Thread: Solar Panels

Had a 5kw system put in here about 3 months ago, leccy bill have dropped by 75%.

Adding onsite storage would have doubled the cost so they will come later.

Originally Posted by Fondles

Had a 5kw system put in here about 3 months ago

Here, as in Thailand? What electricity demands/products are you covering? Presumably the system shuts down when it rains and at night, yes?

Power out all day again.....this is the worst I recall in my 16 years in this province.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

^My goal is to be totally self sufficient. I look forward to our talk with my wife's solar guy in a week or so. Checked a bit more, and I think 7.5K is more realistic than 5 or 6K for total coverage. So, three years before it pays off.

Is your bill really that high? ( I assume you mean USD7.5K or about PHP400,000 )
It'd take us 15 years to use that much electricity.

^Your electric bill is only a touch over 2000 Piso per month?. Mine was double that 20+ years ago (large house, multiple air-cons & fridges, etc). Electric in da PI is obscenely priced, considering it's off half the time!. I still have friends with Clubs and Hotels there, what they pay p/m is staggering.

^ and ^^. My monthly bill is about 12,500 peso. Close to 15,000 if you add in the cost of running the generator when there is no power. (Note: Whether there has been power or not during any particular month appears to have no impact on the monthly bill.) Thus my estimated annual cost is PHP 180,000.

Estimated solar full set up is about USD7,500 or PHP 390,000 at today's rate.

Thus, a bit over two years should see me sorted.

Note: I have a big house...six bedrooms, but we use power sparingly. Only one aircon is used, and that only at night. Power here is simply as expensive as it is unreliable.

Look into getting one or two of these bad boys;

https://www.tesla.com/powerwall

Originally Posted by Norton

If you go 100% off grid/self sufficient you will be looking at far more. $25,000 give or take.

Hope you're wrong. I'll know more in a week or two once we meet with the solar guy.

Originally Posted by baldrick

fridges also are not available with inverter/VFD start

that sould say - fridges also are now available with inverters

^^^ yep.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

. Elon Musk's power bank is, by all acounts, awesome.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Hope you're wrong. I'll know more in a week or two once we meet with the solar guy.

Let us know when you get the bin. Interesting subject.

^Will do. One of my wife's friends here, with a slightly smaller house, did the full installation for about $10,000 a few years ago. Wife's solar guy inspected it, said it was a poor installation job, and greatly overpriced. Now that prices have dropped even further in the past few years, that's where I'm coming up with my guesstimate of $7,500. If it turns out to be far more than that, I'll just do it in stages.

Solar panel costs have as you noted come way down but to really be self sufficient bunch of battery power will be needed. They are cheaper and better than in the past but still pricey. The $25k price I mentioned was what a relative in Canada paid for a fairly small size house. Included all stuff needed including batteries.

^Let's hope that Canada is like the US, or more so, and that taxes and an excess of regulations and codes jack prices way up. My kid brother is renovating his house in CA and I could have built my house four times over for what he's spent, and a job that would have taken four months here is now just entering year two, and 'nearing' completion.

^ Bsnub's link above shows way less than that for Musk's powerwall. Panels are much cheaper now, it's the storage and integrity of the storage that costs, and Musk's looks good.

It may not be of interest to David K, but Musk's solar roof tiles are guarunteed for 20 years. More expensive than an ordinary roof plus panels installed on top, but very attractive all things considered.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

and a job that would have taken four months here is now just entering year two, and 'nearing' completion.

Then it has been mismanaged. They put up skyscrapers here in Seattle in that much time.

^^^Hope so. I am sure installation cost will be far lower in flipperland so good luck.

^Thanks. Labor is virtually free, and my wife's friend who spent the past years installing these systems in the ME will handle purchasing all the gear through a contact he has here, as well as supervising the installation for what should be a discounted cost. We shall see. More once the wife gets back from LOS.

Originally Posted by Headworx

^Your electric bill is only a touch over 2000 Piso per month?.

Averages about php2,500.
I just got the latest bill today for 3,360 but this last month has been hot, so the air-con has been on more than most months.
434 kilowatt hours at 7.74 per kWh.

I'm in a condo, so I get insulated above, below and on 2 sides. 2 air-cons but only 1 would usually be turned on at any one time.
I work from home 99% of the time these days, so someone is home now nearly all the time.

Wow! I'm picturing one bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, and an ice chest to keep food cool.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Wow! I'm picturing one bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, and an ice chest to keep food cool.

Maybe the meter is broken, but no.

Lights are mostly on, even during the day. At least 2 computers are on nearly 24 hours each day.
The usual electric stove, fridge, washing machine, TV and hot water system etc.. plus air-con probably 12 hours each day

Maybe you have neighbours tapping into your supply?

^Absolutely incomprehensible. I lived in Manila previously where my bill, in a much smaller house, was about the same. Nobody is tapping into my supply; all the neighbors have similar bills. No idea how you're managing it, but well done! Carry on.....

Davis, I hadn't experienced any brownout the past few days, even with the rains. We're practically neighbors, so it must be in your area only.

My elect bill at the apartment is ~200P a month. But then it's a small apt. I have few appliances and am mostly out - I get A/C in the ofc, don't have it at home. When I was living with parents, our bill was less than 1k per month. My sister's bill is around 2k per month, I think. They have appliances, laptops for the kids, etc.

Davis, your 12k bill per month is obscene! For some locals, that's their monthly salary already...