Power/electric supply problems in Suan Luang

[cjsiam]

So---because Misery loves company...
Here, in Boulder Colorado...
We had some tornados touch down within 20 miles...and some pretty severe winds...Monday evening
at 5pm...while sitting at my computer trying to make sense of politics/crypto/economics/society (yes, call me foolish...) there was a burst of wind, doors flew open...and electricity went out....

Turns out something took down 3 poles of what was clearly a large feeder into an area serving probably
6-700 apartments (mine included...)

we got power back about midnight....
Candles....gonna buy a couple candles.....very interesting dealing with rooms inside, with no lights....

So---we considered it practice for our upcoming move to BangSaphan.....

[buksida]

Haha - yes, get used to it though they're not as severe over here.

Outages usually last about 1-2 hours and are down to sheer incompetence on the part of the PEA rather than acts of nature.

[bsb]

Buy flashlights and such, candles get real hot real quick in a room here

[buksida]

They're becoming more frequent in the early mornings, such as today's outage.

It seems that when households start powering up at the same time the transformer explodes.

Edit: Monday mornings are becoming very common.

[buksida]

Another Monday morning - another transformer explosion. Its getting frighteningly regular.

Solar panel to the rescue.

[buksida]

Just for info purposes - I went to Prachuap yesterday and we visited the Global House superstore on Petchkasem road (next to Makro).

They have a good selection of electrical and solar equipment (batteries, panels, inverters, etc) in there and prices are reasonable (much better than Home Pro).

Would advise anyone building or looking to install solar to have a look in there first.

[cjsiam]

USEFUL!
Looks like we are 40 days out to leaving the US for Thailand....

We'll be looking for this stuff directly...

[buksida]

A related problem for Suan Luang is the quality of the internet connections which are still pretty much in the dark ages compared to more developed areas of Thailand.

TOT has had the monopoly in this area for years and it shows. Their infrastructure is crumbling, speeds and service terrible, and customer support questionable.

After years of using TOT and having our internet connection deteriorate to speeds too slow to do anything we finally changed to 3BB this week, and what a difference. Ten times faster internet for the same price!

[buksida]

Two power outages in as many days - and we were starting to hope things were improving.

[buksida]

Day three - more power disruptions. It has been so bad this week that I've started to plug some things such as the internet router into the solar unit permanently. Time to expand it I reckon - more batteries are required during the rainy season when the panel isn't receiving as much energy.

[buksida]

Day four - no power ... again.

There have been more outages this week than there have been for the past two months.

[cjsiam]

Do you think the house construction
Might be exasperating the problem?
We're finally getting some traction just in last 10 days...

You keeping any records? Time and day would be of interest...

We fly to ASQ in Bkk in 12 hours....finally

[buksida]

The last few have all been around 1-2pm, one day it was out for 4-5 hours due to "maintenance" that they never warn you about. The UPS is flipping on and off all day as the supply is spiking and dipping constantly.

The housing construction seems to have ground to a halt and what has been built is unsold/unoccupied so no, that wouldn't affect it.

My little solar setup has paid for itself many times over already! Gimme a shout when you get here and I'll show you the system.

(make sure you bring your computer hardware, can't buy anything here without being fleeced.)

[bsb]

one of the only two near you is sold ,people moving in shortly. Second is still for sale ,getting ready to start two more
very soon. Ozona is sold out but different grid than you. Biggest % of homes on water department road sold and people living there already but again different grid than you. CJ I am quite sure your two homes will be on a different grid than buksida also as you will be running off of the Corral Hotel /Italay grid so you should be in great shape

[buksida]

I drove past all said developments yesterday, and if they're all sold and occupied as you state - it must be by ghosts as there were no people or vehicles at any of them. Either way, they're unlikely to have an impact on local power networks until they're all full and sucking the juice.

This past week the power has been out at most places near the beach in Suan Luang, regardless of "grids".