SF BayLEAFs - e-NV200 Ride & Drives and Showcase May 28

Guys-

Take great notes for this one. Can't make it

Can we add EV Advocacy Campaigns to the Agenda if that is not already one of the committees topics (I missed the last meeting). Thanks gascan't!

gascant said:

Gathering #8 now confirmed for Sunday, October 2nd at Luscious Garage, starting at 11:30 AM. Carolyn is very excited to host us again and will be talking about the future of green vehicle service. We also will have some committee reports for the first time, and further discussion on SOC. The GGEVA meeting follows immediately, so there will not be a horn upgrade clinic at this meeting. We'll resume that at our November meeting.

Details:
Luscious Garage
475 9th St
San Francisco, CA

Doors will open around 11:15 for those needing charging.
Further agenda items are welcomed. I encourage everyone to stay for the GGEVA meeting, which starts at 2PM.

Click to expand...

EVDrive said:

Can we add EV Advocacy Campaigns to the Agenda if that is not already one of the committees topics (I missed the last meeting).

Click to expand...

Yep. We'll talk about our committees that are just getting up and running. We try not to duplicate the efforts of Plug-In America, Electric Auto Association, and Calcars. Those organizations have been in existence a lot longer (in some case, infinitely longer) than us, so it's best that we work as part of their efforts.

gascant said:

Gathering #8 now confirmed for Sunday, October 2nd at Luscious Garage, starting at 11:30 AM.

Click to expand...

That's great! Saturdays are usually not good for me, while sundays are possible. I'll try to make it.

There is a large group of like-minded folks (EVs of all sorts) that will hold an EV Rally this Saturday in Palo Alto. They have already spent a couple thousand dollars to book the location and brought in one of their members who is an electrician to hook up temporary power for those that need charging. This might be an opportunity for a version 7.5 of the SF BayLEAFs gatherings.

This is the EAA invitation to the MNL forum:


Hi,

The Electric Auto Assn invites you to the Silicon Valley Chapter's 39th Annual EV Rally & Show from 10-4 on Sept 24 at Palo Alto High School. PAHS is at 50 Embarcadero Rd (x El Camino Real) in Palo Alto, across from the Stanford field and Town & Country Village.

There will be production and converted electric vehicles on display, with some available for test rides or ride-alongs. Cars, trucks, SUVs, scooters, bikes, and more!

There are four main areas of Rally activity:

- A display area with event-registered electric vehicles on static display
- An area for test-driving personal electric vehicles including electric bikes and scooters
- A vendor area with a selection of green companies and EV dealers
- A "rally" where registered members offer visitors short rides in a variety of electric vehicles. Registered display vehicles are also eligible for prizes.

For more information, visit: http://eaasv.org/rally.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you'd like to display your vehicle(s) at the event, please contact JoAnne at jsarro (at) yahoo.com. Registered vehicle display space is limited, and priority goes to EAA members.

If you'd like to know more about EAA membership, including the "Join the EAA for 3 months for free" promotion for Leaf (and Volt) owners, please contact Membership (at) electricauto.org. If you're a Leaf owner, please include your model and VIN.


We hope you visit our event on Saturday and decide to become a member!

EAA

I've got my second meter up and running, set to the E9-B rate. It was quite the project, including upgrading the existing 100A service to a 400A service (2 by 200A).

I've switched the house to the E6 time-of-use rate, since we've become used to scheduling our power usage. If you're interested, you can see the rate diagrams I've created here.

MayPullLeaf said:

I've got my second meter up and running, set to the E9-B rate. It was quite the project, including upgrading the existing 100A service to a 400A service (2 by 200A).

Click to expand...

Is there any reason you would use a 2 by 200A breaker box, instead of One 400A breaker box? Curious mind wants to know.

waidy said:

MayPullLeaf said:

I've got my second meter up and running, set to the E9-B rate. It was quite the project, including upgrading the existing 100A service to a 400A service (2 by 200A).

Click to expand...

Is there any reason you would use a 2 by 200A breaker box, instead of One 400A breaker box? Curious mind wants to know.

Click to expand...

Because E9-B requires two separate meters, and thus, two separate breaker panels, although the second one is supposed to connect directly (and only, I believe) to the EVSE.

The second meter gets dirt-cheap power after midnight, and the first meter stays on whatever tariff you want for the rest of the house.

My initial comment only applied to the 2 meters required of the E9-B rate.

I've added the before & after portions of my service upgrade plan to the web page, as well as some tips for progamming the Blink EVSE.

There was a comment from the inspector about the EVSE being directly connected to the meter. I pointed out that:

• The service disconnect at the meter (200A) was far in excess of the breaker required for the EVSE (40A), so direct connect was not safe.
• I had 2 EVSE, the Blink (40A) and the Nissan EVSE (20A), so required a minimum of 2 connections to the 2nd meter.
• I liked the Leaf so much, that I would likely have a 2nd electric vehicle in the near future, so had prewired the other side of my garage with the same 2 receptacles.

I'm glad this reasoning worked, but I could find nothing in the California Electric Code (based on the National Electric Code) that indicated that an EVSE had to be a direct connect. I think the inspectors may have been accustomed to seeing the sub-par installations of the AeroEnvironment EVSEs that were being performed by Sprig that were being done this way. The EVSE installations are a new field for inspection, and standards and expectations are being developed.

