few up from your comment and man talks about him seeing one run on top of roof of kitchen,,, cheers

[TigertheCat]

I made a solar hot water matrix out of 1 inch blue plastic pipe,it was built to fit on a standard 8x4 board.

8 vertical runs with a 2 inch header and footer.

It was propped up on the side of the house for ages then some workers came to do some plumbing work,they were short of pipe and cut it up !

[chiang mai]

I don't understand why solar systems are so expensive here, most of the panels I would have thought are made in the region so they should be reasonably priced. In the Uk the cost of a decent home system is around £15,000 which is expensive by UK standards - but installation there allows you to sell your excess electricity back to the Grid at a good price. The point though is that many of the solar components used in UK systems would, I would imagine, be imported from this region. Perhaps it's worth checking out other sources for the panels which must surely be the most expensive component.

[cjustice]

Here is a quote i got the other day, and yes the panels are where the most money goes out,, i am going to take this slowly after my house is finished and go another way, i am in another forum koratfarang.com and for the second or third time a person mentioned that i can get a transformer to boost my power, not sure what the price would be, i will check into that also,, here is the quote if anybody is interested,, i also with fill my needs of cool air with by buying a 10 kw or higher generator to run at night and possible sometimes during the day while i am home,, this quote below is for 12 KW

PV Module Model: BS40 (@40Wp/module)

Qty: 320 modules

Total PV peak power: 12,800 Wp

Connection: 8 modules in series string / 20 strings in parallel per inverter / 2 inverters (Total 320 modules)

Standard listed price: 143 Baht/Wp

***Special price for you: 110 Baht/Wp (4,400 Bath/module)

Subtotal price: 1,408,000 Baht

2. Grid-connected inverter

Model: Fronius IG 60 HV

Input from PV system: 4,600 - 6,700 Wp

Qty: 2 set

Unit price: 115,000 Baht

Subtotal price: 230,000 Baht

3. PV Support Structure

Model: 8 Modules per set

Qty: 40 sets

Unit price: 4,500 Baht/set

Subtotal price: 180,000 Baht

4. Cabling, Accessories and Installation Works

Qty: 1 job

Subtotal price: 325,000 Baht

5. Transportation

Qty: 1 job

Subtotal price: 60,000 Baht

Grand Total: 2,203,000 Baht (Not included VAT

[siamkiwi]

I made a solar hot water matrix out of 1 inch blue plastic pipe,it was built to fit on a standard 8x4 board.

8 vertical runs with a 2 inch header and footer.

It was propped up on the side of the house for ages then some workers came to do some plumbing work,they were short of pipe and cut it up !

Typical! how did it work befor it was cut up.

[cloudhopper]

Here is a quote i got the other day, and yes the panels are where the most money goes out,, i am going to take this slowly after my house is finished and go another way, i am in another forum koratfarang.com and for the second or third time a person mentioned that i can get a transformer to boost my power, not sure what the price would be, i will check into that also,, here is the quote if anybody is interested,, i also with fill my needs of cool air with by buying a 10 kw or higher generator to run at night and possible sometimes during the day while i am home,, this quote below is for 12 KW

I notice that batteries are not mentioned in this system. Was this from Leonics? I am also currently designing a small home for off grid that will not require AC.

[canopy]

The leonics offerings are fairly outdated. They have been pitching the same systems a decade or so and weren't state of the art to begin with and this is in an area that has seen great advances lately. Their panels generate very little electricity. If you put the panels end to end, a modest unairconditioned house would need so many that they would extend all the way across a football field. They also have been raising the price in contrast to the cost of solar in other countries. Still, they are cheaper than other offerings in Thailand.

The biggest problem I see being off grid are the batteries sold in Thailand are designed to last just 1-3 years and this includes leonics. So for maybe a year you get sufficient electricity and then slowly the noose tightens as they get weaker and weaker and you have to start sacrificing your already constrained lifestyle until you can't take it anymore. It is not like batteries are cheap either. A modest house might need to toss a half million baht out the window every few years to keep running.

As far as I can see, there is just no way off grid systems in Thailand can possibly be cheaper or greener than getting power poles put in, no matter how far away you are. It's a very sad state of affairs since solar offers so much more in other countries, and at lower costs.

[cloudhopper]

The leonics offerings are fairly outdated. They have been pitching the same systems a decade or so and weren't state of the art to begin with and this is in an area that has seen great advances lately. Their panels generate very little electricity. If you put the panels end to end, a modest unairconditioned house would need so many that they would extend all the way across a football field. They also have been raising the price in contrast to the cost of solar in other countries. Still, they are cheaper than other offerings in Thailand.

