Electric Vehicle Chargers / EV Service Equipment EVSE

Electric vehicles (EV’s) — along with the subset of this class known as plug-in hybrids — are a fast-growing part of the automobile market for both personal and commercial and fleet vehicle applications. Robert Monk Electric is on the cutting edge for installers ready to provide the support equipment (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment, or EVSE) for these vehicles.

Voltec 20A 240V (3.6kW) EVSE EV charger has a compact form factor and elegant cord management situation adaptable to many stretch length applications with minimum slack

Whether you need a NEMA 14-50 dryer type receptacle for your portable or semi-permanently wall-hung EVSE device, or a hard-wired 9kW high-speed vehicle charger with grid-interactive network configuration, we can deliver your order. Robert Monk Electric is both an independent installer of EVSE setups, and a certified independent service contractor for Bosch Automotive Service Solutions, having received special training and extensive vetting for insurance and other qualifications by the Bosch EVSE services division.

See also:

• Electric Vehicle buys you reserved street parking in Philadelphia 

From a distance, the Voltec EVSE charger appears similar to a spiral garden hose reel.

Bad ceiling fan by Hampton Bay, 122-135 “Hawkins”

This higher style fan was priced such that it ought to have come with a drop tube mount option. The mounting bracket relies on “two screws and washers provided with outlet box”, but few fan-rated boxes include such hardware.

The fan housing/canopy requires perfect ceiling and excessive force to twist into place.

Mobile office and green events HQ?

Links to resources:

• Big Green Bus touring project by students at Dartmouth
• GreenIsHappening

LED’s for Muni Services Bldg: Letter to Mayor’s Office of Sustainability

To Whom It May Concern:

As a sustainability-oriented electrician certified as a solar PV installation professional by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (http://www.nabcep.org/), I am always alert to energy-saving opportunities in the buildings I visit. I am happy to report that the basement level counter service areas of the City’s Municipal Services Building, located just across from City Hall at 15th & JFK Boulevard, can save about $2,500 per year in electricity consumption — plus about 4/5 off on lamp replacement labor costs, and a continuous 8kW of cooling load, by swapping about 160 inefficient PAR type filament lamps for new LED types.

(Note that these filament PAR lamps will become increasingly difficult to source, following the January 1, 2013 cessation of production and distribution in the United States. Implementing a proactive replacement plan now will realize the maximum energy cost-savings while ensuring uniform lighting from identical lamp types, throughout the affected areas.)

The investment cost would be about $3200, so the payback is less than two years on this conservation retrofit — and this is before subsidies for lighting efficiency rebates available through PECO.

Although the numbers may be small in the scheme of a very large municipal energy bill, please consider the public information potential of this type of investment in the public face of the City’s municipal services. Also, you may have substantial additional opportunities in the building that could multiply the savings from a retrofit project by 10- or 100-fold.

- Robert Monk

Robert Monk Electric

Philadelphia Lic. # 35849

Pennsylvania HIC Lic. # PA060608

See also:

• 2013 post-phase-out Lamp Replacement Guide
• Advantages of LEDs and other high-efficiency lamps

Legrand (Pass & Seymour) is one version of home automation

And they have a slick video featuring inter-operating products as well as some innovative receptacles.

Check out their new promo.

Heroes helping struggling homeowners – Low-cost loans for energy savings (2) – Money Magazine

Heroes helping struggling homeowners – Low-cost loans for energy savings (2) – Money Magazine.

Corbett’s tax breaks all about gas, excluding renewable energy

…

Ah yes, the ole’ “we don’t play favorites” argument. That must explain why the Corbett administration offered Royal Dutch Shell $1.65 billion in tax breaks to locate an ethane cracker plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania. Does the word “hypocrisy” come to mind?  Because, you know, we don’t play favorites.

The fact is that Corbett has gone “all in” with natural gas, betting that focusing every state policy on developing that single industry – from superseding traditional local control over planning to balancing the state’s budget on the back of childhood education instead of a reasonable shale gas tax - will raise the tide for all. 

…

PennFuture Facts: Corbett’s tax breaks are all about natural gas, to the exclusion of renewable energy.

