Electric Utility Open House
 

Hey EVeryone!

Today, I went over to my local, publicly-owned electric utility because they were having their open-house!

The event had free compact fluorescent light bulbs, tips for energy saving, the bicycle you can pedal to generate electricity, and OF COURSE and electric car and motorcycle.

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The EVent was not especially well attended (they didn't have much advertising) but there was a nice little rush of soccer moms and children right around lunch time.

I did have one especially nice conversation with an older gentleman and his son about economy, renewable energy, and transportation. He used to have a Geo Spectrum too, same as me!

I was a little excited because this was the first "official" time that I showed off the Electro-Metro!

Yesterday, I got the 12V charger wired up to automatically run from the "gas-cap" inlet, and mounted the 72V charger down to a proper-size piece of plexiglass in back.

I moved the ammeter shunt up to under the hood, and shoved the extra wires under the dashboard.

When I got the car there in the morning, I wiped the dash down with Armor-All.

Later in the day, I got a chance to chit chat with the Utility Director. I know they have some money to use to promote conservation, energy efficiency, etc, and I commented about the possibilty of some sort of "sponsorship".

He basically said: "What did you have in mind? Put something together and send it to my assistant."

What do you guys think? What should I ask for, and how should I present it?

I would love to get some nice graphics done up for the car. Maybe listing gas-saving tips, references to fuel economy web pages, etc. Those "full-body" wraps are neat too, but I have no idea what they cost.


PS: If you look real close, you can see that I put both of the mini-Geo-hub-caps on the side facing the crowd and set them so they both faced "up"!

Congrats on the first Metro EV showing, Ben!

I have no idea what to suggest about sponsorship ideas... (discount on electricity??)

But knowing how much you're likely to show the car, they'd probably get their money's worth with some signage on it and some cash for you.

Congratulations! You were showing an actual running car, yet Renault is going the 'concept' showing!

Electric concepts show possibility - The Boston Globe

Even though I have always been a Californian, my first car was a 1959 Renault Dauphine; so I am quite interested in a Renault EV!

Thanks!

It's amazing how much talk you hear from the big motor company's and even people I personally talk to ("well, I'd do it this way......")

I wish more people were out there working on making things actually happen!
Fortunately, many of them are right here on this forum!

I do get a little happier with every new automotive X-Prize participant I hear about.

I did have a little problem coming back from the open house. My turn signals weren't working right.

When I checked my 12V accessory battery, it read 20 volts! Yipes! I worked on it some tonight. Turns out I had the multimeter set to AC instead of DC! The battery was 11 volts in DC. I swapped the battery out for another one and EVerything was fine.

One of the next things I should be doing on the car is adding a voltmeter and ammeter for the 12V system. Also, my current battery is undersized. Maybe I can get a few for free from Tom at the computer recycler shop and parallel them together.

I am still planning a DC/DC converter as well, but have not found one in my budget yet. I do have the mate to the one on my motorcycle, but it's only 100 watt. Fine for a single motorcycle headlight, but most likely not enough for a pair of car headlights, a blower, and windshield wipers....

Congrats on the good exposure. I can't wait to see what kind of sponsorship you come up with. I really like your motorcycle. That is my first project to attempt once I'm home. So I may be picking your brain at that point.