Upgrading electric meter on a new build

[buksida]

Anyone know if it is possible to upgrade an electric meter? The standard one they put on a domestic houses in Thailand is 15 amp which is barely enough to cover the basic appliances. If you have an a/c running, someone is in the shower, the TV is on, a few lights on and a computer running you'll start to get dips and spikes when other appliances (especially high amperage kitchen ones) are switched on and start drawing current through that feeble meter.

The electric board are saying no, so maybe adding solar to supplement the juice would work? Advice appreciated!

[hhfarang]

Buksi,

As I stated before, I don't know anything about electricity (except that 230 volts hurts) but you know the size of my house and the electronics and lighting contained within, and I don't have any problems with several air cons running, three refrigerators, lots of lights, computer and TV going all at the same time while someone is in the shower... so I think it must be possible.

My wife got ours (from temporary by the builder to permanent) and I just asked her. She said the only question they asked her at the electric company was whether she needed single phase or three phase. When she described the house to them they told her she needed three phase.

Did you possibly get a single phase one?

[Aussie_Al]

Not sure about the point of your post regarding larger ampage meters; and not sure about solar costs in Thailand.
However, know from putting solar on my Australian home, it is not cheap, even with our government rebates at the time (2 years ago).
In addition you'd want to watch the sun in respect of the way your roof faces.
Idedally afternoon sun on solar pannels at hotest time of the day.

Alternatively, and I use one in my vehicle (4X4) in Australia, from the lighter plug for 240 volt stuff.
An inverter to turn 12 volt DC into 240 volt AC, and 3 or 4 heavy duty car batteries in parralell for those peak use times. Should see you have little, if any, issues or problems.

And basic Ohms law stuff, divide your total wattage at peak use for all that is on working flat out, by the 230/240 volt, and ya have your ampage at peak times. Every item should display it's wattage, making the maths simple. ie 100 watt driving lights on a car x 2 equals 200 watts, divided by 12 for a car, means you need pretty thick wire not to overhead, and at least a 20 amp fuse.

I hope my 2 cents worth helped.

Cheers Allan

[STEVE G]

I think it might be to do with the available supply in the area you're in as we've been offered various options including three phase by the electricity supplier. I can't remember the details, but I think there was an option for 45 Amps and I would think that three phase would be good for about a 100.

[crazy88]

Depends on what is running through your area but still possible although you might have to bring a better supply in yourself. We have only taken one phase into the house. If we wanted to take the other 2 in to zone the place in the future no problem as three phase runs right next to the house. RE the electricity board they have a proper horrible little **** working for them at the moment. Told us we could not run our electric underground from a public post that the existing house and next door already use. Unless of course we could come to an "arrangement". Then tried to tell my partner that we needed our own transformer for some 300 odd thousand baht. All a load of ballcocks of course. I would not have minded slipping him a couple of quid to get the permanent supply hooked up before songkran any more than giving the dustman and the milkman a christmas drink but he took us for idiots and tried to take the piss so he gets SFA. **** wanted a backhander from my neighbour to approve his electrics because the switches and sockets were imported from Denmark. Again he got SFA and all is done at the cost of one phone call and a bottle of scotch that we would have given for songkran to the guy at the electric board that we normally use in any case.

Crazy 88

[PeteC]

I'm sure Nereus and other experts will show up and comment later on. I've always thought you could easily upgrade a 15 amp to a 45 amp meter. I did that on the MIL bungalow here with no problems. I believe when you go further, up to 100 amp you do need 3 phase and the wiring needs to be upgraded, at least from meter to breaker box.

I guess if worse comes to worse you could install 2 x15 amp meters and two breaker boxes and split the house up that way. I'm assuming that's possible. Pete

[buksida]

Thanks for the replies, I think this one may be on the button with it though:

I think it might be to do with the available supply in the area you're in .

We've only been offered a single phase 15A meter as that is what everyone else (including a resort) in the area has - its far from well developed!

I'll try and grease some wheels to upgrade it or attempt the 2x15 option, though does that mean we'll get two electric bills for the one house? There are 2 consumer units with 8 breakers each anyway.

30 or 45A would make things more comfortable and stop stuff like the internet router rebooting every time the water pump kicks in or the UPS beeping away when the mrs wants a coffee! I'm also hoping that decent ring-main wiring with heavy stuff on separate circuits using 2.5 and 4sqmm cable will alleviate some of the problems encountered with Thai-style birds-nest electrical cabling.

[PeteC]

I'd say yes on the 2 meters, 2 bills. Pete

EDIT: Another thought is that if you find the supply is unreliable, one of those small Honda generators may be a good investment to at least keep the fridge, water pump and other essentials running in case of a long outage.

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/products/Generators/

[buksida]

Went to the EB today and they told me they only supplied 15A in that area because there wasn't enough power there and that they would be upgrading the supply there at 'some stage' due to increased demand.

Here is the temporary one:

DSC_4773.jpg (64.34 KiB) Viewed 1737 times

They also gave me this flyer explaining what was available and for how much:

em.jpg (62.38 KiB) Viewed 1738 times

No idea how the 15A meter can support 45 amps (without using all 3 phases) as they claimed but we'll be going for the single phase 30A anyway @ 12k since they've now told us that it is an option.

[poosmate]

I have 4 bed house with pool and use a 15a 3 phase meter.
To work out if the 15amp (45amp peak) is enough power for you, work out how many watts each item adds up to that you would have on at any time.

45amps = 9900watts (Peak)
15amps = 3300watts ( average )

[chopsticks]

The 5 (15) is only for low usage, such as fans, lights,TV and fridge.
The 15 (45) single phase is usually fitted and is adequate for most average size houses which use up to approx. 3 airconditioners and a few instant water heaters.

[STEVE G]

No idea how the 15A meter can support 45 amps...

Basically, some electrical items like AC motors have a very high starting current that rapidly drops off as the motor accelerates up to speed, that's why your router drops off when the water pump starts up. The 45 amps is a peak rating to allow for that whilst the 15 amps is a continuous rating for handling the normal operating load.

[Rob W]

When we bought our place we were asked if we wanted to upgrade the supply size , at a cost of course.
Im sure we have a 30A single phase supply but I will have to check.
we have had no problems with suppling 6 aircons and other appliences.
Rob

[hhfarang]

Oh, and I forgot in my earlier post but Crazy88's post reminded me. We did have to buy a transformer from the electric company, but I was under the impression that was because we were the first to build in an empty farm and grazing area, not because of the specific demands of the home, but I could be wrong about that. There was no electricity at all here then as it stopped several hundred meters down the road. We paid 250k baht for a transformer and several poles to bring the supply to our house. I'd say it's been worth it though as we have always had an adequate and stable supply.