Electricity Supply - Too many power outages

[Smithydog]

I am interested to hear the thoughts of others living in Thailand as to the quality of electricity supply where they live,

We live in a farming village and rarely do we have a day when power doesn't go off even if it seems like someone just switched the power switch off and then immediately on again. Sometimes it happens 2-3 times a day. We get the occasional long blackout (6-8 hours), however they are usually because something has knocked over a power pole (car, tree, elephant etc).

Just curious if this is a common thing in other parts of Thailand as they are far more frequent than when we were on Phuket.

Thanks

Smithydog

[Andrew Reeve]

Hello Smithydog

Please have a look at the following Forum thread which may answer your question.

 

[KaptainRob]

5 hours ago, Smithydog said:

I am interested to hear the thoughts of others living in Thailand as to the quality of electricity supply where they live,

We live in a farming village and rarely do we have a day when power doesn't go off even if it seems like someone just switched the power switch off and then immediately on again. Sometimes it happens 2-3 times a day. We get the occasional long blackout (6-8 hours), however they are usually because something has knocked over a power pole (car, tree, elephant etc).

Just curious if this is a common thing in other parts of Thailand as they are far more frequent than when we were on Phuket.

Thanks

Smithydog

The overhead grid infrastructure is old and suffers from many problems, corrosion near the sea, overloaded transformers, squirrel short-circuit ... etc.

 Patong and parts of BKK, Ubon Ratchathani, and elsewhere, have begun an undergrounding process which will take decades to complete.  In the meantime, gas cooking, solar and UPS systems are recommended.

[Santa]

This is TingTong Land so always have a plan B. I have rechargeable lights that are cheap and efficient. Electricity outages are a common event during the rain season. I was advised some years ago to buy inverters that you could easily flick over on a switch but that was totally beyond me so the rechargeables serve their purpose. 

[NCC1701A]

On 6/24/2021 at 1:10 PM, Smithydog said:

rarely do we have a day when power doesn't go off even if it seems like someone just switched the power switch off and then immediately on again.

same here in Hua Hin. I have two APC 1100 UPS's to keep computers and all electronics on. 

i do try to unplug the computers before the power comes back on as that is when the big hit happens. 

heard a few transformers blow up in my hood. 

 

[gummy]

41 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

same here in Hua Hin. I have two APC 1100 UPS's to keep computers and all electronics on. 

i do try to unplug the computers before the power comes back on as that is when the big hit happens. 

heard a few transformers blow up in my hood. 

How long do your batteries last in your UPS ? I  use to have a few APS ones, lucky if they lasted a year without having to change the batteries at around 560 baht a throw which proves expensive over time

[JamesE]

4 hours ago, gummy said:

How long do your batteries last in your UPS ? I  use to have a few APS ones, lucky if they lasted a year without having to change the batteries at around 560 baht a throw which proves expensive over time

If the batteries are costing you 560THB then you're probably killing them by overloading them. You want to size the UPS several times higher than your anticipated load. Your batteries will be happier. I've got a 1kW APC UPS and the batteries cost the equivalent of 2100Baht and last about 3 years.

[Meechai]

Electricity outages are bad for sure but even worse is if your not on a well & the village govt water goes out.

We have had it go for days sometimes & when it comes back man it is dirty for a few hours or more

[gummy]

7 hours ago, JamesE said:

If the batteries are costing you 560THB then you're probably killing them by overloading them. You want to size the UPS several times higher than your anticipated load. Your batteries will be happier. I've got a 1kW APC UPS and the batteries cost the equivalent of 2100Baht and last about 3 years.

Thanks for the advice as I never considered that.

[Wigi]

15 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

same here in Hua Hin. I have two APC 1100 UPS's to keep computers and all electronics on. 

i do try to unplug the computers before the power comes back on as that is when the big hit happens. 

heard a few transformers blow up in my hood. 

I'm up in the mountains in the North.  Power supply is so-so (and I'm right next to a dam!) but we experience a LOT of brown-outs.

When I built this new house, I included a 3.5 kW solar station on the roof of my carport (15k).

I have  4 12Vx 200AH SLAB batteries (33k) and a 3.5kW solar charger/inverter (10k).

The whole thing cost me about $2000 with all the cables, PEA hook up and so on.  Batteries are your single biggest expense.

I run my office (including an 1100 BTU A/C), my pool pump and all the domestic electricity of myhouse during the day (except the big a/cs and the showers).  At night we run on PEA in case there is a power outage, in which case we are covered until the morning at least.

My PEA bill went from between 5-6k a month, back down to about 2k.  It is well worth it to have the power back up for fans, fridges, TVs and the Internet.

As an afterthought, I wish I'd bought a 5kW charger/inverter.  It would only cost an extra $100 but it covers the rest of the a/cs and one shower at a time!  I will do that next month and also add a further 6 panels (7,500) to take me to a true 5kW system where I can run the house all day.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Wigi

[poohy]

3 hours ago, Meechai said:

Electricity outages are bad for sure but even worse is if your not on a well & the village govt water goes out.

