Small Miracle: Diesel Fuel Tachometer

MAX Update No. 49: This Diesel Tachometer Is a Small Miracle

6/9/2010 4:48:20 PM

By Jack McCornack

Tags: MAX, 100 mpg, rally, gas mileage, tachometer, tach

I was talking with Bill Bushholz of the Maine Automotive X Team about the upcoming Rally Green ...

Rally Green is a long distance fuel economy rally/demonstration for high-efficiency vehicles, which will take us participants (why yes, of course MAX will be there) from Iowa to California, through amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesty, on public roads and in plain sight to anybody who wants to watch (in marked contrast to the approach of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition). I'm all excited, and so is Bill, who is organizing the event.

So after the Rally Green part of the conversation, we were sharing some tech talk and Bill asked if I had a tachometer. A tach is a useful item when you're trying to coax more miles out of fewer gallons, but they're not easy to come by for us diesel drivers. If he'd asked me a year ago, I'd have told him how I made an airplane optical propellor tach work by putting white and black duct tape on the crankshaft pulley, to simulate the flicker of propeller blades. It got me by, but it was finicky and expensive and I had to push and hold a button every time I wanted an RPM number, but now ...

"You bet," I said, "It's what I drive by. It's digital, so it's easy to pick an RPM to cruise at."

"Digital?" said Bill.

"Yeah, a Tiny Tach. They make them for diesel now."

"Huh," said Bill. "How do they work?"

That's an interesting question. Luckily I've got connections. I've been a big fan of Tiny Tachs since they first came out, and thousands of Tiny Tachs have been mounted on aircraft I've designed, so I called Steve Myers, president of Design Technology (the company that makes the Tiny Tach) and asked him.

Tiny Tachs have a quartz crystal clock built in, the gasoline engine version counts the ignition firings against the clock and calculates how many times it would fire in a minute, and that number times two (if you have a four-stroke engine) is your revolutions per minute, abbreviated RPM. The gasoline engine Tiny Tach gets its information from an antenna wrapped around a spark plug wire, so it's totally non-invasive.

But how do they do it with diesel? Diesels don't have any spark plugs, and thus no spark plug wires.

Here's how, and I'm not making this up: the diesel Tiny Tach has a piezoelectric crystal that clamps on to one of the steel fuel lines between the fuel pump and the injector nozzles, and it detects the swelling of the line as diesel fuel (or veggie oil) is squirted through it. Counting the squirts on a diesel is the same as counting the sparks on a gasoline engine.

This is an example of Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I'd have ordered a Tiny Tach the day I started the MAX project, but since skrying knowledge by squeezing crystals doesn't fit easily into my world view, it never occurred to me they could make them work on diesels. Well, they did, and for less than $100, plus it retains a cool feature of the original Tiny Tach — when the engine isn't running, it displays the total hours the engine has run — and as you see, I've driven for almost a day since I put mine on MAX.

Photo by Jack McCornack

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Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.com
scotty@stlouisrenewableenergy.com

Smart Grid and Energy Efficiency

With Everyone talking about Energy Efficiency, Smart Grid, Electric Cars, Black Outs, Smart Meters, Natural Resources, where does that leave the Actual Consumer?  As this article suggests-

-Becoming more Energy Efficient is the First Step- 

This does not mean Sacrificing your Lifestyle as you know it.  It means becoming more efficient in our daily lives.  Try some small steps first and you will see how easy becoming efficient can be.

Lifestyle changes are as simple as:

• Light Bulbs-EFFICIENCY - LEDs are very energy efficient and consume less power (amp draw)...up to 90% less power than incandescent bulbs. This reduces the load on your electrical system including your battery, alternator, and power converter resulting in direct money-saving benefits.
• Blanket your Water Heater or Switch to a On Demand Type Water Heater
• Changing out your Furnace Air Filter Regularly
• Sealing the Leaks in your Home
• Turning Up or Down your Thermostat 

Scotts Contracting is available to assist with your Green Projects> Click Here to email Scotty and set up a free Green Site Inspection<

Energy efficiency and the smart grid

By Dale Pennington and Nicole Pennington, Utiliworks Consulting LLC

In the smart grid environment, the overriding theme has been energy efficiency. As natural resources continue to deplete, the global consciousness has a heightened awareness of the need to conserve energy.

To understand how the smart grid can maximize energy efficiency, we must analyze how each conservation tactic relates to a particular grid component.

Recent work by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory describes various smart grid-related mechanisms that potentially reduce electricity usage — important now, but critical in years to come.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects in the smart grid introduction materials, "In 30 years, the United States will be home to 100 million more people, roughly a third more than we have today."

This furthers the need to increase grid efficiency as more outlets, pollution and strain are bound to follow the increasing population. In particular, conservation voltage reduction and advanced voltage control, consumer education and feedback, and diagnostics deployment in residential and commercial buildings allows for the greatest energy savings potential.

To maximize loss reduction regarding efficiencies in voltage reduction and advanced voltage control, a utility must gather the appropriate field data, have an application that can use the information and decide which parameters it will use to manage its voltage program.

