Solar power!

[geordie]

Try (probably not easy) different brands on the led bulbs my son fell on his stairs twice but changed brands and found a different white that worked he strongly advised me to stay clear of them because of poor sight in the uk there is a song and dance at the moment because filament bulbs have been banned but the replacements are unsutible for people like myself who have less than perfect vision CFL bulbs nothing on led however i have had several led torches and given them away wrong light
does the lighting contribute so highly to the problem
what about other apliances my fridge has an energy rating on it so has microwave w/machine ect taking things off standby in uk would probably amount to the consumption of a thai house we could all consume less without suffering too much or having to sit in the dark but on the comedy side we would spend the money we save on a 4x4 the big picture has to be looked at not just a few bulbs

[Attila]

Try (probably not easy) different brands on the led bulbs my son fell on his stairs twice but changed brands and found a different white that worked he strongly advised me to stay clear of them because of poor sight in the uk there is a song and dance at the moment because filament bulbs have been banned but the replacements are unsutible for people like myself who have less than perfect vision CFL bulbs nothing on led however i have had several led torches and given them away wrong light

The LED lamps I have here come in warm white and cold white, same as the CFL lamps. so take whatever is better for you, warm or cold white, and don't expect a 2 Watt LED lamp to replace a 60 Watt incandescent bulb, you need a 6 Watt LED for that.

[Nawty]

Sadly...my solar hot water system did not work.

Well it did work, just not good enough.

no pressure and it even stops altogether at times when the tank is low. So back to the drawing board.

[Attila]

Sadly...my solar hot water system did not work.

Well it did work, just not good enough.

no pressure and it even stops altogether at times when the tank is low. So back to the drawing board.

Considering the millions of solar hot water systems which work fine all over the world, I assume that the installation has been made incorrectly. Well, we know, this is Thailand

Assuming that the water going through the solar collector and heating the tank is a closed circuit (it should), then make sure that

1) There is no air in the pipes of the closed water circuit.

2a) If there is no pump in the circuit, do the pipes for the flow of hot water from collector to tank rise only, and the pipes for the cold water from tank to solar collector fall only? Make sure they do! if you can't, then install a small pump to circulate the water.



2b) If there is a pump circulating the water between collector and tank, then make sure it works

3) The volume of water in the hot water tank should not be an issue, if you use a heat exchanger, and the hot water from the collectors doesn't flow through all the tank, but only through the heat exchanger (it should).

Given your description "no pressure and it even stops altogether at times when the tank is low" I assume that you have an open water circuit between tank and collectors, and even no heat exchanger between tank and domestic water pipes. Otherwise the tank could not be "low". This is not only incorrect, but dangerous, you have a bacteria breeding ground, which the legionelles and their friends love, and to thank you for this breeding help they make the ones using the warm water sick

[Nawty]

I installed and built it meself....out of black pe pipe on the roof.

Worked a little bit....but little is being kind.

[geordie]

been pricing up the led bulbs over here and they go from £2.50 for cheapo,s to £7.50 though what you get for the extra fiver??
The other drawback is they are all based on mini spots which is ok if you have the right fittings ie gu10 gu4 still seems like a reasonable way to go if you want to seriously reduce consumption
Question has anyone started to manufacture gas fridges over there i know my earliest memory of our first fridge is it was gas and again its an item you can buy for camping how the carbon would compare over electricity ?? but it would reduce consumption on a solar household

[Attila]

The other drawback is they are all based on mini spots which is ok if you have the right fittings ie gu10 gu4 still seems like a reasonable way to go if you want to seriously reduce consumption

The ones I have are not mini spots but bulbs and come standard with E27. Which is what is used in Thailand. That allows to use them without any change to replace CFL and incandescent bulbs.

[geordie]

This seems to be a stupid discusion to be having buried in snow ?????
I will subject to trafic try and make my way to a specialist lighting company not too far from here and check out whats available the last time i was in there they had a good display up admitedly colour changing led and straight coloured led and as far as i remember they were mainly spots

[Attila]

This seems to be a stupid discusion to be having buried in snow ?????
I will subject to trafic try and make my way to a specialist lighting company not too far from here and check out whats available the last time i was in there they had a good display up admitedly colour changing led and straight coloured led and as far as i remember they were mainly spots

Geordie, most shops still carry only the colored LEDs, decoration lights, if they have any LED lamps at all. That includes the supermarkets, all I have seen there is colored 1 Watt LED bulbs. I know about 2 shops in the greater Pattaya area and 1 in Bangkok who have real LED lamps. The one in Bangkok is bloody expensive. Last time I checked the one in Pattaya Sukhumvit had only low power LED lamps, and the other shop in Pattaya is the one from which I have the 2 and 3.x Watt LED lamps (E27) I currently test. And that's where I will get the 6 Watt LED lamp hopefully soon. They import directly from China, from the factory, no reseller or distributor in between. Shops which buy their stuff from local resellers will not have much yet.

[geordie]

well good news for you you are ahead of the uk best he could muster was 2 watt in white/daylight
spoke to the old guy who owns the place its a veritable aladins cave with great stocks on most lighting and he did a demo for me on a few BC fittings which were suitible for a nightlight only
they were a normal replacement incadecent style with leds in them and he recons they will shortly start to make more usable lamps as in a couple of years he has in fact lit an area of his shop with one watt leds but gu10 and he is trying to find an adaptor for gu10 to BC

[dozer]

just a note.... removed some old posts from 2007 that had nothing to do with solar.