IDA International Inc.

Electric Vehicle Test

2011-12-29T18:45:00.000-05:00

We have posted in the past about the possible future of electric propulsion for delivery vehicles. (see this entry from 2010Oct) Our typical delivery is a 150mile round-trip, many times with a substantial cargo weight.

Now it seems that FedEx is trying out cargo vans based on Nissan Leaf, and so is the Japan Post. (article link)

Mitsubishi is preparing a light-duty electric truck for farmers and contractors with forecast of 1/2 it's sales to be electric by 2020 (article link). The former President of GM has joined a conversion company that makes hybrid pickups from existing lines (article link).

Big corporate names such as Coca Cola are looking to the future with EV delivery trucks (article link), specifically the Newton by Smith Electric Vehicles. They have a range of up to 150 miles, and speed of 50mph, all while hauling up to 16,000lbs of cargo. They are a target market with 176 purchased by Frito-Lay, 41 purchased by Staples, and plans by AT&T to purchase more, and the U.S. Marines testing a pair of military spec versions.

What does this mean for our company? The range and cargo capacity of all-electric vehicles is approaching the standards needed for our operations. We have been documenting capability of an electric passenger vehicle as preparation for a cargo capable vehicle. As of 2011Dec31, our IDA electric car has nearly 13,000 miles that have been entirely powered with electricity that was generated by our on-site solar array.

Images are drawn from and copyright autoblog.com

For Sale - Racks for Storage.

2011-10-11T12:16:00.001-04:00

We have dismantled a rack storage structure on the property, and are offering it for sale, in pieces by lot. Possibilities include creating storage in your warehouse, or garage.

The vertical uprights are 30 feet long, but can be cut down to shorter lengths. They are available in both 4ft and 5ft depths.

The horizontal beams are numerous and come in 10ft or 12ft lengths. All beams attach to the verticals with a pin insert for easy attachment or adjustment. The beams feature a shelf where corrugated decking, wire frame, wood, or other such shelf design would sit in.

All parts are sold as is, Cash and Carry, from our location at 200 Roosevelt Drive Derby, during business hours. Business hours are Mon-Fri, 5:30AM-2:00PM. Afternoon or Weekend pickup times can be arranged.

Verticals: $30 each 30ft length

Horizontals: $15 each beam

Verticals can be cut into desired length (example - two 15ft lengths), and each horizontal includes 2 pins for attachment to Verticals.

A single vertical cut in half, plus 4 horizontal beams = $90 for minimum setup. Subsequent verticals can attach to the initial first shelf making incremental increase in storage space even less expensive. Racks are available in either 4ft or 5ft depth shelves. Horizontals are 10ft or 12ft in length. No variation in price among those component sizes.

This storage system is being dismantled from our property (see other blog entries), and has some surface rust spots where a coating of paint would improve it's aesthetics if you desired.

Use these to store small items, or complete pallets of product, even leave the space below open so that you can roll in access to equipment such as a lawnmower or welder and still have storage above.

Questions, contact Thomas Harbinson

thomas.harbinson@ida-intl.com

De-Construction Part6 - Complete

2011-09-30T09:47:00.000-04:00

NOTE: Part of our Vision Statement is to be a Respected Company in the Community. That comes through communication regarding our activities. A portion of our property that is in high profile to the community is undergoing some changes. This communication series is to communicate what is happening.

Read Part5 of this series

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"Rack Storage" brown building

We prepared to dismantle a significant sized structure on our property, starting in August. It was completed by September 30th. The footprint of the warehouse was 42,000 square feet, a light-engineered design style, with everything framed off the steel storage racks which supported the siding, roofing, electrical, plumbing - basically everything. The warehouse was never used by us since moving to the property in the late 1980's. It was a shell that had no stairs, elevator, or other ready access. When the structure was designed, materials and product were delivered via conveyor belt. All of these elements, along with accessory structures, were removed over 25 years ago, previous to our ownership.

Recycling Center unloads scrap.

Transporting sheething to recycler

The storage rack elements and accessories were all dismantled and removed in two months. 95% of these elements were recycled for their scrap value. Close to 1/2 a million pounds of steel were transported by us to a recycle center within 20 miles. Other materials were taken away as refuse.

Removing is systematically

Sheeting removed from racks

While this activity wasn't technically a "demolition", it is important to not that such work, If approached in a proper way, can be accomplished in a "green" manner. Systematically removing the materials made it easy to consolidate for shipping to scrap yard. Keeping the standpipe and cast iron separate from the light steel, allowed us to get the best price rather than be a mixed materials. In essence we were constructing the facility in reverse, or deconstructing it rather than simply demolishing it.

Removing the Racks

The "floor" of the warehouse (technically not a "building") was elevated and it remains, acting now as a shed roof for our storage area below, sheltering our materials from the weather elements. Longtime local residents may recall that the area below was where the outlet store "Sewers Delight" was once located selling cloth remnants from the days when the location housed a fabric dyeing and printing company (Hull Dye Print Works).

Finished with removal

With no specific plans at the present, the steel beams may be wrapped with the material we use on building facades to create a more pleasant presentation to the community, and help accomplish a roofing membrane and drain system to the deck for it's long-term protection.

