The prototype solar house for tropical climate of Thailand.

Abstract

This paper aims to indicate the advantages and disadvantages for using solar photovoltaic (PV) panels to
generate electricity in residential buildings. It also aims to develop four solar house designs that can be used as
the prototype for the tropical climate. The economic, energy, and environmental assessment was carried out
for these four solar house designs, which will be promoted to the public in the near future. The findings of this
study show that the use of solar PV is the significant measure for improving energy efficient in residential
buildings and has very less environmental impacts. However, several drawbacks of solar PV, such as high
investment cost, high maintenance requirement, and the inconsistent power supply, restrict the wider application in the majority of households. Currently, all private and government sectors related to energy and
environmental management realize that it is essential to invest in solar PV which provides several benefits and
become the cost-effective investment. They have attempted to promote the long-term use of solar PV in the
residential sector by launching incentive campaigns. To fulfill such attempt, four solar houses were designed in
this research. These four solar houses have different architectural features and areas of use. However, they
share the common characteristics as they meet the requirements for being the energy-efficient house with
excellent level based on the Energy and Environmental Assessment of the Ministry of Energy. Importantly, the
economic assessment shows that these four houses have a payback period of 7-9 years based on the Feed-in
tariff rate of the National Energy Policy Commission (NPS) of Thailand which is 6.85 Baht/kWh.