Cyclecide » Rides

More bike-powered people movers — purely for fun

Cyclecide » Rides.

For work:

From Wikipedia: flywheel energy storage traits:

A 600 kg, 50 cm diameter flywheel spinning at 30,000 RPM will store about 26 kWh of energy. I believe the shape factor, k, of 0.5 refers to an ideal disk with mass distributed evenly. With mass distributed at the rim, as in a ferris wheel or merry-go-round, the shape factor of a crude structure might be more like .8 or .9.

Multiplying for weight of 6 people at 60 kg = 3600 / 600 kg = 6x the energy of the Wikipedia sample.

Multiplying for diameter of 6 m vs. 0.5 m = 6/.5 = 12x the energy of the Wikepedia example.

Multiplying for RPM difference (1 turn every 4 seconds) = 0.25/sec. * 60 sec/min / 30,000 RPM = .0005 x the energy of the Wikepedia example.

Multiplying for 26 kWh x .0005 = .013 kWh (13 Watts for one hour).

Saying we’ll use half that available energy rather than let the ride spin down to zero RPM, and that we need a buffer of only 30 seconds instead of a full hour, we can have much more power for a much shorter amount of time:

.013 kWh * 1/2 * 60 min/hour x 60 sec/min * 30/60 seconds = 11.7 kW for 30 seconds stored in the flywheel

CONSIDERATIONS and CONCERNS

Energy stored in the weight of the structure besides the people riding (energy not considered above) may roughly offset energy losses in bearing friction, gears, and in the AC dynamo.

Concern: in that 30s of 11.7 kW energy, representing a slowing of revolutions per second from the maximum of 1 rev per 4 seconds,  to 1/2s, is the RPM still enough to be useful for driving the AC dynamo?

Bicycle-Powered Ferris Wheel Test Run |

Another pedal-powered ferris wheel with internal drive per carriage.

Bicycle-Powered Ferris Wheel Test Run |.

Pedal Powered Ferris Wheel – YouTube

The stable angular momentum of this bike-powered ferris wheel could become the power supply for an AC dynamo.

Pedal Powered Ferris Wheel – YouTube.

Gear up for a cooler summer: save money and reduce your carbon footprint

Hot weather is around the corner, and you can make your home more comfortable while saving money through long-term energy conservation savings.

First Step to Comfort and Energy Savings: Conservation Measures

A careful ceiling-fan installation avoids bent blade brackets (a source of wobble) and ensures that the electrical enclosure/mechanical support box above the fan is rated and UL listed for fan support.

Energy conservation measures leading into summer can make for a much more comfortable, cheaper summer and put you in a position to half your winter heating bills. A typical payback for a few thousand dollars spent on building envelope sealing and insulating will be well within five years, for an effective return on investment better than an aggressive mutual fund, even in bull market years we’ve not seen for a while.

Several organizations stand ready to help:  Read on for weatherizing resources, info on ceiling fans, central air AC, mini-split systems and more

Maestro® Occupancy Sensing Switch — GFCI incompatible

I had a mixed experience installing the new-ish Maestro occupancy sensor switch. It uses a ground connection — to equipment ground — to power low-power electronics in the sensor. This makes installations in old wiring applications straightforward, but complicates new work installations, since the most common areas for an occupancy sensor will be kitchenettes, bathrooms, laundry areas and utility rooms that all may have plumbing or other features requiring GFCI protection.

Occupancy sensors mounted with GFCI — but not protected by the GFCI function!

The use of equipment ground for a current path to power the sensor electronics means that the sensor may not be installed on GFCI circuits designed to prevent shock and electrocution hazard from precisely this type of current path. The GFCI sees the unbalanced current to ground via the equipment grounding path as a ground fault. I have not tested the sensor on AFCI circuits, which also include ground fault detection, albeit at a higher threshold (more current before trip).

Read more about Occupancy sensors, filament and non-filament lamps and GFCI protection

Bike-powered mobile AC/DC stage power system

DRAFT

Design Considerations and Resources

for

Mobile, Bike-powered Energy Systems

Tailored for

Outdoor Events and Live Performance

Understand the design requirements

Total System Power

Total system power requirements will largely be determined by the audio power amplifiers and, to a lesser extent (?), any tube amplifiers used in signal processing, such as pre-amps or sound effects.

