Balance of Power Shifted (14 page)

Bill gave me the job to fabricate a rudimentary chassis
and mount the components inside.  Using some of the machine shop equipment that came with the building, I was able to bend sheet metal, and after many wasted attempts, made a cabinet.  Since the wires were already connected, I needed to drill access holes to mount the circuit boards and decided to leave the front open.   Drilling screw holes into the back, I was able to mount the circuit boards to the back panel using Teflon standoffs.  Next, I mounted switches to the left side panel as well as DC output jacks and testing points.  With a little silicone gel, I tried to make the unit moisture proof by sealing the front panel and screwing it in place.  Liberally using the silicon, I sealed all the seams.  By now, it was two in the morning.  Bill had hit the sack about an hour before after creating diagrams and working out the math on our electrical capacities.

After hitting the sack, I found I could not go right to sleep.  Tomorrow or actually later
today, we could put everything in place and test out our prototype.  Over the last couple of weeks, I had been boning up on solar power and battery systems including electric cars.  Slowly but surely I was formulating applications for our product in my head.  The obvious and most simple application was to use our Power Panels in a manner similar to how solar panels work.  Due to the characteristics of the organism, low light situations allowed for power generation, which changed the dynamics resulting in no need for power companies in the future. 

The entry costs could potentially be the lowest of any alternative power system and the return on investment could be exceedingly quick
.  A typical home currently using electric for heating and cooling would have almost no other additional costs, where as a home using natural gas or heating oil would need to replace those systems with an electric equivalent.  I also envisioned a whole cottage industry springing up to do gas to electric conversions of automobiles.  My basic Internet browsing showed me there were numerous companies already specializing in it.  In contrast to pure battery driven electric cars, no mysterious charging stations were required and drivers had unlimited mileage.  Damn, those poor convenience store owners could suffer big time if drivers did not have to come in and pump gas.  Somewhere during my nocturnal day dreaming, I fell asleep.

I woke up close to
nine the next morning and grabbed a quick shower.  I decided to drink my morning Amp pick-me-up and headed down stairs to see what Bill had been doing.  “Yo Billy Boy” I called halfway down the stairs, “what’s shakin?”  Now Bill is not one of those calm and collective sorts, and when he looked up and said, “Check this out” with that ‘mad professor’ look back on his face.  Walking over I saw the electrical meters hooked up to our Power Panel with different levels showing.  Pointing to one meter, he said, “I’ve configured it so that we have three serial strings of 46 power cells.  Each of the stings connects to the others in parallel.  This gives us about 100 volts DC output.  Pointing to a second meter, he showed me a meter that indicated just over 24 amps.  Next, he stated, “calculating voltage times amperes for wattage, we have about 2400 watts of power.  Once we have it on the roof in actual daylight, I expect the amperage to double, or so I guess.”  Are you hungry,” Bill asked with a grin, which I replied “sure.”  He walked over to a small microwave we kept in the lab, placed a Jimmy Dean sausage biscuit in the microwave, and set the cook time for 2-minutes.  While it was cooking, I was looking at other things he had been playing around with and noticed he had an extension cord plugged into the DC to AC power converter which was plugged into the power panel.  Tracing the cable with my eyes, I was shocked to realize that my good friends at Electricus were helping to cook my breakfast.

While I finished my breakfast we discussed how best to carry everything up to the roof.  We both agree
d that the final design would utilize modular plugs to make assembly and disassembly easy.  For now, we decided to gently fold up the Power Pad and place the Power Panel on top of it.  We then carefully lifted up everything and placed it in a giant Coleman cooler, which had heavy-duty handles.  It was no small feat carrying it up the spiral stairs to the roof.  There were a few gallons of liquid involved and which made it heavy as hell.  We simply draped the pad over the roof of the doorway hut and placed the panel on the side of the same hut near where the electricians had installed our wiring.  We interconnected the panel to the house wiring and 10 minutes later were done.  After a short discussion on where to place the inverter, we decided to leave it where it was.