As a side note, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the EVSE installations were being done in violation of the code. If a 30A EVSE is added to a house with a 100A service, that implies that the house itself has a load calculation of 70A or less. That's pretty low if the house has electric kitchen appliances.

MayPullLeaf said:

I've got my second meter up and running, set to the E9-B rate. It was quite the project, including upgrading the existing 100A service to a 400A service (2 by 200A).

Click to expand...

Did you get pictures? I want to come back to this topic at a future meeting. I have 4 months of experience with E9A rates for the whole house.

There are a few pictures, but I didn't really document the project. I could take some shots of the completion, but I've drywalled over the wiring inside the garage.

I was on E9-A before the 2nd meter was up. We had some months where the electric bill was less than before the Leaf (and before A/C).

A brief summary of the rally and show.

Gathering #7.5
September 24 th , Palo Alto High School
10AM - 4:00PM (street fair atmosphere with vendors, 38x EVs on display, all for public education)
~1000 attendees, 20 LEAFs, 8 Teslas , 2 Volts, 18 Conversions- Li, 22 Conversions- Lead, 5 e-motorcycles
15 vendor booths, 1 world record motorcycle, temporary power for charging 15 EVs (2x L2 J1772)
Discussions on EV issues of all kinds, Charging infrastructure, hundreds of EV rides given.
As much as we all love the Leaf, the longest lines were for rides in the Tesla Roadsters.


gascant, please post the (above) summary to the History page.


When I get a little more time I will post with a few pictures and a more detailed write up.

Reminder:
As a special for the rally, Ingineer offered any customers that place an order online
and email (evse at evseupgrade.com ) that they heard about them at the rally will get a
free 120v adapter. ($25 value) Ingineer will refund the $25 after purchase and upon receiving the email.

Reminder - the order must be placed by 9/30 special rally pricing.

(See post by MaryC below re Quick Charge opportunity & Q&A W/ Nissan engineers.)

Phoenix said:

Kudos to mcurran who found this thread regarding regional meeting on Oct. 22nd. 10AM at Nissan Technical Center/Fuel Cell Partnership in Sacramento where they have a QC and Level 2 charging.
mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?=4&t=5826&start=0
(If this link doesn't work, check on the General Leaf Discussion or recent posts around 9/22/2011)

Click to expand...

Do we know what topics will be covered?

Heres the link, I hope:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5826&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think mostly it is just a meet up and everyone wants to try the QC. I have to work that day so can not attend.

Mary

For the upcoming SF BayLeafs meeting, I would recommend that there be a discussion for PG&E's proposal to change E-9 rates to non-tiered (but much more expensive) Time-of-Use rates ( linked here --> http://www.pge.com/nots/rates/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_3910-E.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ). It substantially raises the cost to 75% of current E-9A customers who use less electricity and nearly all E-9b customers.

Personally, I've sent in my protest letter and would urge those of like mind to send one in before the deadline on October 17. Since the meeting occurs well before then, having it as a possible topic would be great.

EVandPV4Future said:

A brief summary of the rally and show.

Gathering #7.5
September 24 th , Palo Alto High School
10AM - 4:00PM (street fair atmosphere with vendors, 38x EVs on display, all for public education)
~1000 attendees, 20 LEAFs, 8 Teslas , 2 Volts, 18 Conversions- Li, 22 Conversions- Lead, 5 e-motorcycles
15 vendor booths, 1 world record motorcycle, temporary power for charging 15 EVs (2x L2 J1772)
Discussions on EV issues of all kinds, Charging infrastructure, hundreds of EV rides given.
As much as we all love the Leaf, the longest lines were for rides in the Tesla Roadsters.

gascant, please post the (above) summary to the History page.

Click to expand...

FYI, a good write up here:
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/11335-2011s-silicon-valley-eaa-ev-rally-39th-annual-pictures-and-electric-cars-galore" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

waitingforaleaf said:

For the upcoming SF BayLeafs meeting, I would recommend that there be a discussion for PG&E's proposal to change E-9 rates to non-tiered (but much more expensive) Time-of-Use rates ( linked here --> http://www.pge.com/nots/rates/tariffs/tm2/pdf/ELEC_3910-E.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ). It substantially raises the cost to 75% of current E-9A customers who use less electricity and nearly all E-9b customers.

Click to expand...

We can do that. Look for my PM to get details.

EVandPV4Future said:

A brief summary of the rally and show.

Gathering #7.5
September 24 th , Palo Alto High School
10AM - 4:00PM (street fair atmosphere with vendors, 38x EVs on display, all for public education)
~1000 attendees, 20 LEAFs, 8 Teslas , 2 Volts, 18 Conversions- Li, 22 Conversions- Lead, 5 e-motorcycles
15 vendor booths, 1 world record motorcycle, temporary power for charging 15 EVs (2x L2 J1772)
Discussions on EV issues of all kinds, Charging infrastructure, hundreds of EV rides given.
As much as we all love the Leaf, the longest lines were for rides in the Tesla Roadsters.

Click to expand...

If you're coming to Gathering #8 this weekend, it would be great if you wanted to show pictures and give a brief summary.

If you're coming to Gathering #8 this weekend, it would be great if you wanted to show pictures and give a brief summary.

Click to expand...

Yes, count me (and several others who attended as well) in for a summary of #7.5 rally/show. I will need to plan on picking up a charge during the meeting.