Solar Electricity Backup

[heliox]

Hi All,

I have done abit of research on setting up a Solar Emergency power backup system and was wondering if anyone has any info on suppliers/installers they have used here in Thailand or if anyone has imported equipment from the many units offered from China.

Also does anyone have any input wheather it would be better to go solar or a small generator.

Thanks in advance and Happy Songkran

Darren

[Naam]

Also does anyone have any input wheather it would be better to go solar or a small generator.

do you have any input what capacity you require or are you just curious how long a piece of string is?

p.s. use the search function. the dead horse "photovoltaic power" has been flogged multiple times.

Edited April 18, 2011 by Naam

[heliox]

Also does anyone have any input wheather it would be better to go solar or a small generator.

do you have any input what capacity you require or are you just curious how long a piece of string is?

p.s. use the search function. the dead horse "photovoltaic power" has been flogged multiple times.

http://www.thaivisa....nd/page__st__25

My plan was something to use as a backup, not really needing to power the whole house just a few lights, fan, able to charge phone,laptop and run the water pump

[InterestedObserver]

To answer your question directly, a small generator would be better for backup. Although the cost is coming down, solar system components cost too much. Solar is not practical unless subsidized by the government.

[gregb]

Also does anyone have any input wheather it would be better to go solar or a small generator.

do you have any input what capacity you require or are you just curious how long a piece of string is?

p.s. use the search function. the dead horse "photovoltaic power" has been flogged multiple times.

http://www.thaivisa....nd/page__st__25

My plan was something to use as a backup, not really needing to power the whole house just a few lights, fan, able to charge phone,laptop and run the water pump

If you are not planning on using the system everyday, solar is an incredible waste of money. For a small load you are much better off just getting a couple of batteries and an inverter. You'd need all of that for solar anyway. The solar panel itself is just superfluous and throwing away money in this instance. Charge the batteries on grid power, and drain the batteries when your power goes down. Easiest way would probably just to get a UPS with an external battery plug (or just drill a hole in any old UPS and make your own external battery plug). Buy a set of 4 SLA batteries and you're done. 5k - 6k for the whole setup.

If you need a really long backup time or expect very high loads then get a generator.

There are no circumstances where I think solar makes sense for the application you have described.

[InterestedObserver]

My plan was something to use as a backup, not really needing to power the whole house just a few lights, fan, able to charge phone,laptop and run the water pump

What size water pump, HP?