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By Noble_Design, July 5 in House building & DIY projects
Over the weekend I just had a hybrid solar PV system installed at my house due to the crazy increase of electricity tariffs lately.
This is a hybrid system which means the PV also charges a battery which in case of a power outage from the grid will still be able to power up the house hold.
Power outages has been quite frequent at my housing area due to the frequent thunderstorms.
Anyway I'll explain further with the accompanying pictures:
So here you have the PV panels themselves. Monocrystalline 460W each. Originally I planned to have 11 of them installed to give me a total max output of 5,060W but unfortunately the side of my roof can only accommodate 6 panels while the rear roof can only install 4. It will be a bit weird and a bit more expensive to run the wires to the other side of the roof just to accommodate another 1 panel so decided 10 panels for a max output of 4,600W should be ok.
The hybrid inverter and the associated breakers for the system, the electricity from the PEA's grid and for the battery. The inverter will decide based on the load of the house whether to use electricity from PV only, PV+battery, or PV+battery+grid electricity. At night time it will automatically switch to using battery power or combination battery + grid if needed.
At 10.20 AM yesterday on a cloudy morning I was still getting a respectable 2.9kW from the PV. I can't wait for this week's stormy weather to pass so I can check again the max output at 12 - 1 PM when the sun shines the brightest.
And this is the LifePO4 battery with a capacity of 11kW/h which serves as both backup power during power outages and provides power during night time. This battery is enough for my household's 2 A/C unit running the whole night.
So you are not sending power back in to the grid?
Which would make your meter count backwards, just sayin'
Aside, I think you could have installed minimum 3 more pannels, 2 over the 6, 1 over the 4, horizontal, or 6 more (4+2) vertical like the others.
Actually you still can, later. ;-)
Interested to read about the numbers over a month later. How much savings do you have.
(Still think that getting the units for free in the night, aircon on, because you uploaded some power in daytime, might be the better deal?)
So you are not sending power back in to the grid?
Which would make your meter count backwards, just sayin'
Aside, I think you could have installed minimum 3 more pannels, 2 over the 6, 1 over the 4, horizontal, or 6 more (4+2) vertical like the others.
Actually you still can, later. ;-)
Interested to read about the numbers over a month later. How much savings do you have.
(Still think that getting the units for free in the night, aircon on, because you uploaded some power in daytime, might be the better deal?)
Not yet, will look into selling back the excess electricity to PEA in the future. That would involve making an application and subject to their approval before we can sell back the excess power.
The battery does offer a further security during power outages which unfortunately is happening quite frequently at my area around 1-2 times a week for an hour each time so having the pleasure of not worrying about the next power outage every time there's a storm is quite a nice feeling.
Not yet, will look into selling back the excess electricity to PEA in the future.
I am not talking about selling back. That needs changes in meter and some other adjustment to the grid.
I am talking about "giving it back", just for the meter count. Because you will never get the price per unit, you would have to pay, getting it back from them. So it is the best deal. Just secure your home grid, afaik the rest will just work fine. With this little amount of power send back into the grid. Or get more battery capacity, to keep all. Just need to be enough to run at least all without the air, methinks. Maybe even the Air, perhaps without the compressor?
In Europe, some people are using single/double balcony solar panels for that. Just plugging it in to the socket. If there fridge runs, or whatever, that is using up the solar first. If they dont have any use for power, it count backwards on the meter. As long you arent having a smart meter, that is easy going. Of course, the power Co's dont like that. But as long it works, ....!
You just need to stop "charging" into the grid, while they changing the meter over the "last month" little numbers. ;-)
At 10.20 AM yesterday on a cloudy morning I was still getting a respectable 2.9kW from the PV. I can't wait for this week's stormy weather to pass so I can check again the max output at 12 - 1 PM when the sun shines the brightest.
Looks like a good installation. Who was the supplier and what was the approx total cost - PM if you prefer.
5 years ago it was nigh on impossible to get anyone in CM to quote on such an installation unless one paid a deposit ... then they'd come and look.
Looks like a good installation. Who was the supplier and what was the approx total cost - PM if you prefer.
5 years ago it was nigh on impossible to get anyone in CM to quote on such an installation unless one paid a deposit ... then they'd come and look.
It would probably work better if it was pointed at the sun.
A bit of update since the weather has been improving these few days. I managed to get 3.6kW out of the PV at 1:13PM, there are some clouds however they don't seem to be obstructing the sun. So on this day I am getting a sun to electric efficiency rate of 3.6/4.6 = 78.2%
As for usage, I turned on 1 A/C (9000 BTU) and 1 fan at the living room, the fridge and TV is running and I think I was also using the microwave at that time. My consumption was 1.56kW
This means I have an excess of about 2kW which goes into the Li battery as you can see from the diagram above. I just realized that the battery has an advantage of acting as a buffer to supply power when the sun is suddenly obstructed by passing clouds and the PV output drops below my consumption requirement.
