Solar Power

adam

Surin relic
Hi Guys

The only main bill I have to pay is electricity and was wondering about solar power.

Is this any kind of a goer, or is it still too expensive to set up?

Any info appreciated. I thought I saw a shop selling solar panels near Buriram on the Prakhonchai road.

I'm a little surprised it is not something the government is pushing.
 
I've seen quite a lot of solar power panels in use in the north, including fairly sizeable buildings in Chiangmai. But I think to get power on the scale you would need it for a Western-style house here is still quite expensive. I don't know at what stage in building a house you have to decide whether or not to go solar; maybe Alan can advise?

The Thaksin government donated small solar power units to numerous hilltribe houses in villages which mains electricity had not yet reached, so it cannot be very expensive at that scale.

I suggest googling it to see if you can locate suppliers.
 
At the big Architect expo in Bangkok, should be in be in end of April first of May they have all the latest products to Thailand. They have Solar Power products, but they are way behind the western world, including price. The ones made here, like most things, are of very low quality. If you can wait, this is the best venue for up to date building products in Thailand.


 
At the big Architect expo in Bangkok, should be in be in end of April first of May they have all the latest products to Thailand. They have Solar Power products, but they are way behind the western world, including price. The ones made here, like most things, are of very low quality. If you can wait, this is the best venue for up to date building products in Thailand.


If have details please send , I will take a trip down there with Danny..
 
I fancy a crack at this solar power also, but was wondering about the outlay for purchase and installation, and with the relatively low cost of electricity here in Thailand, my electricity bill on the 1st of this month was 800 baht, it makes me wonder how long (years) would it be before I saw any real benefit?
 
you would never see a benefit. the price of the panels, price of the batteries, then set up fee, then replacement of all in a few years, you would be in the hole I am afraid.
 
I fancy a crack at this solar power also, but was wondering about the outlay for purchase and installation, and with the relatively low cost of electricity here in Thailand, my electricity bill on the 1st of this month was 800 baht, it makes me wonder how long (years) would it be before I saw any real benefit?

800 Baht!! How much is everyone elses bills..please. Mine is always around 2000baht!!

Details please........
 
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I did plenty of research into Solar Power for Electricity Supply and at present rates it would take more years than I have left in me to recover the initial outlay.

However, the 2 Water Heaters in our house are the biggest consumers at 6 KW, then comes the Aircon etc.

Solar water heating is very cheap and easy to set up, even DIY if you want to mess around with pipes and tanks etc.
I am planning to have the Electric heaters in for the Shower etc until I have time to play around and set up an alternative, (possibly Solar) Hot Water System then the Electric heaters will go to Standby for when the sun doesnt shine so much.

One other consideration for those of you with 'bigger places'' is a Heat Pump, forum member ''Surin'' is the man to ask, he is an expert.
Basically using the available heat in the air, his machines will extract the freely available energy and use it to heat water and the output is a supply of cooler air and all for a very attractive price, costing almost nothing to run.
I will also be considering one of his smaller units when setting up the Hot water System for my place - it may cost more than Solar initially, but it is more efficient to run and reliable too. Possibly I can also duct the cooler air into my Gymnasium, not that I intend to ever work up a sweat in there, will leave that to the missus !!

Solar Electricity as opposed to the regular supply - no thanks. Water Heating - oh yes !!

Cheers, MH
 
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General concensus seems to be that Solar is really only good for water heaters (which I don't use!!).

So Put that one out of my mind.

Wow MH, sounds like you are building a mansion!
 
Water heaters are always big consumers of electricity, but how long do you run them for? Aircons, on the other hand, you tend to run all night.
 
Air 10 baht for 1 hour I was told ,

Ours are on in summer for about 9 hours a night; that's 270 hours a month x 2 = 540 hours. Our total electric bill for the house in summer is 2,500 - 3,000 or so, which includes also 2 waterheaters, 2 water pumps, a fridge, a washing machine, and the usual lights and fans. Aircons cannot cost more than 3-4 baht an hour.
 
Ours are on in summer for about 9 hours a night; that's 270 hours a month x 2 = 540 hours. Our total electric bill for the house in summer is 2,500 - 3,000 or so, which includes also 2 waterheaters, 2 water pumps, a fridge, a washing machine, and the usual lights and fans. Aircons cannot cost more than 3-4 baht an hour.

My wife’s dad has been a air con engineers all his life ,I will make a call and find out some accurate details
 
Like Baz, my bills are around 800 baht/month. Only 1 aircon and I am not there to use it half the time.
 
I did plenty of research into Solar Power for Electricity Supply and at present rates it would take more years than I have left in me to recover the initial outlay.

However, the 2 Water Heaters in our house are the biggest consumers at 6 KW, then comes the Aircon etc.

Solar water heating is very cheap and easy to set up, even DIY if you want to mess around with pipes and tanks etc.
I am planning to have the Electric heaters in for the Shower etc until I have time to play around and set up an alternative, (possibly Solar) Hot Water System then the Electric heaters will go to Standby for when the sun doesnt shine so much.

One other consideration for those of you with 'bigger places'' is a Heat Pump, forum member ''Surin'' is the man to ask, he is an expert.
Basically using the available heat in the air, his machines will extract the freely available energy and use it to heat water and the output is a supply of cooler air and all for a very attractive price, costing almost nothing to run.
I will also be considering one of his smaller units when setting up the Hot water System for my place - it may cost more than Solar initially, but it is more efficient to run and reliable too. Possibly I can also duct the cooler air into my Gymnasium, not that I intend to ever work up a sweat in there, will leave that to the missus !!

Solar Electricity as opposed to the regular supply - no thanks. Water Heating - oh yes !!

Cheers, MH
I like to have a bath sometimes twice a day it loosens me up before I play golf, so I might look into a roof mounted hot water heater .Last year my friend a plumber from the U-K suggested a couple of good ways of doing it. We looked at a couple on display here in Surin and his words were crap ,but he did know of some that are good over here too , maybe a trip to this show in Bangkok might be worth the journey. I only want to do the job once .
 
800 Baht!! How much is everyone elses bills..please. Mine is always around 2000baht!!

Details please........

Sorry i've not got back to you sooner Adam but I get side tracked with my Family Tree business, i'm trying to do three trees at once, and don't get on Surifarang as much as I used to.

Yes my electricity bills are around 800 baht a month, I have the usual 2 TV's, 2 computer's, printer, fans in three bedrooms, kitchen and living room, air con in one bedroom, hot/cold water shower, lights in all rooms all on at night time, lights in garden which are on all through the night, kettle, toaster, microwave, music centre. My computer is on 24 hours.

I would want to know what the problem was if it was any higher than 800 baht.

I don't have an electric oven though, maybe some of you do?????
 
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