Remote Solar

[Ban]

I posted a question yesterday and a few hours later I got two satisfying answers already. Wow!
Just found this when reading new posts.

I live in Germany but we have a house in Thailand. Last year I made a small test installation (450W Panel, Thai Style Controller Box, SRNE 2420 MPPT). Only wanted to learn a few month before thinking about a real installation. My wife and my electrician didn't support me with this. Sometimes you have to decide without support.

And in the end the tests were very good. I started to dream about a "real" installation.

Last month everything developed very fast:

• poured concrete in front where before there was only jungle after a few weeks
• my thought about using this for parking cars (we do not have a car ;-))
• we ordered the build of a carport with perfect alignment for panels
• I planed a 2 weeks visit in the german easter holidays
• in the 10 days before I arrived the carport and a shed was perfectly built
• 2 or 3 days before flying I ordered 10 panels (550W mono bifacial) and an inverter (SRNE HYP4580S100-H)
• only problem was the battery: for a new and bigger LiFePO4-Battery I needed a Thai bank account or a credit card (which I do not use in Thailand). So I decided to try a second life battery from Huawei (ESM 48100b1).
• when I arrived my electrician and his team completed the first solar installation in our village (and so generating a lot of opportunities for him now)
• I decided immediately to switch to SolarAssistant, the ESS App didn't make me happy.
• for about two weeks the system works and since yesterday with the help of members in this forum even the battery behaves...

It ist still something like a test (because we do not live there right now). But I will add a few more panels on the roof. Later in the back (afternoon sun) and a second SRNE. But it is very nice to turn on aircons in the hottest times of the day for "free".
In these two weeks the temperatures raised above 40 °C every day - I like hot but there are limits...

And since yesterday it doesn't feel like a mistake with the second life battery - thanks to the forum. I just started to discover everything here, will take a while.

So a good start for me and until now a happy user of DIY Solar.

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

nice, glad to see your system is working well. I live in Japan and we run AC from May through September in our vacation cabin to keep the humidity to a reasonable level, even when we are not there. trust me grab as many batteries as you can afford so that you can go two or three days without solar (think typhoon season or monsoon season).

good luck there is a lot of baked in knowledge here from many great members.

 

[Ban]

Batteries are a "must have". We will upgrade every year - next step will be enough power for one day.
But the last two weeks with temperatures above 40°C and free power for the aircon while the sun tried to melt me was already like heaven.

 

[kolek]

I live in Japan and we run AC from May through September in our vacation cabin to keep the humidity to a reasonable level

Have you tried just running large dedicated dehumidifiers? Like you, we're also in Japan, we have one running 24/7 to keep humidity levels reasonable, the house feels a lot cooler, and cheaper than running the AC.

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

Have you tried just running large dedicated dehumidifiers? Like you, we're also in Japan, we have one running 24/7 to keep humidity levels reasonable, the house feels a lot cooler, and cheaper than running the AC.

we are surround on all sides by forest except fr the road that goes by the front of the house. as such the humidity is so bad without climate control the house gets that funky smell. honestly it runs in the dry setting which is more like a dehumidifier but actually uses more energy than just running the a/c would (i think never bothered to drill down that far in the power usage after the first season.

i did initially think about getting two or three of them and running them but reading news reports about how there were many dehumidifier fires in the US (and admittedly some of them in Japan) that I shied away from that as they need to run 24/7 when we are not there. it turns out that all the affected units are made in China, and rebadged cloned etc to death. not being able to tell safe from dangerous I gave up that idea. Even in Japan most of those sold are made in china...

 

[kolek]

we are surround on all sides by forest except fr the road that goes by the front of the house. as such the humidity is so bad without climate control the house gets that funky smell. honestly it runs in the dry setting which is more like a dehumidifier but actually uses more energy than just running the a/c would (i think never bothered to drill down that far in the power usage after the first season.

i did initially think about getting two or three of them and running them but reading news reports about how there were many dehumidifier fires in the US (and admittedly some of them in Japan) that I shied away from that as they need to run 24/7 when we are not there. it turns out that all the affected units are made in China, and rebadged cloned etc to death. not being able to tell safe from dangerous I gave up that idea. Even in Japan most of those sold are made in china...

I haven't followed the news about the fires. We have 3, the main unit we run all the time is made in Japan. It's about 300 watts and is filling a 5 gallon pail every couple days. Our AC units are rated for 2000 watts so I'm pretty sure it's a big savings. What's your electric bill running your AC 24/7? I think ours would be at least 3-4man per month doing that.

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

I haven't followed the news about the fires. We have 3, the main unit we run all the time is made in Japan. It's about 300 watts and is filling a 5 gallon pail every couple days. Our AC units are rated for 2000 watts so I'm pretty sure it's a big savings. What's your electric bill running your AC 24/7? I think ours would be at least 3-4man per month doing that.

totally free. My cabin is 100% solar powered my bank is sized large enough to power the cabin and shop for 4-5 days with zero power input. this is split phase 240. for any of my 3phase powered tools such as welders compressor, drill press etc. I use a denyo genset to power

the split pack for the cabin is sized for 14 tatami so its a bit small, but its a variable speed compressor type and quite efficient.

for the main house it has 8kw of panels on the roof and is grid tied. our average bill with solar is about 2 man and thats running 3 or 4 split packs and a US clothes dryer.