Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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buksida
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

Post by buksida »

Cheers, will drop them an email and see what they suggest.

I've tried those cheapo Chinese ones on Lazada and they're useless (broken within a month) unless you're willing to spend tens of thousands ...
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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RCer wrote: Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:30 pm Solar is a perfect idea for Thailand. Only question in my mind, will the roof on the average village home support it?
Really, when electricity is so cheap here. Car battieries last a few years tops so how long with battery packs last.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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Not a lot of response from that company, probably because I'm not spending a fortune. :roll:

So can any of you solar/electrics gurus knock up a spec and round cost for panels to power a 90w pump that shifts 4000 liters per hour? Obviously I'd have to buy a DC pump as it would be cheaper than the inverter. It would run during the day and stop at night so no batteries required.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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It is not really practical to run anything, pump or otherwise, direct from a solar panel. The output varies too much with varying levels of sunlight, so a battery is necessary to provide a stable supply.

Not sure how you arrived at the pump requirement? Although it is just a simple pond that you want to use it on, the wattage required to drive a pump depends on several variable factors. The usual way is to work out both the suction and discharge "head" to arrive at the required flow, and hence the power required. If it is a submersible pump, then it is mostly the discharge head, which accumulates higher depending on pipe size, filter restriction, etc.

Your 90 watts at 12 Volts, disregarding losses', equates to 7.5 amps, but that is at full load, so it may well be less.
A common misconception with centrifugal type pumps is that the load will be less if the discharge has no restriction,
i.e.: it is open ended. In fact, if the flow rate is reduced, then the "work" required is less, so the pump will draw less amps. To reduce the amps draw it would need a small valve on the discharge side to throttle in the flow.

Solar panels are like everything else: you get what you pay for. Lazada has 50 watt panels for around 2,000 Baht, where the commercial suppliers are asking between 5,000 / 6,000 Baht per panel.

The supply of a 12 volt pump may also prove to be a problem. There are marine bilge pumps available that are good quality, but be aware that most of them are not rated for continuous use, even if it is just 12 hours a day.

All this adds up to why the al cheapo pond pumps from Lazada do not last very long. If you want a reliable system then there is no way around paying more.

You have posted previously complaining about the unreliable and iffy mains supply where you are. In the long term it may be a better option to pay a bit more and set up a system that you can also at least use for your computers and other electronic systems, and then run a small 240 volt pump from that. Some of the higher rated(2 / 3,000 watt) Chinese inverters have come down in price, but be aware that you will have to buy some good deep cycle batteries. If you go for 24 Volts it makes it a lot more attractive, as only 2 batteries are needed. Also halves the wire size requirement on the primary side. Have not bought any but I have seen them advertised for around 4/5,000 Baht each. Looked after they will last many years.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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The following may be of use. They have been in the electronics business for a long time.

http://www.amornsolar.com/en/index.php
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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Thanks for that, yes a lot of info there - the pump calculation was done for the volume of water and Koi carp that like it clean, there was a certain flow rate through the filter that it needed. The a/c pump cost 1,600 and does the job fine - just thought an eco-solution would be better.

You're not wrong on the power problems, the local transformer explodes twice a week, the last one a few days ago blew our shower heater up. Fortunately I did some tests and found it was the earth leakage breaker so 500 baht to change that instead of 6,500 on a new unit. Shit fries on a weekly basis where we live.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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It has to be asked just how long it will take the "authorities" and their connections to make some pocket money out of this. If they would only take their face saving attitude and hide it away, all of the research, technical requirements, pitfalls, equipment etc., are freely available from other countries. But as usual, the first thought will be how much money can be siphoned off, rather than all the advantages to be had. :cuss:
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Private solar power buying gets go-ahead

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/ne ... recent_box

Energy policymakers gave the green light to start buying solar power generated from private buildings and households once again after postponing the programme for more than four years.

Private buildings and households that are accepted by the programme will sell surplus solar power to the state's utilities.

Energy Minister Siri Jirapongphan said the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency is carrying out studies to outline the investment conditions, which are expected to be concluded this year.
He said there is no solid time frame yet because details such as business model, investment budget, power tariff, net metering system, supporting region and capacity from each building are still under development.