For audio-only power supply systems, the primary power load will be the audio amplifiers, whose consumption may be estimated by applying an efficiency factor (based on the type or ‘class’ of amplifier) to the Total System Power rating of the amplifier(s). Wikipedia has a helpful article on amplifier power with a subsection on Total System Power:
Read on for resources and design considerations for mobile, off-grid power systems for events and performances

Tool Library Work Day, 2013-03-09

West Philly Tool Library, Philadelphia’s alternative to costly tool rental, needs your help for a work day this Saturday, March 9, 2013

Screen Shot WPTL Work Day announce

Can I use twin breakers in my breaker panel?

Twin, or ‘two-for-one’, breakers allow the connection of two, separately-protected circuits in the space of one standard breaker. Two circuit overcurrent protective devices (COPDs) connect to a single leg of the phase bus bar in the breaker panel, effectively doubling the capacity of the breaker panel in terms of number of branch circuits connected. The total power capacity of the panel does not change with the addition of twin type breakers (and is largely unaffected by what breakers may be installed — a common misconception that can lead to the wrong conclusion that a panel is overloaded simply because the Ampere rating of all breakers adds to more than the main breaker Ampere rating).

How do I tell whether my breaker panel accepts twin breakers?

Most breaker panels are rated to accept at least a few twin breakers. Some accept twins throughout the panel, and some accept no twins at all. The diagram inside the panel cover should indicate which breaker positions accommodate twin breakers (see photos).

See also:

• 200A service upgrade vs. panel upgrade for existing 100A service?

Learning from Sandy: is Philly prepared for natural disaster? / 2013-02-21

The Academy of Natural Sciences will host a panel discussion on how we can learn from 2012′s super storm Sandy in improving city planning, disaster preparedness planning, engineering, and policy.

The event takes place this Thursday, 6pm-8pm, February 21, 2013.

View details and register.

Mid-Atlantic Residents May Consider Backup Power Options in the Wake of Super-storm Sandy

Read about options for backup power, such as retrofitting a grid-only solar PV installation for battery backup power

Property taxes to increase 30-90% around 4700 Windsor Ave.

Property assessments centered at 4700 block of Windsor Ave. are about 300% higher over the old assessments for 2013, but with 2014 property tax rates expected to drop from 3.1% to somewhere between 1.2% and 1.75%, the actual percent increase in the tax bill may be between 30% and 90%. Still quite a bump when you’re talking thousands of dollars.

Philadelphia AVI / Tax rate analysis sources:

City of Philadelphia: Property Assessment Data

The comma-separated data files look scary at first, but you can open them into MS Excel, or just search your address to find your property. A ‘key’ to the numbers is in the first line of each file 2013 and 2014, so you can figure out the identity of the first, second, third, etc. term in your property assessment record.

PHILLY REAL ESTATE TAX SERIES—PROJECTED PROPERTY TAX AMOUNTS UNDER AVI

This is my source for the expected 1.2- 1.75 % rate for 2014. There are also some examples of properties and their tax rates under varying scenarios.

See also:

• Philly Inquirer map of approximate $ annual tax increase under 2014 AVI, by neighborhood

Event: Electricity Basics for Homeowners 2/14/2013

I will be presenting on electricity basics for homeowners from 6pm – 7:30pm tomorrow, Tuesday, February 14th, 2013, at the basement of Calvary Center for Culture and Community (big church building at 48th & Baltimore Ave). Please RSVP via the sponsor page, West Philly Tool Library.

For a taste of what’s on for discussion (and for reference of attendees afterward), I’m attaching my presentation outline inline here:

CLASS OUTLINE: BASIC ELECTRIC FOR HOMEOWNERS

Household Electricity for Homeowners

Robert Monk, Electrician/Proprietor, Robert Monk Electric

web: www.PhillyLicensedElectrician.com

email: electrician [at] PhillyLicensedContractor [dot] com

phone: (215) 906-6604

1. Basic electrical distribution system

2. Wiring materials and methods common in pre-WWII houses

3. Modern wiring materials

4. Contracting

5. Smart Meters, Niche Rates, Solar PV

Read more >>