De-Construction Part5 - Siding

2011-08-11T12:08:00.009-04:00

Read Part4 of this series

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See this blog link to information regarding these racks available for sale

With so much preparation work having taken place, it is time to dismantle the sheathing facing the canal and Roosevelt Drive. It's likely at this stage in de-construction that residents or passerby will wonder what is going on, and thus this communication stream.

The following photos were over just a couple of days.

Link to Part 6.

De-Construction Part4 - Broom Clean Ready

2011-08-11T10:39:00.011-04:00

Read Part3 of this series

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See this blog link to information regarding these racks available for sale

The interior of the building is now broom clean with all decking, pipes, electrical, lights and insulation removed. Everything except the insulation and roof materials in the 42,000 sqft building was recycled for it's scrap metal value. The only thing left on the floor is the vertical supports, with connections between the rows which tie it together as a structure with rigidity. The outside sheathing is attached to girts that run the full perimeter.

The view up the river valley is spectacular on a clear day like today. The Yale University Boathouse is barely visible in this one-point perspective photo.

The building's footprint is apx. 42,000 square feet. The racks are over 30 feet high. This yielded 1.2 million cubic feet of storage space. Sadly, it has gone vacant for over 30years due to inability to heat the space and offer something other than "cold storage", and the lack of freight elevator accessibility as would be called for with modern warehouse standards.

The "erector set" of racks is simply held together with pins, and the gravity of the steel horizontal beams holds them in place. These components have been in place since the 1960's, and the structure vacant from use for over 30 years. As such, water that was standing on the floor from roof leaks had caused deterioration to the steel in a few places. The photo shows how rust has eaten like a cancer up this particular vertical support. Unlike structural steel (such as i-beams), rolled steel material is lighter and more susceptible to rust over time. In the few places where regularly in standing water, it thus causes significant rust penetration. This has simply become a safety matter and the structure had to be dismantled.

Link to Part 5.

De-Construction Part3 - Siding First

2011-08-10T18:39:00.012-04:00

Read Part2 of this series.

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See this blog link to information regarding these racks available for sale

At this stage, the Rack Storage structure has had all of it's roof decking as well as internal accessories removed. It was important to keep the various materials separated: cast iron drain pipe, sheathing sheet metal, roof decking corrugated steel, shelving steel, etc. Fortunately, we have a large yard to sort and separate the materials as seen in adjacent photo.

Keeping materials separated and uniform allowed efficient loading on trucks for consolidated delivery to the scrap yard, and yielding the best scrap price for semi-prepared materials rather than simply dumpsters filled with various components. It also allowed us to make the scrap deliveries ourselves rather than with large containers.

The rear of the structure was our first attempt because it was a bit more complicated. After the fire from the mid 1980's, when the State of CT seized the property, and subsequently sold it to the City of Derby, it was prepared to be marketed as an industrial park. As you might imagine, there were some shortcuts taken in that governmental preparation. On some parts of the structure, they left the existing siding and put on some "Z" girts for attaching a second layer of siding that was more aesthetically pleasing. In between was a layer of insulation, which seems strange since there was never any form of heat provided within the structure.

After the first layer was removed, insulation pulled away, and the second layer of sheathing removed, it left exposed the simple erector set of the storage racks. With this accomplished, to speed the progress and minimize the disruption as witnessed from the street, we removed all the coping that bridged between the siding and the roof (which was removed first).

Our next blog entry will show how the preparation paid off with quick work and minimal disruption to the street facing the Canal. Note: while "Canal Street" is technically closed due to a construction project by the United Illuminating electric utility, it is still important to minimize disruption of access for any emergency responders.

Link to Part 4.

De-Construction Part2 - Preparation

2011-08-05T18:02:00.006-04:00

Read Part1 of this series.

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See this blog link to information regarding these racks available for sale

Dismantling the "rack storage" structure would require some planning. First, we front directly on what is assumed to be a City street "Canal Street", when the fact is that it is technically a "common pass-way", a relic from the old manufacturing days. Regardless of the legal aspects, the work to be conducted would require closing the road from any use for safety reasons. The electric utility had some work to replace underground vaults in August where there was a formal notice of closing for a month - so we synchronized our opportunity to occur during that time.

The racks themselves are a heavy steel upright with perforated holes where horizontal beams sat on pins with gravity. It was on those beams that corrugated steel shelving was placed, and upon that shelving where product was stored when the storage structure was utilized. Removal would be as simple as dismantling an erector set, but just needed to be done in a proper sequence.

Since we utilize talented and trained staff in construction, it seemed wise to use the same staff to accomplish some de-construction. We allocated time in our schedule of upcoming projects to make use of our existing workforce in an efficient manner. All workers on site are trained in use of boom lifts, scissor lifts, fall safety, and other regulations related to OSHA that one would expect on a construction site.