The tightened condition is the power tariff to sell back should be up to 2.44 baht per kilowatt-hour.

Mr Siri said policymakers are confident that the cost to develop rooftop solar photovoltaic panels has declined.
The programme will allow for households to sell power either under a business-to-business model or to sell surplus electricity wholesale to the state.

"We are working to support households to participate in the power generation from their own rooftops and to receive revenue from selling the surplus electricity," Mr Siri said.

This programme is aimed at achieving policymakers' goal to have all types of renewable energy make up 30% of the country's total power generation by 2036 from 10% at present.

The policymaker expects to see a decline in heavy dependence on fossil-based power in the long run. Fossil fuels make up 85% of national power.

Mr Siri said the programme may be accelerated to increase the proportion of renewable energy and meet the target sooner than projected.

Biomass and biogas are becoming mainstream energy sources, with combined capacity of more than 3,000 megawatts.
The rooftop programme was launched for the first time in 2013 with a total quota of 200MW.

Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan were allocated 80MW of the total, equally distributed between private buildings and households.

At the time, the power tariff was set at 6.10-6.96 baht per kilowatt-hour, higher than for the upcoming programme.
Since then, the programme has faced political conflicts and has not been promoted, leaving huge solar power projects of 2,000MW pending during 2014-16.

Somruedee Chaimongkol, director of Banpu Infinergy Co, a solar energy provider, said the company welcomes the programme and is ready to comply once the investment conditions have been made clearer.

She said the company is confident the current power tariff is competitive and fair, relative to its business partnerships with smart energy service providers.

The company provides a combined capacity of 12MW and has another 100MW in its backlog.

Banpu Infinergy is also set to achieve 300MW of capacity from solar energy to serve future demand in accordance with the Energy Ministry's Alternative Energy Development Plan

Solar rooftop owners operate as independent power suppliers (IPSs). The Energy Regulatory Commission reported that registered IPSs have a combined capacity of 2,600MW and more new IPSs are being launched each month with an average capacity of 4-5MW.

IPS capacity accounts for 6.5% of the total power generation system.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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No rationale left not to abandon fossil fuels

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... ssil-fuels

It has become clear to many that the global trend of renewable energy development, particularly solar energy, is unstoppable.

For some strange reason, that has, however, not become clear to energy officials and policymakers. But there are now good signs that Thai policymakers have finally come around to acknowledging the reality.
The Bangkok Post reported early this week that energy policymakers are making plans to develop a system for trading electricity among households, and a business model for retail power trading.

New regulations will be drafted to transform traditional power distribution from large power plants into a decentralised system using blockchain technology.

Speaking at a seminar, Viraphol Jirapraditkul, a member of the Energy Regulatory Commission, said the new regulations will serve the rapid increase in solar photovoltaic rooftops and independent power producers over the last two years.

"Solar power will be the new direction of the power trading business," he said.

Importantly, the new regulations will address the issue of fees for power transmission through the national grid and power backup for when power demand after sunset shifts to rely on traditional power plants.

In the past, energy officials have raised objections to solar power promotion based on fears that solar power generation on a wide scale would disrupt the current transmission schedule and backup system.

With solar power generating electricity in the daytime, the peak power demand would shift to night time, and a reliable backup system needs to be maintained because of inconsistency in solar power generation.

These are legitimate concerns. But they are not good enough reasons to impede renewable energy development.

I appreciate that tackling these challenges requires policy and engineering ingenuity as well as financial and human resources. However, developments in other, usually more advanced countries have shown that there are practical solutions, which means we don't have to start from zero.

What is required of officials in this instance is an open mind to accept change and willingness to work for the public interest.

Mr Viraphol argued for fees on solar power producers to "be fair to traditional power plants" because "there will be fewer power generators for standby electricity".

However, I'm not convinced that renewable energy producers, particularly at the household level, should be subjected to additional fees for changes to the transmission and power reserve systems.

For too long, the Thai government has been slow to adopt renewable energy production and half-hearted in promoting it.

While residents in more advanced countries enjoy government subsidies, Thais who are interested in the technology either have to bear the full cost of installation or wait for state aid that is highly uncertain. Now, let's consider what would happen if renewable energy becomes more widespread.