Back downstairs
, we plugged the meters in and saw that the unloaded DC connection still showed the same voltage level, but the amperage reading was close to double just as Bill had calculated.  We connected the AC into the input side of our new UPS.  This would help us to get a cleaner power signal and reduce noise and spikes.  The UPS batteries allowed for the disconnection of Electricus while allowing any device connected to the UPS to continue running.  The UPS batteries were not fully charged but would be eventually.  Being a brave soul, I connected one of the lab laptops to the UPS without the laptop battery installed.  All the data was stored on the server, so I did not think there was much risk.  The laptop worked flawlessly. 

In another
ten minutes, we had connected all kinds of miscellaneous test gear and PCs to the UPS.  We avoided anything that had an electric motor for now or created any real surge or electrical noise.  While I caught up on logging my last 2-days of activity, Bill used my Canon 7D camera to take both still pictures and high definition vignettes of Electricus in operation.  Using a tripod, he also narrated an introduction and explanation of what we were seeing.  We had agreed to do this as one way to show our friends, and hopefully future coworkers, what we were selling.  Under no circumstances would we divulge details on the “secret sauce” other than it was a living organism that made the impossible possible.

Two days later
, we were flying to Newark airport on Southwest Airline flight.  I made a giant mistake.  I let Bill make the reservations and he booked them on Southwest even though there was a connecting flight through Chicago when there were plenty of other airlines with direct flights.  Unfortunately, I did not look at my ticket until we were at the airport and it was too late to do anything.  Apparently, the professor loved the people at Southwest and thought the extra time was worth it.  It have to admit that the big dude at the gate counter had a great voice and sang 3 or 4 songs while we waited, and a male flight attendant had an excellent standup comedy routine and better than ones I have seen in clubs.

Taking advantage of his captive audience, Bill broke out a series of diagrams that he thought he had been secretly working on. 
It showed the H2 Hummer with its fossil fuel motor ripped out and in its place were two electric DC motors, although there was a caption to consider AC motors.  There were also detailed diagrams of how the Power Pad would be integrated into the engine hood as well as the roof.  Off came the chrome roof racks to make room for the Power Pad.  Bill had really done his homework.  He had separate diagrams on how he would tie one of the motors into the drive train of the front two wheels and the other motor for the rear wheels.  There were detailed drawings of how the accelerator function would work from the driver’s seat and a number of electrical pumps controlling all the things that the original motor made happen such as a minor thing like brakes.  Left off for now, was heating and air conditioning.

I felt Bill staring at me so I looked at him and he said “well?”  “I hope you know
that I knew you were going to do this to the Hummer,” I told him and laughed.  “Man you did your homework.  From what I can see and I do not know a lot about electric cars, but I think this is doable.”  “You don’t mind having the company foot the bill on this one do you,” Bill cautiously asked?”  “Absolutely not” I responded.  “Before we are done, we are going to need a number of different proof-of-concepts and what better way to show the benefits of Electricus than to take such an icon of fuel gluttony like the Hummer and show how it can be resurrected into a mean ass vehicle with little impact on the environment.”  “I’ll help you pull the engine when we return,” I said.

For the rest of the flight we talked about how to completely convert our home and shop away from the electrical
and gas utility companies.  The only bummer item for me was the 16- month old gas furnace I had put in to help keep the cost lower for heating Chez Rico.  I already had an electric hot water on demand system in place so that would be easy.  They only thing I would need to keep gas for was my stove and grill, because I loved cooking with gas.  Since it was a previous machine shop, there were two 200-amp panels for the building.  Some simple load calculations should show us how many additional Power Pads to install.