The roof would come off first, and it was an EPDM type rubber roof with a build-up of styrofoam to create pitch toward the roof drains. This was compromised several times over the years. The photo to the left shows damage from 2003Nov. It was repaired, yet damaged again in 2004, and the photo on the right shows damage from 2006Mar. At certain points the roof has 11inches thick of the styrofoam to create pitch toward roof drains. The first step was to remove the roofing materials and dispose of it. While styrofoam can be recycled, the moisture and contamination from dirt and rust made that impossible and this was the only component of the building that was hauled away as waste.

Many interior components were removed during this time, all the light fixtures, wiring, roof drains with piping, sprinkler system, and shelving were all systematically dismantled and collectively separately hauled to a scrap storage facility for recycling. As an example, segregated piping shown on left, shelves and roof decking on the right loaded on truck for delivery to scrap yard.

Now with solely the structural elements in place, the erector set could be removed in sequence. Our next blog entry will illustrate how this was accomplished.

Link to Part 3

De-Construction Part1 - History

2011-07-30T17:27:00.017-04:00

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See this blog link to information regarding these racks available for sale

Normally, our company is involved with the construction of a new building, specifically the facade skin that protects the occupants from the elements. Soffits, Coping, Curtain-wall, Parapet, Column Covers, etc - all go into constructing the building "envelope". A photo-stream appears to the right on our blog page showing samples of such work.

Sometimes that construction is part of a remodeling of an existing structure. This is the first of several blog entries which will discuss how we addressed a part of our own facility in a "green" manner to recycle the content, rather than just conducting a "demolition", and be an example for others to consider.

First a little history.

Our facility has several components that have been around for some time. It's location utilized water power to turn machinery and manufacture cannons at one time. The Ousatonic Dam is just to our north, and the canal that brought water with it's potential energy is still along side our property. Some buildings are riveted steel construction from that time of the "US Rapid Fire Munitions Company". Here's a picture of the factory when it was operated by the "US Rapid Fire Gun & Power Company" with (22) 6" PDR Semi Automatic Guns, and (1) 15" PDR Rapid Fire Gun.

There were several textile operations over the years, such as "Victory Textile". In the 1980's, the last occupant before us was the "Hull Dye and Print Works", a fabric dye and print factory. They were one of the largest employers in Derby. Unfortunately, they had a fire in the mid 1980's, and the operations ceased. The State of Ct, and then the City of Derby took over control of the property and did remediation of contamination from years of industrial use, rehabilitated the parcel as an Industrial Park, and marketed it as such. That's when we came into ownership.

They Hull Dye company would print fabric in a design according to customer specifications, and in many cases store the bolts of fabric for on-demand delivery to the customer as a warehouse type service. One of the structures on our property housed these bolts of fabric, what we refer to internally as the "rack storage" area. It is the large brown structure that faces the canal and Roosevelt Drive.

This manufactured rack storage structure was from The Steelox Company, a subsidiary company of the Armco Steel Corporation. They had numerous structure types that were quickly and cheaply constructed, and thus popular during WW2 and subsequent years. You can learn a little bit about the company via this link to a history brochure.

http://www.steelox.com/history.htm

The structure is actually very minimalist in design, commonly referred to as "pre-engineered". What is surprising to many is that there are no columns, no beams, no framing other than the storage racks that exist within the sheathing. The racks support the siding and the roof. There are also no stairs, elevator, or access to the floor area after the renovation that was done by the City of Derby. It could solely be accessed by climbing an old conveyor belt. With the racks being the structure of support for the siding and the roof, these racks couldn't be removed to create a clear-span of work space within the walls. It has been over 1 million cubic feet of unusable storage space since the property was purchased in 1987.

Over the years, the structure became compromised, and despite some repair work, reached a state where a decision had to be made for it's removal. Desiring to illustrate a "green" construction method, we focused on how it could be dismantled rather than demolished.

Look for further blog entries that will illustrate how this was accomplished. (Use the blog label "Green Construction" to filter entries for this subject).

Link to Part 2

Housatonic River 2011 Spring Floods

2011-03-11T09:11:00.005-05:00

Our property is located along the Housatonic River in Derby. From our location one can access Long Island Sound and beyond with vessel, but just north of us is the Ousatonic Dam (sometimes called the Derby Dam). This is what created the canals on both the Shelton and Derby sides of the river that provided water power for factories such as the building we occupy (once a munitions factory, then a textile print/dye factory, now a solar powered building products manufacturing company)

Being so close to the river, the spring thaws from upstream snow annually cause quite a rush of water over the dam with a roaring sound to draw the onlookers. This year, it was particularly impressive. Cars floating down the river, docks being torn away, and numerous homes under water. Our local online newspaper covered the flood story and this video shows the dam from the Shelton side of the river (our facility is just out of view further downstream on the Derby side) with the fury of the river at it's 5th highest level ever.

Our property has some low lying frontage on the shore that gets covered in such spring storms and quickly dries out as the waters recede. Below is some video that shows the aftermath. Taken on Thu Mar10, 2011.

This next video begins at the most downstream corner of our property, and walks upstream to show why the under-story vegetation along a river bank is so important to maintain it's integrity and keep from being scoured away. In fact, the event left behind a layer of silt at least 6" deep.

