Lazada

[Toy Boy]

5 hours ago, Gary said:

Today it is completely overcast, no sun. I'm happy to say that my double sized capacity solar panels are putting out less than 50 percent and still charging the batteries quite well as well as running everything. So called experts have told me that my systems are not efficient, BUT, they serve me well. Yes, I am wasting electricity but what is wasted cost nothing. I am able to use the extra power from full sun but I have to plug in an outlet and throw a double pole double throw switch to change from the grid to the battery bank. I'm not techie enough to make it automatic. That runs the refrigerator, some lights and a freezer. If I forget to change it back, my batteries would not last through the night. It's not worth the effort. I run eight surveillance cameras plus the router and WiFi from the battery bank 24/7. If using the grid, the power goes off (often) so do the cameras and recorders.

Here in Pattaya all the electricity meters are being changed to "smart meters". They did mine around nine months ago, but it's made no difference, every month the guy still rolls by on his scooter, reads the meter and prints out the bill. Some people have been speculating, though, that at some point the PEA may allow you to supply excess solar power to the grid and pay you for it, as happens in the West, and that's the real reason behind the upgrade to "smart meters" that aren't being used as they're meant to be.

[Gary]

I'm not sure about that. The old meters would run backwards if you had extra power from a grid tie inverter. As soon as they saw my solar panels, they changed my meter to the so called smart meter that cannot run backwards. The other three meters on the pole were not changed, only mine. A techie electrician friend of mine installed a fairly large solar array behind his house. He had applied for the government program but when they finally answered, they disapproved it because the panels were ground mounted and not on his roof. The government program was called Rooftop Solar. Not only that but they went back to before he installed the solar and averaged out his past bills. not only did they get his electric feed for free, he had to pay the old average bills. He ended up buying battery banks and new inverters for off grid use. His large expensive government approved grid tied inverter was then useless. Maybe the worst part was that his components had to be government approved and they were. Not surprising that they were about three times more expensive.

I was never interested in grid tied inverters because they have what is called island protection. When the grid goes down those inverters go down also and you still have no electricity.