The biggest problem I see being off grid are the batteries sold in Thailand are designed to last just 1-3 years and this includes leonics. So for maybe a year you get sufficient electricity and then slowly the noose tightens as they get weaker and weaker and you have to start sacrificing your already constrained lifestyle until you can't take it anymore. It is not like batteries are cheap either. A modest house might need to toss a half million baht out the window every few years to keep running.

As far as I can see, there is just no way off grid systems in Thailand can possibly be cheaper or greener than getting power poles put in, no matter how far away you are. It's a very sad state of affairs since solar offers so much more in other countries, and at lower costs.

Well if you did want to be autonomous here in LOS regardless of it's cost effectiveness who would you source?

[canopy]

Well if you did want to be autonomous here in LOS regardless of it's cost effectiveness who would you source?

Thaimart has solar solutions on display. I like the fact the panels are much more powerful than what leonics offers and thus would need quite fewer of them, but their systems are much pricier than even leonics.

I have been unable to find a suitable source for off grid solar electricity in Thailand. The weaknesses in with current offerengs are: price, battery longevity, and footprint. To have a modest house with just the essential lights, TV, computer, refigerator, and a few other things can go over 10kWh per day. Due to that and the weakining battery issues it would be more comfortable to get a 20KWh system to have some margin built in the system rather than endlessly fighting insufficient power supply issues. A system for such modest needs is a few million baht and prices seem to be going up, not down and there is no way such a system can ever pay for itself.

Edited May 3, 2010 by canopy

[david96]

If you have solar or wind you will require a backup diesel generator, you have the cost of batteries, which have to be replace every 5 to 7 years, cost of the inverter etc.

The solar panels peak power have to be twice the proposed peak load at least.

The battery capacity has to be sufficient to run at least 24 hours and only use 30% of their

capacity before recharge. Be able to charge batteries within 4 hours and supply existing load.

The capital cost is expensive.

But if one can afford and accept those costs it is the way to go.

[jaideeguy]

I have one question re: solar elect panels.......how would they stand up against the occasional hail storms we have?? I've seen grape sized hail in CM, but also have seen golf ball sized hail storms just totally destroy roofs in Chiang Rai last year on the news.

Would be a shame to loose several hundred thousand thb from a quick hail storm.

Does anyone know if they would survive???

[Lizard2010]

I have one question re: solar elect panels.......how would they stand up against the occasional hail storms we have?? I've seen grape sized hail in CM, but also have seen golf ball sized hail storms just totally destroy roofs in Chiang Rai last year on the news.

Would be a shame to loose several hundred thousand thb from a quick hail storm.

Does anyone know if they would survive???

I have a 1KW System and they have been installed all over Australia and all over the world.

Germany has one of the most users in the world do a little research and you find heaps on Solar Power.

All the components are made from the same material because they do not know where in the world these parts go to.

[CDNinKS]

Check out this site for a solar hot water demo:

Click here

[t.s]

The leonics offerings are fairly outdated. They have been pitching the same systems a decade or so and weren't state of the art to begin with and this is in an area that has seen great advances lately. Their panels generate very little electricity. If you put the panels end to end, a modest unairconditioned house would need so many that they would extend all the way across a football field. They also have been raising the price in contrast to the cost of solar in other countries. Still, they are cheaper than other offerings in Thailand.

The biggest problem I see being off grid are the batteries sold in Thailand are designed to last just 1-3 years and this includes leonics. So for maybe a year you get sufficient electricity and then slowly the noose tightens as they get weaker and weaker and you have to start sacrificing your already constrained lifestyle until you can't take it anymore. It is not like batteries are cheap either. A modest house might need to toss a half million baht out the window every few years to keep running.

As far as I can see, there is just no way off grid systems in Thailand can possibly be cheaper or greener than getting power poles put in, no matter how far away you are. It's a very sad state of affairs since solar offers so much more in other countries, and at lower costs.

during my build i tried numerous times to get a quote out of leonics. i spoke to an individual on the phone who promised to email me some numbers the following day. he did not, and when i called to ask where the quote was he put me on hold until i was disconnected. after that, the two or three times i tried to call bacck, somebody hung up the moment they heard my voice.

i never did get solar. the roi was just not there, and the vendors seemed unwilling to even bother.