And although it looks like the water was close to our building, this particular parcel's structure was constructed after the 1955 flood (which was several feet about this 2011 event), and the foundation was not impacted, as you can see by this last video.

Accolades and Recognition

2011-03-04T11:37:00.009-05:00

Having done numerous projects in New York, it's fun to pick out our work on buildings in movie scenes. Recognizing our own work is nice, but it's nicer to be recognized by others for what we do.

Alcoa is the supplier of the main material we utilize "Reynobond" which is an aluminum composite sheet material. They have recognized us in 2010 for Outstanding Achievement. This is the 5th time we have been recognized by Alcoa for our "exceptional accomplishments".

They also produce an annual calendar to highlight projects where their Reynobond material is used in architecture around the world. It's considered an honor to have one of your projects featured in their calendar, and it is distributed widely to architects and fabricators. We are honored to have a project featured in the 2011 June page. It is 100 Park Avenue in New York City.

And the next time you are watching a movie filmed in NYC, you might see some of our work. This same 100 Park Avenue Building was captured in a pivotal scene of Will Smith's "I am Legend". See it on the right of this photo with the sidewalk scaffolding in place.

Imagery from the 2007 Movie, copyright Warner Bros.

Winter - effect of snow Part2

2011-02-21T01:00:00.003-05:00

So the snow built up until February 7th at about noon. That was when the snow guards holding back such a mass of weight said "no more". The courtyard area has a standing seam metal roof that pitches toward it and had built up with quite a curl of snow. I estimate that it was 4ft thick of ice and dense snow and went back a good 20ft from the eave toward the ridge of the roof.

Heavy snow weights about 20lbs/cubic foot. 4ft tall drift x 60ft long gutter x 20ft from eave upward = 4800 cubic feet of snow, or 96,000 pounds. That my friends is a lot of weight. Snow guards were torn free, and it crashed into the courtyard.

We have a mini excavator handy and dug a path to see what was buried. The inverter obviously took a hit on the roof as you can see from this photo. It is made to withstand outdoor environments, but never was envisioned to be under such a blast of weight. The blue canopy shown in other photos over the inverter was a light gauge cover to shelter a technician when they would service the equipment. Needless to say, it was destroyed.

The inside corner also house the air conditioning condenser unit. We created a canopy cover to protect the unit from snow during the winter time. Little did we know it would be crushed under the impact.

So my next post will discuss the recovery from the event.

Winter - effect on solar Part1

2011-02-21T00:00:00.004-05:00

As we entered winter, I'm often asked - how does that affect the electricity generation from solar panels? Certainly the shorter daylight hours reduce the potential for kwh, but this year the question was more often related to the snow we have had. In CT this winter, our ground has been covered by snow since the Xmas-NewYear holiday until March. More than 90days! In fact, we received some record snowfalls.

Our panels are on a pitched roof and rather tightly spaced. Thus, the snow can start to slide off as you see in these photos. Our standing seam metal roof has snow guards to limit hazard below, because as you can see, when that accumulation slides, it slams (look at snow splat on pavement below). What was unexpected was how much snow we got (2ft in one storm) over the winter with no thaw period between storms. It did get to be a problem as to where snow could be pushed, and still maintain access to the yard for materials deliver.

After several storms, buildings started collapsing. Usually barns at farms or storage shed industrial structures that were light engineered on the limit of building code allowances. Still, we weren't taking any chances and started shoveling snow off our office roof (the only flat roof area we have). You can see by this photo that it was a lot of snow, up to our shoulder as we shoveled it away. The right photo is our courtyard area where some equipment for the solar array is located. The snow on the pitched roof area has curled and built up substantially. It couldn't be simply removed, and the buildup was worrisome.

It snowed and snowed and snowed!! It was quite the winter!! Despite the snow shed from our panels as shown in the above photo , we were getting a "DC fault" code causing the inverter to cease generating any electricity. We couldn't access the roof safely to confirm what was causing the fault, but the "DC" indication confirms it was at the panels. My next post will show the effects.

Public Charging of Snowy Tesla

2011-01-07T16:04:00.007-05:00

The company has installed a weather proof electrical outlet, which is openly available to any electric car owner who wants to charge their car with free electricity generated at our location from our solar panel array. You can actually power your electric car with clean energy from the sun generated at the location where you top-up your battery.

Today we had another visitor take advantage of the offering, this time from Tesla Motors themselves! Michael Sexton, Senior Sales Advisor for Tesla Motors in New York City stopped by to visit on his way into New Haven. I showed him our manufacturing operations, we had lunch, and then he left with a full "tank" of sun juice!

As you can see, when he left, the snow was accumulating. I'm often asked how the Tesla Roadster performs in snow. As Michael illustrates - quite fine. He has snow tires mounted, and with the car's electronic traction control, it performs quite well. In fact, the battery weight is perfectly distributed over the tires of the rear-drive car.

As the Tesla illustrates, battery operated vehicles, including delivery trucks or fleet operations, need not be worried about cold weather or slippery surfaces. It is a vehicle like any other, but simply is powered by electricity rather than petroleum.

NOTE: It wasn't that long a stay to charge up the car, it started snowing during the first photo and was coming down at a good pace by the time he left.

