The expense of going solar in Thailand is a large expense and requires careful study.
We have decided to go solar.
First, is pricing and NO, sorry, pricing is not the same.
There are foreigners involved in solar companies that are priced quite higher than they should be.
Be aware they are trying to make money at your expense and lack of solar knowledge.
You need to identify exactly what it is you need your solar system to run.
Often times, people find out that the cost to run all those things is out of their budget and they have to compromise.
Others, like us, are biting the bullet now in order that we will not have any future monthly electric bills.
You can use AI, tell AI the the size of your house and everything that runs off electricity inside, and AI will give you an approximate monthly electric bill charge.
With a new house that is 400 sq/m with 10 air conditioners, 5 hot water on demand heaters, and all the other electrical appliances, our electric bill was predicted to be around 18,000 to 20,000 thb a month, with heavy usage.
That is ridiculously high.
There is no sense having AC or anything else if you can’t use it when or how often you want to due to high electricity bills.
Instead of using a Solar company advertising on Facebook, we used our local village AC guy, who is also a master electrician and solar expert.
We also have the benefit of a personal discount which helped a lot.
Our system will be 18 Kw with 36 solar panels mounted on the garage roof and 48Kw of LifePro batteries.
This system will run the entire house during the day.
At night, the batteries can run at least 2 air conditioners all night and the rest of the appliances that are plugged in.
LifePro batteries are rated for 15 to 20 years.
Another good reason for going local, is our solar guy lives 5 minutes away and can be there to resolve any future issues.
We know and understand for the solar system we purchased, that we got the best price we could.
It is 400,000 thb which includes installation.
Here is an ad on Facebook for comparison:
6Kw system with NO Batteries:
10 Premium solar panels
Ongrid-Inverter (1-Phase)
Expert installation – included
App control & energy monitoring
Free roof consultation & clear quote – no pressure
Price: 179,000 THB – all inclusive
You would spend 179,000 X 3 = 537,000 (with No Batteries) to get to the level we purchased for 400,000 and that 537,000 does NOT Include batteries
The 3 batteries alone are 180,000 thb.
You can do solar much cheaper with NO batteries.
It might be smarter to do that than spend the money for batteries.
If you sleep all night and only run 2 air conditioners, your monthly electric bill, if you use the solar all day, should not be much at all.
Our decision, not taken lightly was to have excess battery capacity.
The equipment is being ordered as we speak.
We have a separate new out building for the 5000 liter water tank and filtration system and we will use that to install the solar components.
