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June 2011 -
Maintenance eating our budget!
It seems a
number of pressing maintenance issues are now
eating into our budget. We hope that during July
and August we can claw back some funds
back. Please come and stay!
April 2011 -
Upgrading and techno babble
We have now
upgraded our solar capacity slightly to the
minimum level we require to start the room power
implementation. Unfortunately sourcing
suitable power inverters to convert battery
power to mains electric seems an impossible
task! The inverters we require are not
manufactured in Thailand and the cost to have
them shipped in and duty paid on these items
would be astronomical! We are also concerned
about our plans for others adopting renewable
energy and we need a system to be cost effective
for others to be even slightly interested. There
is also
a requirement for an inverter that is easy to maintain in the event of
a break down. Our solution was to design and
build these ourselves! Whilst we do not have
Iron Man's Tony Stark working for us, we hope
some research into inverter designs married with
the excellent transformer manufacturers in the
country can come to provide a solution. Design
is underway! Another reason we were forced to
design our own system is that many custom
features are required at our resort due to
factors such as air-conditioning, WiFi, electric
showers. We did not want to sacrifice any resort
features just because we wanted to go green!
It is hoped hoped
everything will be finished within the next few
months although many design problems have
presented themselves already. As well as
inverter design, we plan to design and build
some other components such as power management
and generator control which link into other
units for automation so it is not a straight
forward process. For those in the know, we are
basing many control systems around the "Arduino"
microcontroller board which was primarily
developed for robot builders. We hope it's use
will speed up our automation plans and as it
allows true customisation to the control
systems.
November 2010 - Lonely Planet
It seems we are
the most ecologically sound resort in the whole
of the Railay peninsula according to Lonely
Planet this year. Whilst this is good for
Country Side Resort we want other resorts to be
joining in and help reduce CO2 for Railay and
keep the area clean!
July 2010
Due to the problems in
Bangkok this year, low season hit earlier than
expected in Ton Sai and affected our budget for
our planned solar upgrade. Also due to some
further unforeseen circumstances, we now have
limited "green" funds available.
This unfortunately means
that we are unable to run the whole site from
solar power this low season 2010, but we hope to
be doing this in the next year. However, we still run our
reception and computing facilities directly from
a solar power, which allows round
the clock WiFi access including room access.
We have however used some of the funds and concentrated on
making sure our generators are running as
efficiently and silently as possible allowing more power
availability for the same amount of fuel being
used, and also into recycling efforts.
Country Side Resort is
committed to reducing waste whether it be from
CO2 emissions or trash. Please help us by
reducing your wastage too, whether it be trash,
power or water!
Ton Sai and the Great Generator Debacle
Ton Sai is completely independent from the
mainland in terms of utilities such as mains
water and electricity. This means all
resorts use gasoline or diesel fuel generators
for generating electricity. Naturally this means
lots of fuel being consumed and noise where no
sound proofing is used. Also this fuel has to be
brought by car and then boat to Ton Sai
compounding the issue further.
In 2009, during the
financial recession, Country Side
Resort conducted an audit of its energy usage in
attempt to reduce costs for the future. After
consulting with a local energy company who
specialise in optimising existing power systems
and solar energy, we quickly realised how much
fuel was going to waste not only at our resort
but all over Ton Sai.
Diesel generators it
seems are not very efficient. Only around 30% of
the energy in the fuel is turned into usable
electricity on a well maintained generator. The
remaining 70% is wasted as heat, noise and
friction.
Generators also have
to run at full electrical capacity to be as
efficient as possible. This also means that this
load has to be for useful purposes and not just
running phone chargers and water boilers just
for the sake of it. In most situations a great
amount of spare electrical capacity exists due
to appliances being turned off (e.g. 7kW
generator with 3kW load = 4kW spare).
This spare capacity
can be stored using a battery system for using
this power at a later time.
Adding a battery
system and well as solar cells is what we chose
to do at Country Side Resort but the system is
still only small. We aim to improve on this and
also to be running the whole
resort during the next May-September period on
solar alone whilst still providing 24hr power.
When we reach this
point we aim to showcase the system to other
businesses in the area and help them see the
financial and environmental benefits from the
strategies we have used to cut fuel consumption
and CO2 emissions. We have spoken to some
resorts already and some are quite interested in
what we are doing.
It is anticipated
that mains electricity will come to Ton Sai in
future years. This too has its problems though
and all mains electricity also comes from a
generator plant in Krabi. Any system installed
can be adapted to be what is known as a "grid
tied" system and still help reduce CO2 emissions
in the area.
We care about the
future of Ton Sai and want it to stay a green
and happy place.
Recycling and
Cleanliness
Bottles, bottles and
more bottles. What is it with you guys and glass
bottles? Don't worry, I understand completely.
Beer certainly becomes more drinkable and
fashionable in a cold glass bottle. Large
bottles also work out cheaper than buying
smaller cans. Unfortunately, thousands of beer
bottles arrive on Ton Sai every month and do not
leave again! It seems its cheaper for a
manufacturer to make a new bottle than recycle
an old one and thus it holds no redemption
value. No government funding for recycling glass
is in place as far as we know so all that is
left to do is dump it in the ground somewhere or
store it at the beach near a chicken stall.
If you can, buy a
can!
Aluminium and steel
cans are recyclable to no end and people
actually give themselves jobs going around
collecting these as it is so profitable for
them. The same applies to plastic drinking
bottles as these are recycled too and sometimes
used for many other purposes from alternator rain covers
on the long-tail boats to drinking cups.
If you are staying
for an extended period on Ton Sai, it is better
to by a large bottle of water, up to 20 litres,
and dispense what you require for the day. We
can give advice if you want to make your stay as
green as possible and help in keeping the area
beautiful.
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