Sunny Statistics 2010

2010-12-29T11:57:00.007-05:00

The PV Solar System has completed it's 2nd Electric Year (2009Dec17 thru 2010Dec19). As comparison, look to the results for the 2009 Electric Year found hear.

For the 2010 Electric Year:

The system was in place for 368 days (29 days of which there was no production due to equipment issues, snow load prevented access to equipment repairs in Feb/Mar).
The average system output was 330kwh/day.
The average consumption of our operations was 295kwh/day.
Highest daily electricity generation was May10 with 724kwh
112% of consumption was generated from the PV Solar System.

January, November and December (and March due to equipment shutdown) were the only months when the PV Solar System didn't generate more than our entire operations electricity consumption. Since the system was installed on 2009Mar23, enough electricity has been generated on-location to power all of the company's operations.

Recognizing the excess generation capacity, during this year, items that were powered from other sources were replaced to electricity fueled such as hot water heaters and one vehicle vehicle. A sewer pumping station that was operated separately from our company previous to 2010, but which served our property and that of 3 adjacent parcels, was connected to our infrastructure and is now powered by solar generated electricity.

With there still being an excess of power after these changes, further avenues of efficient utilization and conversions will be examined in 2011.

QR code for this post:

Solar Panels on Frosty Morning

2010-11-02T16:33:00.004-04:00

An interesting thing regarding solar panels is their configuration or setup. Our 525 panel array is configured so that several panels are connected in series as a "string", and then combined with other strings to send their DC current to an inverter where the output becomes AC current.

One design challenge is that the panels in that string need to be working well together. If 3 out of 7 panels in a string are not functioning - the entire string is unable to make production. On Nov1, we had an exceptionally clear and cold day. The panels had a frost that settled on them, and with the early morning sun rising clearly and slowly, the melt of the frost followed the shadow line as the sun rose in the sky. As you can see by the above photo, that meant that some panels, though being struck by sunlight, were unable to pass along their energy generation because other panels in the string were not producing energy due to frost blocking the light.

One solution to this is micro-inverters that would convert the DC current on each individual panel into AC current. It is an interesting concept, which this NYTimes article discusses more.

The photo is from 8:30am, and the array kept going in and out of operation as the sun glinted just enough light and energy on the threshold of operating. During the day total, there were 452kwh generated, the most in nearly a month.

As of Nov1, the array has generated all electrical needs for the company, even with us switching gas heaters to electric and adding an electric car that charges it's battery here. In fact, the array generated all the needs, and created excess of over 14,000 kwh. The credit of kwh generated and pushed to the grid beyond our consumption pulled from the grid, will be drawn down upon during the winter months when we do pull more than is pushed to the grid.

Hot Water Heater - Electric vs Gas

2010-10-15T12:25:00.001-04:00

The hot water heater in the manufacturing area serviced wash basins and a bathroom. It was gas fired, 50 gallons, and needed replacement. We switched to a 6 gallon electric which we believe will yield substantial savings.

A physical review revealed that use of hot water occurred only at end of work periods (break-time, lunch, end of day). Otherwise, the system was maintaining 50 gallons of hot water during off periods (such as evenings and weekends).

An on-demand system would not work due to the heavy load that occurs upon lunch time as an example, when all the workers are using actively washing up before a meal.

A 6 gallon tank was found to be the right size for our peak use. The tank takes up less room, and doesn't require the venting like the former natural gas fired tank.

The comparison of costs and determining payback of investment is offered via this government website.

The system has been in place for 2 months, and functions as projected. We have ample electricity surplus from our PV solar array, so we have eliminated a natural gas purchase for the energy, as well as have eliminated the pollutants from burning the gas. All hot water in our facility comes from electric heaters, with electricity gathered from our Photo-voltaic array of panels.

Electric Vehicle Delivery Truck

2010-10-05T11:53:00.007-04:00

Electric delivery vehicles are a possibility of the future, which is why we are currently testing the feasibility via the electric passenger vehicle (the only pure EV available is the Tesla Roadster).

Our typical market served requires a 150mile round-trip capability. Currently the trucks being tested or shown in auto-shows have a 100mile range (and that is not descriptive of the load they may carry).

This link provides a glimpse at what may be to come for larger vehicles, and this link shows that smaller delivery vehicles powered by electricity (solely) are becoming available (to fleet owners).

Images drawn from and copyright autoblog.com

Emergency Preparedness

2010-09-24T14:15:00.007-04:00

The location of our operation in Derby, CT has had quite a history. It was a cannon factory, then a munitions factory, and just previous to our residence, a dye and print factory of fabrics. There was a fire at the location in the mid 1980's that devastated the property. You can see the canal alongside the property from which previous occupants tapped it's kinetic energy for powering machinery. In recent years, it powered a turbine to generate electricity for McCallum Enterprises, who have a similar facility on the Shelton side of the Housatonic River.

Given that emergency personnel in Derby (ambulance and fire) are volunteers, it's important that they be aware of our operation's layout and the hazards to be aware of within. When responding, seconds can make quite a difference and rather than require someone to call up drawings and files and radio them to the responders, we thought - why not make it available to them via the internet?