The traditional power generation industry will have to undergo tremendous change at probably considerable costs. However, it would continue to provide base power production, and distribution and backup systems.

On the other hand, power distribution will become decentralised so that power production and usage would be more accessible. New installations can be made quickly and need not wait years to become operational.

The government does not need to build any more traditional power plants. It only has to maintain existing ones and perhaps retire some of them over time. There is no need to maintain as much power reserve, which now stands at close to 40% of peak demand.

There's also no need for any more traditional -- and expensive -- power plants which require years to build and causes severe environmental impacts.
All of these amount to great savings for governmental outlays. These savings can be used to implement required changes to the traditional power distribution and reserve systems without imposing burdens on household solar power producers.

Renewables also enhance energy security. A decentralised system means problems at any part of the system do not cause widespread outage.

Fuels are free and year-round, more or less. System maintenance is minimal because there are few parts to maintain. Power demand will be higher but it will be met by renewable energy, particularly solar and wind, of which average cost has already dropped below that of coal.

We are also at a junction in world history where internal combustion will be replaced by electric motors.
A Business Insider report on May 8, citing "Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis", says the cost of producing solar power has dropped to US$50 (1,600 baht) per megawatt-hour while coal costs $102.

And this cost is expected to decline further. Business Insider concludes that this recent change "could be a sign that the world is on the verge of an energy revolution".

Given all these developments, it's only logical to shift away from fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy.
For this reason, there is no longer any rationale for not abandoning plans to build coal-fired power plants in the South or elsewhere in the country.

Wasant Techawongtham is a former news editor, Bangkok Post.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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Then, maybe, every time it rains we won't lose power.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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I had solar installed in July of this year. Cost for 20 high grade panels and including installation, converters (DC to AC) etc 300,000. It produces around 30Kw on a good sunny day and has reduced my electric bills by around 70%. Estimated payback 6 years.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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Fandango wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2018 11:54 am I had solar installed in July of this year. Cost for 20 high grade panels and including installation, converters (DC to AC) etc 300,000. It produces around 30Kw on a good sunny day and has reduced my electric bills by around 70%. Estimated payback 6 years.
I feel that action needs to be applauded. :thumb:

Please keep us update with any developments, good or bad, such as unexpected maintenance costs or even greater savings in the event you add some kind of new technology. Pete :cheers:
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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I was just talking about this in another thread ... maybe they've been reading HHF!


Solar panel surplus sales from 2021

The Energy Ministry will allow solar panel owners to sell surplus electricity in communities from 2021, in line with the new national energy reform plan.

Under the law, solar panel owners cannot sell power directly to others, though they can sell it to the state grid under power purchase agreements, but there are limits.

In March 2018, energy policymakers passed the new national energy plan, and reforms began in September, with peer-to-peer power trade, also known as the micro-grid, meant to allow open and free private participation in the energy sector.

Over the past four years, the Energy Policy and Planning Office (Eppo) hosted seven public hearings on the micro-grid.

Full Advantage Co, a sustainable energy and environmental solutions provider, was assigned to conduct a feasibility study of the micro-grid and design a business model.

Wattanapong Kurovat, Eppo's acting director-general, said the feasibility study started in 2015 and considered the previous version of national power development plan. On Monday the eighth public hearing took place in Bangkok and received good responses from the private sector.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/ne ... -from-2021
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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Buksi,

What would be the cost of setting up solar power here on an average 3 bedroom home be, where do you buy the panels from and is it reliable?

I think most of us would like to adopt solar energy (in a place that's abundant) but are unsure about the cost, procedure and consistency going forward.

Just seems easier and less grief to pay the 500-2000 baht a month.

Edit: I find it absolutely crazy that solar power isn't utilised in a sunny country like Thailand. It's just the unknown.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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I looked into it and it is still prohibitively expensive in Thailand, 300-400k, with a ROI of about 12-15 years (in our case anyway). That is why nobody uses it here.
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Re: Solar power setup for your home in Thailand

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buksida wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:03 am I looked into it and it is still prohibitively expensive in Thailand, 300-400k, with a ROI of about 12-15 years (in our case anyway). That is why nobody uses it here.
That's madness isn't it! The whole country could power itself by the sun but...

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