To begin and to maximize potential utility savings, advanced metering technology must be implemented. The new smart meters record and transmit the measured voltage at discreet intervals, allowing utilities more data to analyze their customers' usage trends. Many of these meters provide voltage as a standard measurement in low-end meters.

Furthermore, many advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems have the channel capabilities to capture and transmit the information near real time to a utility's control systems. Many questions must be addressed, however, before voltage reduction and control can be optimized.

What are the parameters that will initiate the time and duration of voltage reduction? What is the expected benefit? What are the new processes to be created? Are there potential negative effects on my client base? What are the capital costs required to accomplish my voltage program, and what changes must be initiated within the utility to make this program successful?

If managed appropriately, a utility, theoretically making $500 million in annual kilowatt sales would save $10 million every year at 2 percent direct reduction. As mentioned in the PNNL report, 4 percent can be obtained, which would double the savings to $20 million per year. Proper voltage control management control could avoid disruptions to utility customers and be a legitimate financial incentive.

Another energy efficient subsection relates to consumer education. PNNL attributes a 3 percent direct reduction in energy usage, making it one of the most promising efficiency mechanisms.

On our $500 million annual electricity sales, this is worth more than $15 million. For this to be effective, the technology must be simple and must not interfere with normal customer routines.

At the residential level, the smart grid must be an easy "set-it-and-forget-it" technology. U.S. Department of Energy research indicates that consumers are ready to engage with the smart grid.

Utilities just need to stay connected with consumers. This is not simple for any utility. While new methods and technologies that communicate to customers their energy use have emerged, every communication path has a cost and might be effective with only a discrete client community.

A utility also must understand what percentage of its clients has the communication channel available. Is using SMS messaging helpful in generating energy efficiency with clients? How about sending information to an iPhone and loading a Google app to help customers understand energy costs and usage? Does the utility wish to use HANs as a conduit to improved efficiency? These are only samplings of communications channels utilities have to support or consider within energy efficiency programs.

Another energy efficiency subsection relates to diagnostics in the residential and small- to medium-sized commercial buildings. Smart meters easily record critical data such as a power factor. When a building measures a low power factor, the meter can detect it. This lends itself to possibly addressing the low energy efficiency problem.

Many questions must be answered, however, before an advanced meter can translate into energy savings. How does one gather this valuable data from the meter and convert it to client corrective action to improve energy usage? What does the client know about power factor, and what does he or she know about improving it? Should the client be penalized if the power factor is below a certain threshold? Is the penalty significant enough to the client that the client will purchase necessary equipment to rectify the situation?

If customers are not informed of the technology, the accessibility of information and the drawbacks of resisting efficiency, they won't adjust. Improving power factor is a positive goal, but the process and methods to obtain it must be built into a plan.

While outlining these three areas of energy efficiency improvements, it becomes apparent that there are benefits that can be obtained. But utilities must plan efforts to address issues the smart grid brings. Each benefit brings different participants, costs and technologies. All benefits can be obtained, but utilities must recognize all the efforts and planning that must be accounted for to reach smart grid energy efficiencies.

Authors: Dale Pennington is managing director and executive consultant at Utiliworks Consulting LLC, aprofessional services organization that helps utility clients assess, design, procure and deploy advanced metering systems and smart grid technologies.

Nicole Pennington is marketing coordinator of Utiliworks Consulting LLC.

Survey:Americans and Energy Behaviors

Survey: Americans willing to embrace new energy behaviors

Atlanta, June 23, 2010 — In a national survey commissioned by GE, 79 percent of Americans said they would adjust their energy consumption habits and behaviors in the short term to effect change long term.

This is possibly because most of them (72 percent) believe that how they generate and use energy today could actually harm the economic growth of the country.

Sixty-three percent noted they would work with their power company to influence change in consumption habits.

As Congress works to define America's energy future, the survey found that the majority of Americans are willing to think differently about their use of energy, embrace innovation and seize control of their energy destiny.

The survey indicates that Americans will respond positively to smart appliances that are empowered by smart meters offering new pricing models, which will result in a fundamental shift in how energy is consumed.

"There are some things that are essential to achieving a desired quality of life, and Americans overwhelmingly agree that investing in our nation's energy future is one of them," explained Bob Gilligan, vice president—digital energy for GE Energy Services. "The American electrical grid system has undergone little investment in the past 25 years. Even worse, most generation stations were built in the 1960s or earlier using even older technology. As a nation, Americans recognize that a cleaner, smarter and more efficient energy infrastructure will help create a competitive economic future. The key is to invest correctly—the right way rather than the easy way."

Where do Americans wish to see investments made to overcome energy challenges? The majority (70 percent) agreed that they would prefer their power company invest in current infrastructure to make it more efficient rather than build new power-generating facilities and believe these improvements to the grid would lead to economic growth opportunities.

Eighty-eight percent of Americans said they would be willing to use a smart device such as a meter, thermostat or appliance if it would help to better manage their energy usage—the same number of people who think energy investments are a necessity. Better yet, 82 percent of those willing to use these devices believe smart meters and smart appliances are the future.