We created the most simple of webpages: ida-intl.com/911.htm

This should be accessible from most smart phones or a laptop that has internet access. The page contains only text so it's easily readable, but contains:

instruction on where utilities access the property
emergency contacts of property owners
basics on the construction materials and layout of the structures on the site
chemicals that are typically stored and their location on the property

We even created a QR (Quick Response) code posted on signs at our location for those who have such software on their phone. Snap a photo, and go direct to the webpage with the data.

Electric Vehicle Public Charging Station

2010-09-20T21:40:00.003-04:00

Just this month, we installed a weather proof outlet to charge our Tesla electric vehicle at our Derby location to harness the "free" solar electricity rather than power a car by hydro-carbon fuel.

As early adopters to such means of transports, the challenge for electric vehicle drivers is finding places to charge up quickly. After we installed our equipment, we thought: why not offer free charging to other electric vehicle owners? One hour of charging on our 220v 40a outlet would only cost us about 40 cents. If someone were to spend an hour charging their vehicle, it would put another 25 miles in their "tank", and while they waited they could enjoy some food and bring business to our favorite pizza joint across the street, Apollo Pizza (tell Gus we sent you).

We put together a webpage describing our charging location and what we offered, and made mention of it on the forum pages of the Tesla owners website. To my knowledge, IDA International is offering the first free public charging location for electric cars that is powered from the sun in the State of Connecticut - maybe the USA?

It didn't take long!! On 2010/Sep/20 we had our first visitor with Mike from New Jersey! On his way toward home from Massachusetts, he stopped for a quick top-off while he toured our factory where we explained how the solar array functioned that was currently filling his car with energy.

Visit our Derby location and we will offer you free electricity for your car that we've gathered from the sun. And you might enjoy a good pizza!!

Electric Vehicle Charging

2010-09-10T20:43:00.002-04:00

If you read this blog, you will know that the company's operation in Derby, CT has a solar array that provides all our electricity needs, and then some (114% of our consumption since the installation went live in 2009Mar).

Rather than sell that electricity to the utility (in March the electric company sweeps out any kwh we have "banked" and pays us based on the average rate of the New England Regional market, which is about 5cents per kwh), the value is in deferring buying electricity from the utility (which in total of all the line items on your electric bill is about 21cents per kwh).

As mentioned earlier, we have a diesel powered delivery fleet of light-duty trucks. With a round-trip delivery of apx 150 miles, they might one day be served by electric power. We are testing the viability of this with the only pure electric vehicle available to non-fleet owners as a purchased vehicle, the Tesla Roadster. While not a "delivery" vehicle, it is a real-world case study in how electric vehicles perform in hot or cold weather, and the reality of their charge time that yields miles driven. Our methods and purpose is not unlike Google's fleet of vehicles.

An issue often raised is that there needs to be a charging station infrastructure for people to adopt to such vehicles over internal combustion engine power. While there are outlets most everywhere (the Tesla can charge on 110v 15a), a quick charge requires power and that comes in 220v 40a or higher.

The defining characteristic is power (kilowatts) input into the batteries. Returning to your basic science: Watts = Volts x Amps. Thus, 110v x 15a = 1650w, or 1.65kw. Plug in for an hour and you have 1.65kwh. Go with a 220v x 40a for an hour and it = 8.8kwh, which equates to substantially more miles from the contribution to the battery's storage of power.

To put this in real world terms from our actual experience and data, charging a Tesla for 1hr at 110v = 5 miles of driving. 1hr at 220v = 25 miles of driving.

Vehicle efficiency

2010-08-03T10:06:00.009-04:00

Our fleet of vehicles is primarily for delivery of finished product. Given that there is little storage on construction sites in Manhattan, our deliveries are almost daily for the material that will be installed promptly. The weight and size of materials being delivered results in diesel powered trucks proving to be the best vehicle choice.

Looking to the future, there is a possibility that delivery vehicles could be electric. To test this concept, a real-world case study is underway. There are very few plug-in electric vehicles available unless you participate as part of a large fleet. At the current time, the only plug-in electric vehicle readily available is the Tesla Roadster.

Having driven one from home to work this morning, it took 788 watt hours of energy. This is the same energy as a 60 watt light bulb left on for 13hrs and 8minutes. At peak generation time of our solar array, that much energy is captured from the sun in 28.4 seconds. If purchased from the electric utility, it would have cost 17 cents.

This alternative vehicle does have limitations due to the charging time nature of the batteries storing energy, so more testing of the concept is required.

Water and Sewer Efficiency

2010-07-16T15:21:00.003-04:00

The City of Derby Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA - sometimes called a Sewer Commission) bases their Sewer Meter Bill, not on an actual meter of effluent, but rather on the metered amount of water that is consumed from the water utility (formerly Birmingham Utilities, now "South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority" or SCCRWA).

The SCCRWA measures via meter and bills on a quarterly basis for the amount of water consumed at the premises. The WPCA takes that measurement of cubic feet consumed, converts it to gallons, calculates the average daily gallon usage, and bills at a rate set by the Authority.