We have had it go for days sometimes & when it comes back man it is dirty for a few hours or more

Water is as big problem we are on village water its filthy low pressure can be irregular and much more expensive than town

I have to change water filters every 3 months

Also my area south of pkk is the driest in the counrty so april may june it can just a few hours a day

Back on topic the wind (we have lots of that every day in every direction ig seems)brings lines down regularly so we get our fair share of blackouts

The joys of living in the jungle

[MrStretch]

4 hours ago, Meechai said:

Electricity outages are bad for sure but even worse is if your not on a well & the village govt water goes out.

We have had it go for days sometimes & when it comes back man it is dirty for a few hours or more

You don't have to be in a village for that to happen.  We lose water more frequently than we lose electricity in Hat Yai.  Like you said, it's often muddy after coming back, and even sometimes when it hasn't gone off.

Nothing like opening a load of whites in the washing machine and finding them streaked with brown from the muddy water.

For emergencies we have a small garbage pail of water in the downstairs bathroom and several 3 liter bottles of drinking water cached away.

[NCC1701A]

15 hours ago, gummy said:

How long do your batteries last in your UPS ? I  use to have a few APS ones, lucky if they lasted a year without having to change the batteries at around 560 baht a throw which proves expensive over time

i got about two years. i like the idea that when the power goes out the flatscreens, computers (3), routers and misc other stuff stay on. i do a lot of video editing, spreadsheets and stuff i don't want to lose data after working for hours. 

[kerryd]

Most of the power outages here in Pattaya seem to be from blown transformers. Or from a fire starting up on a pole with a rat's nest of assorted cables gnarled up on it.

Often happen not long after a rain storm starts. Maybe lines/connections wearing when it's dry, then short-circuiting/over loading when it rains. Or some weird sciencey thing like that.

Really not much you can do about it other than protect your equipment with surge protectors and UPS's.
Especially if you are in the city.

I have 2 UPSs for my computers, monitors and modem. Biggest pain for me is restarting the computer, which seems to take longer and longer after every window's update.
That and I usually have to close down the room, crank on the air con and open the side panels of the computer to cool the innards down, especially if it's only been off for a minute or two (or 15). I've got a kick-a55 massive cooler on the CPU but it when it has to run for a couple minutes before the CPU starts cooling and the BIOS always throws an overheating error before then.

Next annoyance is waiting for the modem to reboot though that's usually quicker than the desktop these days.
(Yes, I empty my caches and defrag the HDs, every week actually. Intel i7 CPU running at 3.4 GHz and 32 Gbs of RAM. I think the OS is on an SSD as well (got 2 SSDs and one regular HD installed).

How long a UPS will last depends on two things. The size of the battery (bigger is better !) and how much you have plugged into it (the "load" - less is better). 

Small battery and high load = a few minutes of back up. Maybe enough time to save whatever you are working on and exiting a program (or saving a game, etc).

Big battery, small load ? Some will last an hour or more if you are, for example, maybe running just a laptop and modem.

But if you've got the big 52" TV plugged in, computer, monitor, modem, coffee maker and fan, you might find it all shutting down seconds after the power goes out.

I'm testing my 4th UPS right now. Bought 2 and one stopped working. Bought a better one and the first time the power went out (a couple months later) it didn't work at all. Plus it tends to randomly turn off on it's own for no reason.
Got a new one sitting on standby now, all charged up and waiting for the next power outage, when I'll swap it out with the one that's not working.
Might have to think about getting another one and splitting the load on that one. I've got some stuff on one UPS going to one power outlet, and other stuff on the other UPS at the other power outlet. Also have a power bar plugged into the "surge protection" only plug for the TV/fan/cable modems over there. 

Don't need battery back up for them.

Surge protection is a major concern over here as well as grounding. A lot of UPS's offer protection for both.
I've had the "tingle" from a number of different electrical appliances in places I've lived over the years. Sometimes it's a faulty power bar, other times its that the items aren't grounded.
(I was getting it from my broiler over recently, to the point I started unplugging it when not in use. Then I noticed that some of the sockets on the power bar weren't working. Swapped it for a new power bar and everything is fine again.)

You see the "3 pin" sockets and plug your "3 pin" power cord in, but often as not, the "ground" isn't connected to anything as they only use 2 wires for the electrical connections.
Had to have a couple outlets in the house fixed when I saw sparks coming out every time I tried to plug something in. 

Electrical systems here are frikken scary !

If you've got something that's worth money, or that could "burn" in the event of a surge, I'd get some UPSs (cheaper than rewiring the home and getting everything properly grounded).

[Shark]

First of all a lot of advice has already been given.

My current house doesn't have a lot of electric problems, we did have problems in the past (where on the same Island).

We have three UPSses in the house:

- one for the Internet modem in the living room & TV.
- one for the office with a computer in it.
- one for the outside office with a separate internet connection there and a monitor, it tend to be the 'office with a view'.

We also have rewired our internal electrics up to modern European standards my in house voltage is a stable ~ 222-223 volt.
The circuit box has a built in surge protector for outside and inside peaks.

If the house was my property I would've invested in Solar combined with battery strains for storage purpose.