Solar Power in Phuket

[Walkabout Man]

Hello all.

I was wondering if anyone knows about solar power in this forum?

I have just finished building my house and my power bills are around 5000 baht a month. I would like to know if anyone can suggest a solar shop, also would anyone know roughly how much I would be looking to invest to make myself relatively self sufficient with solar panels.

I have talked with friends and had some insanely expensive guesses at how much it would cost. (2million up). Has anyone else here in Phuket had solar power installed?

How long would it take to get my investment back?

Also if anyone knows of any reputable dealers and installers on Phuket

Edited December 14, 2015 by Walkabout Man

[eisfeld]

2 million seems indeed insane. I have two friends who fairly recently got solar panels on their roofs.

Don't remember the exact price but I think it was around 350k THB for a bit more than 20sqm including inverter and installation.

A fairly known company would be http://www.amornsolar.com/en/index.php

Here another one that sells through HomePro: http://www.sprsolarroof.co.th/en/product_solarroof_package/

For break-even you'll probably look at a 7-10 years timeframe. It would be much better if one could actually sell back to the grid.

Depends on how much you use electricity at night obviously.

Let's say you can get your bill down to 2.5k. So that's 55k per year, 385k in 7 years. That should cover installation and maintenance.

[Shot]

Here's a thread that ran a few months ago. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/836545-solar-power/?hl=%2Bsolar+%2Bpower

I ran the number a few years ago and it would have been 12 years to break even, and that wasn't considering replacement batteries and or parts over that time.

[hkt83100]

I think the easiest way might be to rethink the way, you are using electricity. 5000 Baht gets me about three to four months of electricity. I have a computer running 24/7, several TV's on stand-by, but I use aircon only in hot nights to sleep, but a few fans are running quite a lot. In these days the aircon cools the bedroom down while taking a shower and then retires for the rest of the night. The washing machine runs almost daily (warm water), but no deep-freeze.

The house does not have fancy isolation, like a PU-foamed roof of YTONG walls.

[Walkabout Man]

I think the easiest way might be to rethink the way, you are using electricity. 5000 Baht gets me about three to four months of electricity. I have a computer running 24/7, several TV's on stand-by, but I use aircon only in hot nights to sleep, but a few fans are running quite a lot. In these days the aircon cools the bedroom down while taking a shower and then retires for the rest of the night. The washing machine runs almost daily (warm water), but no deep-freeze.

The house does not have fancy isolation, like a PU-foamed roof of YTONG walls.

Big house and 5 people regularly using everything, washing machine never stops. When I was by myself I would use 500-1000 baht a month

[Guest]

Solar panels are quite cheap. It's the storing of the energy, which costs.

If you manage to calculate how much energy you use during the daytime and use grid power during the nights, then you might be able to drop the break even time quite a lot.

If you use water heaters, then cheap solar water heater can pay itself very fast.

[hansgruber]

Ive heard 10 to 15 years for investment return but thats pending if the panels even last that long.

Ive had a friends one go dead in under 5 years and needed replacing.

[eisfeld]

Ive heard 10 to 15 years for investment return but thats pending if the panels even last that long.

Ive had a friends one go dead in under 5 years and needed replacing.

I've seen a warrenty from Amorn Solar that guaranteed 90% output for 10 years, 80% for 25.

The expensive thing that doesn't last long are batteries so it's better like oilinki said to just buy from the grid in the night.

It should be possible to break even in under 10 years under normal circumstances.

[Guest]

I asked professional company advice in 2009. My needs were based on 500 watt average consumption.

Their calculation, (Phuket temperature, weather and solar radiance) showed that to have 500W average consumption (12V system, 1000Ah), I would have needed 4300W solar panel array.

The estimate price tag with, with huge battery array (5100Ah) to provide 4 day autonomy, was 35.000 euros.

After that I started to do my own plans. Four day autonomy would had to be scrapped and be replaced with gas/diesel/gasoline generator as I was planning an off-grid home.

[eisfeld]

oilinki: yup the costs for batteries are still way too high to make them feasable for most. And that they lose their efficiency relatively quickly doesn't make things better. I hope the next 10 years will bring us a breakthrough in battery tech with so much investment and increased need (electric cars).

This is actually the first question anyone who thinks about solar panels has to ask themselves: is your goal a reduced bill or autonomy from the grid?

[Guest]

I'm in the impression that the battery technology research is getting much more money, than it used to get. It's the one big problem, which has to be solved. Most likely there will be several different solutions in the future.

Then again, good ways to store hydrogen would be equally good way to provide energy storage.

[ksamuiguy]

The technology is not there yet, low watt density, battery technology, inverters, low power handeling ability (A/C, frig, water heaters). ROI for house in not less the 12 yeras right now if you are lucky. Also continual preventive maintenance and battery replacements.

Fuel Cells would be a better, but agian technology for private use not there yet.

[stevehaigh]

i would look into getting direct from china via alibaba. everything is 2 to 3x the chinese price here and shipping isn't that expensive (but customs is)

but for a bigger installation, i think you would save a lot.

when i was in the US last summer i staying in a place with a big solar array. it worked well but only from about 10am to 3pm. if it had a simple sun tracker to rotate it into the sun it could eaily have got another 3-4hrs of power out i think. i'd look into a tracker too. i think here you could get 10hrs/day with that on.

[Old Croc]

The technology is not there yet, low watt density, battery technology, inverters, low power handeling ability (A/C, frig, water heaters). ROI for house in not less the 12 yeras right now if you are lucky. Also continual preventive maintenance and battery replacements.

Fuel Cells would be a better, but agian technology for private use not there yet.

Tesla Powerwall.

https://www.teslamotors.com/presskit/teslaenergy

Edited December 16, 2015 by Old Croc

[ourdon]

I'm in the impression that the battery technology research is getting much more money, than it used to get. It's the one big problem, which has to be solved. Most likely there will be several different solutions in the future.

Then again, good ways to store hydrogen would be equally good way to provide energy storage.

Elon Musk and Tesla (partnered with Panasonic) are producing batteries to complete a home solar system.

https://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/POWERWALL

Looks interesting

Great Minds.........Hey Old Croc?

Edited December 16, 2015 by ourdon

[KarenBravo]

In these days of cheap gasoline, buy a generator and some noise cancelling head-phones......

[Walkabout Man]

I just heard that the Thai government is offering a buyback of power to people that install solar. It started in April and they have a set amount of quotas. Has anyone heard any more details about this?