If we could be efficient in using water, we would save on both a water bill and a sewer bill, a double whammy! As we start this effort, we will first look where we have been.

The WPCA follows a "water year" of April till March. Thus:

2009/mar/13 - 2009/may/27 = 2000

2009/may/27 - 2009/aug/27 = 3200

2009/aug/27 - 2009/dec/28 = 2000

2009/dec/28 - 2010/mar/05 = 3600

Total = 10800 cubic feet or 80,790 gallons for the year (apx).

This is 221.34 gallons / day as a current consumption rate. While we don't use water in any manufacturing process, we will examine what can be done to keep this consumption down.

Water cost: $1387.87

Sewer cost: $792.67

Total from consumption: $2180.54

If we could see a 10% reduction, this would be $218 in savings. In looking for an 8 year payback on the costs of improvement investment, we would be considering a project in the $1600-$2k range. Suggestions welcome.

Earth Day 2010

2010-04-22T08:54:00.003-04:00

Earch Day is meant to bring awareness to environmental concerns that impact the planet. Decisions that benefit the environment often are related to efficiency and thus can also yield financial benefits.

Raw materials are delivered on wooden pallets that we can't re-use for shipping our product. These are made from yellow pine 2x6 and can be 20ft in length. We offer them to the public for free pick-up, and in 2009 this avoided (2) 30-yard dumpsters of waste.
Finished curtainwall panel product can vary in size and shape but is delivered with minimal packing materials. The products are assembled in shipping boxe "cubes" which are made from galavanized steel and sheet excess which is re-used as often as possible. At times, product is shipped in wheeled carts for transport on the jobsite and these are re-used also. There has been virtually zero expenditure for packing and shipping materials.
Scrap or "drop" waste from processing raw materials is minimized with optimization programs to efficiently cut items from raw sheet or extruded lengths. The amount of raw materials purchased for a project has thus been reduced.
All aluminum and steel is recycled with a company located within 20miles of our operation. The revenue from recycling goes toward employee recognition of providing meals during weekend overtime work, and the food during holiday parties.
Our storage racks were purchased at auction of a local lumber company rather than constructed from new. The savings were 50% of a new equipment purchase.
Our engineer's desks and furniture were purchased from local office of Phillips Medical Systems when they vacated their space. The savings were 10% of a new equipment purchase.

Our photo-voltaic solar array is the largest commitment to the environment. The NYTimes has an Earth Day article about the subject of Solar Power.

These are all small items on their own, but collectively make quite a difference. We encourage everyone to make a small difference to the environment, not only on Earth Day, but every day.

PV Solar - Excess generation payout

2010-04-08T13:10:00.004-04:00

Ever wonder what the utility would pay if you generated electricity for them?

In Connecticut where our facility is located, utilities (electric, water, etc) are regulated by the Dept. of Public Utilities (DPUC). Photo-Voltaic generated electricity is considered a Class 1 Renewable Energy Resource, and the DPUC has a ruling on how generators of such energy should be dealt with.

In our region United Illuminating Co. is the electric utility. UI delivers our electricity, and in our case we also purchase our actual electricity from them as a provider (since deregulation, you can also choose to purchase electricity from other providers, re-sellers or aggregators - but everyone must deal with UI who owns the poles, transformers and "grid" infrastructure to deliver the power).

UI has a "Class 1 Renewable Net Energy Rider (NEC1)" to accompany their tarrif schedule and abide by the DPUC ruling. The rider states:

Net energy billing shall be performed monthly, and payments for excess sales to the Company shall be made on an annual basis, for the period from April of each year to March of the following year.
During the annual period, if energy sold to the Company in any month exceeds energy purchased, the excess sales will first be credited to the customer in the current billing period and any remaining net sales will be carried forward for crediting on a per kwh basis in the next billing period or a subsequent billing period within the annual net energy period.
Any excess kwh remaining at the end of an annual period shall be paid at that time according to the Average hourly Connecticut ISO-NE real time locational marginal price (RT-LMP), for the hours 10am-4pm during the annual period.

In plain english: If the array generates more kwh than consumed in a month, the credit kwh carries forward to the future period. If there is a kwh credit at the end of the annual period, the value is paid to the generator. Value is determined by the peak period prices posted by the Regional Transmission Organization (Independent Systems Operator - New England) for our location within their system.

From 2009April till 2010March (billing periods) Our Photo-Voltaic array generated 8480kwh in excess of what was consumed. The ISO-NE RT-LMP for that period is .04663 per kwh. Thus we made $395.42 for the excess power generated. The true value of our PV system is deferring purchase of kwh from the utility.

To put this into relational terms, 8480kwh is approximately 6months of electricity for the typical household.

PV Solar System - First year results

2010-03-29T12:52:00.002-04:00

This is a press release of IDA International Inc.

Derby, CT (March 29, 2010) - IDA International Inc. today announced the results from 1 year of operating a photo-voltaic system at its facility in Derby, CT.