Will be looking into selling back the excess electricity to the PEA soon.
If you could provide an estimate of the cost, I the a lot of us would be interested
If you could provide an estimate of the cost, I the a lot of us would be interested
The cost is around 180,000 baht for my system. It would be cheaper if the system does not include a battery like mine.
I'm thinking for my next upgrade to install some wind turbine so that when the sun is down I can still get some electricity from wind power. My inverter can be hooked up to a wind turbine as well as long as the power produced is at 48V.
However the guy who installed my PV said that it's not really recommended since the place where I stay isn't really windy. He said wind power is more suited for areas near the beach so I will be looking forward to installing them at my retirement land at Chanthaburi.
Anyway some of these wind turbines on sale at Lazada/Shopee is really dubious. With just a blade diameter of 1.2m they claim a power output of 4.2kW? That's almost as much as my PV from turbine slightly bigger than beer bottle LOL.
Anyway some of these wind turbines on sale at Lazada/Shopee is really dubious. With just a blade diameter of 1.2m they claim a power output of 4.2kW? That's almost as much as my PV from turbine slightly bigger than beer bottle LOL.
At what RPM? Designed for and extremely popular on cruising vessels, the 'budget' models require a near hurricane force to reach max output and the noise is comparable to a multi-engine Antonov at take-off speed. Slight exaggeration, but you get the point.
What was your monthly kwh consumption prior to PV install and what % reduction are you anticipating?
At what RPM? Designed for and extremely popular on cruising vessels, the 'budget' models require a near hurricane force to reach max output and the noise is comparable to a multi-engine Antonov at take-off speed. Slight exaggeration, but you get the point.
What was your monthly kwh consumption prior to PV install and what % reduction are you anticipating?
This is the spec that the seller posted in Lazada for the 3,600 baht turbine:
Specification: Rated power:4000W Maximum power:4200W Rated voltage:12V/24V Start up wind speed:2.0m/s Rated wind speed:11.5m/s Survival wind speed:55m/s Top net weight:6.2kg Wheel diameter:1.3m Blades number:5
Perhaps the 4.2kW is only obtainable at 55m/s which is the max wind speed it can handle. I'm pretty sure I won't be needing so much electric when the wind is blowing at almost 200km/h outside. I'll be looking for shelter instead.
Before the PV installation my monthly consumption is about 650-700 kWh which translates to a bill of about 3,000 baht. Incidentally I just received my latest bill yesterday about 2 weeks after installation of the PV. The bill turns out to be 450 kWh or almost 2,000 baht.
Bear in mind that in the 2 weeks that I have installed the PV, I was not able to use the battery at night for 1 week due to setup issue. Apparently the inverter was setup to use the battery only in the event of power down from the grid so essentially the battery was setup more as a UPS as oppose to supplying power when the PV is not operating. The installer came to my house a week later and in just 5 minutes the battery is setup to supply power when the PV is not operating (e.g. night time).
Also in these past 2 weeks the weather has not been so good what's with the rain and storm so there were a few days when my battery was not charged fully for night use. All said I am still very pleased of the savings in just half a month.
Now with the battery properly set up and if the weather remains the same (rainy+storms) I am expecting a minimum saving of about 400kWh/month (worst case scenario) and if the weather gets better I'm expecting a saving of 500kWh/month.
So that's a saving of 2,000 baht/month (minimum) to 2,500 baht/mth (maximum).
That means the system will pay off itself in 6 years (soonest) to 7.5 years (latest)
11.5 m/s = 40 kmph which is probably way more than you'd get except during a squall unless you're close the coast.
Your previous monthly average is similar to ours but we have a pool and irrigation. Perhaps your a/c use is way more? We seldom use more than 4hrs a/c daily.
Good results so far and the way PEA prices are going you'll be well compensated before those PV's wear out.
The cost is around 180,000 baht for my system. It would be cheaper if the system does not include a battery like mine.
It is sunny and baking at my wife's new house..............
So may be something to look at
11.5 m/s = 40 kmph which is probably way more than you'd get except during a squall unless you're close the coast.
Your previous monthly average is similar to ours but we have a pool and irrigation. Perhaps your a/c use is way more? We seldom use more than 4hrs a/c daily.
Good results so far and the way PEA prices are going you'll be well compensated before those PV's wear out.
Yes we have a 9,000 BTU A/C in the living room which we will usually turn on by 1 or 2 PM and stays on till 6 PM. At night time there are 2 A/Cs - 15,000 BTU & 9,000 BTU turned on for 7-8 hours.
Yeah those PV has a warranty of 20 years from the manufacturer so hopefully in the long run it'll be a good saving.
It is sunny and baking at my wife's new house..............
So may be something to look at
Sooner or later every house will be equipped with it
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