Some of the primary motivators for consumers' smart grid support include:

* Desire to save money (95 percent)

* Increased control over my energy bill (90 percent)

* Desire to make a difference for my children or grandchildren (88 percent)

* Helping reduce the number of power outages (86 percent)

* Environmental concerns (85 percent)

"Consumers are ready to think differently about how they use energy," continued Gilligan. "For those consumers that do not currently embrace smart grid technologies, more than a quarter of them (27 percent) admit that they don't understand the benefits of smart meters or smart grids. Therefore, it is important that continued consumer-friendly education is provided to address this gap in understanding."

Programs under development will allow the intermittency of clean, domestic energy sources to be managed and their contribution to our power supply to be maximized.

Smart grid technology will give consumers information about their energy usage, allowing them to better understand their energy consumption. If time-of-use rate programs are implemented, consumers could also choose when and how to best consume electricity for simple tasks like running their dishwasher or air conditioner.

As electric vehicles become more prevalent, smart grid technologies could enable consumers to benefit from more favorable nighttime rates.

Despite consumer endorsement of the development and deployment of a smart grid and the end benefits that it will deliver, a minority (10 percent) is still hesitant to accept it as the way forward.

The majority of these consumers are primarily concerned about a rise in costs (62 percent) and potential privacy and security risks (61 percent)—all of which are often fueled by misperceptions that can be addressed by continued consumer education.

Gilligan emphasized, "The energy industry has to earn the trust of the American people. At GE, we've engaged in partnerships with academics, environmental organizations and consumer associations to collectively improve outreach and education."

The survey was conducted by StrategyOne, an applied research consulting firm, in June 2010 through telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. consumers. The margin of error for the sample is plus or minus 3.1 percent at the 95 percent level of confidence.

 

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Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
http://www.stlouisrenewableenergy.com
scotty@stlouisrenewableenergy.com

Electric Cars and Charging Stations

Here's your chance to tell them where you would like a Charging Station: Click Here to suggest public locations for electric vehicles The following article is about charging stations for your car. In prior posting I covered the basics of what you will need and can be viewed at:

1. http://stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com/2010/02/electric-cars-proper-set-up.html. email:Scott's Contracting will custom build or renovate your garage for the needed Electric Hook-Ups for your Electric Car

Electric Car Charging Stations Coming To Big Cities in the United States

By Seth Leitman

Tags: electric cars, electric vehicles, EV charging infrastructure, charging stations, New York, Coulomb Technologies

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Transportation Electrification Program has awarded $400 million to 18 projects. As of March 10, small businesses have received two of the 18 grants (11% of total) amounting to $110 million (28% of total).

As part of that program, Coulomb Technologies will be delivering free home and public ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations for electric vehicles throughout the United States.

The ChargePoint America program will provide, according to The New York Times, 4,600 charging stations to program participants in nine regions in the United States. They are:

1. Austin, Texas
2. Detroit
3. Los Angeles
4. New York
5. Orlando, Fla.
6. Sacramento, Calif.
7. San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area
8. Redmond, Wash.
9. Washington D.C.

This is a strategic partnership with three leading automobile brands including, Ford, Chevrolet and Smart USA. Coulomb currently has the largest established base of networked charging stations worldwide, with more than 700 units shipped to more than 130 customers in 2009.

Installation of the ChargePoint charging stations for electric vehicles will begin immediately.

The $37 million ChargePoint America program is made possible by a $15 million grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Transportation Electrification Initiative administered by the Department of Energy. Currently, though, the remaining $22 million in installation costs has yet to be funded. Therefore, if I were them, don't spend all the money on the chargers.

ChargePoint charging stations are available now for installation in all nine designated regional metropolitan areas of the United States.

More than 1,000 new public charging stations will be installed by December 2010, adding to the existing ChargePoint Network.

The remaining stations will be installed by September 2011.

In support of the ChargePoint America program, three automakers have committed to deliver electric vehicles in designated U.S. regions. The Chevrolet Volt, the Ford Transit Connect Electric and Ford Focus Electric through the "Ford Blue Oval ChargePoint Program," and the Smart ForTwo electric drive will be introduced along with this program.

"The Obama Administration has set significant and considerable goals for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles in the coming years," said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. "This grant will bring thousands of networked charging stations to nine US regions that are slated to receive the first electric vehicles from our automobile partners. These charging stations will build upon our already growing and established network of infrastructure and will accelerate the deployment of public and private charging infrastructure which will in turn encourage consumers to buy electric vehicles. Our Department of Energy grant, also known as the stimulus bill, was funded to provide jobs for Americans. Our products are built and installed with American labor. Every time we ship a ChargePoint charging station, three Americans go to work for a day."

Visit the ChargePoint America web site and sign up by completing the application form.

Individuals interested in purchasing an EV and want their own charger, sign up at www.chargepointamerica.com to receive more information.

Here seems to be the main problem with the entire program. So far, the program is only funded for about $15 million. That's the cost of the charging stations alone. Then you have to include the money for the charging locations and the electricians, the project management of it at a local level is interesting.

I plan to give them suggestions of where to charge. Here is where you can tell ChargePoint America to suggest public locations for electric vehicles.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, ChargePoint Website