As a joke and for research purposes
, we rented a Camry Hybrid at the airport.  I was amazed at how quiet it ran when running on the battery and not the gas motor.  I planned to drop it off in Manahawkin, New Jersey and use my pickup truck parked in the garage at my house on LBI.  My friends and their families regularly used the place and they had looked after it for me for the last 2 years.  They were more than happy to do this, because Long Beach Island had the same effect on everyone who relaxed along its beaches and that was to get so relaxed you never wanted to leave.  If you left, you could not wait to get back.  It took just over 2 hours to get there with moderate evening traffic.  As I pulled down the private lane and saw that old Victorian home with the ginger bread trim, I had an immediate flashback to when my parents were alive and how I used to lug my shovel and buckets down to the water.  My father loved the water, but my mom was fearful of it.  It was always better when dad was there since he would take me out past the breakers and toss me over the wave tops.  As I drove up to the front porch amidst the sound of driving over a bed of crushed shells, I actually felt some moisture in my eyes.

We opened the house, killed the alarm and opened a few windows.  It was cool still since it was early June but the fresh ocean breeze was a must have.  Cracking the fridge
open, I could see a good supply of beer and wine but no perishables as expected.  There were a good assortment of frozen specialty dinners, but what I really wanted was to go to one of the local restaurants and have a seafood dinner.  “Let me check on the truck,” I yelled to Bill who was standing on the back porch looking towards the ocean, “and then let’s head out to dinner.”

I walked out the side door
, which in turn connected to the garage via a short porch.  The same house key unlocked the garage door.  Entering into the cool damp air of the garage, I flicked on the overhead lights to see my way around.  The pickup was there and all around the garage hung mementos from the past.  The garage was a time capsule from the last 30-years.  There were bins of old beach toys, 20 and 30 year old bicycles including a two-seater.  Old deflated truck inner tubes that I had ridden high on the waves which were hanging from the overhead rafters.  My first surfboard was still standing in the corner where I left it.  Nostalgia is a word often spoke but never truly understood.  The warm feelings and memories intertwined with pangs of sorrow for missing loved ones and flashes of my life flew by leaving me breathless and longing to turn back time. 

Forcing myself to take a deep breath
, I pushed the garage door opener and let some light in.  Getting into the truck, I was happy that it turned over and started with only the barest of hesitation.  I backed out the truck, which had a full tank a gas and pulled it alongside the Camry.  I left it idling there since I had no idea how strong the battery was and went back into the house through the garage. Closing the door as I went by, I saw Bill still on the back porch, but now sitting on an old wooden chair with a beer in hand.

G
rabbing the seat next to Bill, I took out my phone and looking at him said, “I am calling Julius and when I do, we are in it for good.”  Shaking his head yes, he also gave me a thumbs up and drained the rest of his beer.  I dialed Julius’s cell number and waited three rings for him to answer.

“
Hello” I heard.  “Mr. Filamore, Its Mike Carter.”  “Mike how’s it going,” he asked with affection.  Julius and I kept in regular touch since he helped me with all kinds of legal advice as well as advice as a friend.  “I am actually down at LBI right now and I needed to talk to you about a very, very important topic.  Would it be too much to ask you to meet me here?  “Mike, I don’t know about that.  My week is booked up.  Is there a way you could make it up here?” Julius countered. 

Mr. Fila
more, Julius, what I have to tell you is something so important that I want to ensure the privacy of what Bill and I have to say.  You remember Bill, the tall geeky guy hanging out at Nana and Papa’s house all the time.  Sure Julius said with a chuckle.  “You’ve got my interest,” he said, he continued by saying that he could cancel his meetings, but giving up my tee time was really going to hurt.  “It better be good,” he said with a bit of a groan. “I can be there around 11 am if that’s alright with you.”  “Thank you so much Julius, I promise that what we have to tell you will rock your world.  See you tomorrow and good night.”  “Good night to you Mike” he said and hung up.

We decided to head over to a fresh seafood take out place by the Viking Village
.  It was a longer drive since was at the end of the island in Barnegat Light.  Viking Village was where most of the working commercial fishing boats worked from and the seafood at this place was always fresh.  As I was eating my fried oysters and Bill scarfing down a fresh Tuna platter we crafted a text message to Fiona, Taylor, Kristen, Steve and Sean.  We made the message mysterious but also said how critical it was that they all came down to LBI Saturday and stay over to Sunday.  I actually had Bill press the send button and as the phone made a whoosh sound as the message was sent I said, “Game on.”