News Forum - Northern Thai man reveals secret to 44 baht electricity bill

[HiuMak]

22 hours ago, JMJM said:

If this were true, people all over the world would immediately turn off their air-conditioning after the sun went down.  One must truly have very limited experience with reality to even assert something so obviously silly.  

Stay inside a cave, the temperature will be consistently cool. 

[Fanta]

On 4/19/2022 at 9:21 PM, Ramanathan.P said:

Agree...that is the manufacturers claim. But can the manufacturer assures it? Even commercial warranty is only 24 months. And what about the battery bank replacement. It also has to be replaced after 24months. And the battery needs a controlled environment of 25*C or less to avoid any heat bulging and explosion. There are many hidden costs involved.

Well that’s just not correct. These are not car batteries hooked up to dumb chargers that boil away the battery fluid, causing plate buckling and expansions The most basic electronics of solar controllers regulate power going into and out of storage batteries. And 25*c is below room temperature. Even the most basic car battery lasts years inside an engine compartment with temperatures far in excess of 25*c even when the vehicle is not running. There are more costs involved and more hardware involved than simply bolting a solar panel onto a roof and running a few wires. 

[Soidog]

17 hours ago, Noble_Design said:

During day time solar power will be used to pump water into a tank placed perhaps 3-4 storeys high. At night time water is released from the tank to run a turbine to generate electricity.

An interesting concept and one that is used by power generating companies. There is a hydro power system in Wales that does exactly as you describe.  
 

Looking at the practicalities (I think I’ve got the maths correct so bear with me!)

The key components here are the height of the storage tank (the head of water) and the volume of water stored which gives the potential flow. For domestic use the tank needs to be large in order to get any significantly useable electricity. As a rough guide, a 5 metre square tank will hold around 27,000 gallons. Ignoring pipe losses etc, if this is released over the period of 1 hour, that will give you around 1.75kw of power in that hour assuming an efficiency of the turbine to be 75%. A 5mx5mx5m tank is a large tank to place 4 stories high. 
 

Two other problems with this in a domestic situation are: The amount of power generated at any instant is determined by the flow. If demand varies, the flow of water or turbine speed needs to vary. The second issue is use of water. You would want this to be a “sealed system” reusing the same water each day. This then would require another 5 metre square tank at ground level. If not, then a 125 cubic metre tank of water; even if you negotiated 15baht/Cubic metre, would cost 1875 baht per day. 

Scaling this down to use a couple of 3mx3mx3m tanks (still large), would give you around 300w for an hour  enough to power a TV, a fridge and some LED lights for an hour  

Energy storage remains the biggest challenge to many sources of green energy. 

[thaifarmer]

On 4/20/2022 at 7:58 AM, JMJM said:

If this were true, people all over the world would immediately turn off their air-conditioning after the sun went down.  One must truly have very limited experience with reality to even assert something so obviously silly.  

This "limited experience with reality" person, uses, in Thailand, his aircon about 20 hours a year. But I'll give a little credit; I should have mentioned that this situation can only be achieved in a rural setting, not in a city. Where the concrete around your house acts as a giant battery.... Using large awnings, no windows and most walls never directly positioned at the sun, keeping windows closed during the day, and open in night, I go on, on my silly way...

O, and by the way, next time when your and someone else's reality don't match, try to be a little more polite of friendly about it. Love you too 

[Noble_Design]

2 hours ago, Soidog said:

An interesting concept and one that is used by power generating companies. There is a hydro power system in Wales that does exactly as you describe.  

They have been profiteering from my ideas but I don't want to claim royalties for the benefit of our future environment 

2 hours ago, Soidog said:

Two other problems with this in a domestic situation are: The amount of power generated at any instant is determined by the flow. If demand varies, the flow of water or turbine speed needs to vary.

May need a connected smart system with AI for that. If demand varies perhaps a constantly variable valve can control the release or flow of the water.

2 hours ago, Soidog said:

You would want this to be a “sealed system” reusing the same water each day. This then would require another 5 metre square tank at ground level.

Yes, or perhaps not a tank but ground level pool for lower cost. There will be some losses of water due to evaporation but it will be marginal and can easily/not expensively be topped up.

Anyway I see this potential for people living next to canals/khlong who basically have an infinite supply of water. So the water that is pumped up the tank during day time will in turn drive the turbines for night time electrical use and at the same time the water will be released to their paddy fields which currently depends on those diesel powered pumps to transfer water from the canal to their fields.

[Soidog]

2 hours ago, Noble_Design said:

They have been profiteering from my ideas but I don't want to claim royalties for the benefit of our future environment 

May need a connected smart system with AI for that. If demand varies perhaps a constantly variable valve can control the release or flow of the water.

Yes, or perhaps not a tank but ground level pool for lower cost. There will be some losses of water due to evaporation but it will be marginal and can easily/not expensively be topped up.

Anyway I see this potential for people living next to canals/khlong who basically have an infinite supply of water. So the water that is pumped up the tank during day time will in turn drive the turbines for night time electrical use and at the same time the water will be released to their paddy fields which currently depends on those diesel powered pumps to transfer water from the canal to their fields.

Perfect. Apply for the Patent right now