You can read the unveiling "operational" announcement of the system here. Data points:

First year operations period 2009-Mar-23 thru 2010-Mar-23.
System size is 525 photo-voltaic panels with a 100kw DC to AC inverter.
Generated 111,266kwh of electricity, thus providing in excess of all consumption needs for operations on-site.
Single day record of 695kwh was set on 2009-May-19.
Nine months had more electricity production than consumed by operations, the exceptions were Nov, Dec, Jan.
Based on data from the EPA for our electricity provider (United Illuminating), this clean generation avoided 103,032 lbs of carbon dioxide, 263 lbs of sulfer dioxide and 96lbs of nitrogen oxide from polluting the air.
The "credits" from our renewable energy generation (as opposed to generation from coal or gas) were sold to the Ct. Clean Energy Fund.

See how clean the electricity you consume is via this EPA webpage.

Contact: thomas.harbinson@ida-intl.com

Sunny St Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T22:50:00.002-04:00

Today provided an opportunity to illustrate just what a sunny day is like in it's impact on the earth.

Our Photo-Voltaic Solar Array records all it's statistics on a server every 5 minutes. This data can then be analyzed, or for today's purposes graphed. If any educator / researcher would like the raw log data, please contact me via email.

Data:
PV System size: 525 panels.
Inverter capacity: 100kw DC to AC.
Date: 2010/Mar/17 (St Patrick's Day)
Weather: Clear, no clouds, high temperature in the 60's.
Begin civil twilight 6:33 a.m
Sunrise 7:01 a.m.
Sun transit 1:01 p.m.
Sunset 7:01 p.m.
End civil twilight 7:29 p.m.
Electricity Creation begin 7:04 a.m.
Peak Generation (88.8kw) 1:39 p.m.
Electricity Creation stop 7:09 p.m.
Total Electricity for day 597kwh

Sunny Statistics

2010-03-03T15:11:00.004-05:00

The PV Solar System is currently down for repairs.

During the heavy snowstorm of late February, a disruption to our array occurred. The direct current generation was "off" and caused the inverter to trip a fuse (as it would normally do to protect it's electronics). The system as a whole has worked well with little down time since it's installation nearly a year ago. There were 8 days in 2009 where the system as whole was non-functional. Circuit boards in the inverter, or power outages from the grid caused such lack of output. Note that I don't say mis-function, as when their is a power outage, our PV Solar System will not push energy into the grid.

In 2009 electric year (2008Dec18 thru 2009Dec16):

Our system was in place for 269 days (8 of which there was no production).
The average system output over those days was 343kwh/day.
The average consumption of our operations in that same period was 301kwh/day.
Highest daily electricity generation was May19 with 695kwh.

November and December were the only months that the PV Solar System didn't generate more than our entire operations electricity consumption. Overall since operational, there has been more electricity generated from the sun than is needed to power all our lights, computers, and equipment in the entire office and manufacturing plant. Since 114% of consumption was generated from a "renewable energy" source, state regulations require that the excess kwh be carried forward as a "credit" on the utility account, to be drawn down upon in a future billing period.

Photovoltaic Energy in winter

2010-01-05T14:52:00.003-05:00

The PV Solar array has some data from winter months operations we would like to share.

There are less daylight hours during the winter time, the angle of the sun is lower in the sky and at times there is snow covering the array. Still, we have been successful in generating significant amounts of our total electricity consumption.

In November we generated 98% of our consumption, December was 65% (due to an equipment problem), January thus far is 75%.

During the winter months, we draw down on the credit on our account due to excess generation from the summer months. In April, if there remains a credit of kilowatt hours, it is swept clean and paid to us at a "wholesale" rate based on the New England regional electrical pool's cost for electricity generation (ISO New England).

As of today, our credit, or "banked" kwh is over 10,000 which represents a month and a half of consumption. Our forecast is to easily complete a year of solar generation come mid March 2010, where we operated our entire manufacturing and office facility off the sun.

Facility Improvements

2009-11-09T12:45:00.010-05:00

Our factory and office are located within a structure built in the mid 1800's as a munitions factory. Bringing the facility up to a modern aesthetics and efficient layout is a challenge.

Every year we try and improve our facility. In 2007, that was a new standing seam roof over the factory. In 2008, that was a photo-voltaic solar array on the building where it faces the sun. In spring of 2009, we upgraded our air-conditioner and air handler equipment. Today we upgrade our shed-storage area with a new floor.

The area did have a rough concrete area, but it was uneven over the various building floors and foundation remnant that previously stood in that place.

We kept the concrete locally supplied by Haynes Materials in Seymour, and the contractor for the floors was Paul Kochiss from Oxford. Steel reinforcement came from Fox Steel Products in Orange. Preparation work of the area was performed Eddie Bleau in Seymour. I'd be happy to provide a reference for any of the above.

How Photovoltaic Energy works.

2009-10-26T10:52:00.002-04:00

The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund is the provider of contributions on behalf of the State of CT. The CCEF has put together a very nice website (flash based) to demonstrate how PV Solar, and other clean energy methods function.

I highly recomend it as an educational tool for those who want to learn more.

As our system enters the shoulder season of fall into winter, the daylight hours diminish, and the angle of the sun lowers in the sky. Both reduce the total kilo-watt hours produced by our system, but we are still generating more on a monthly billing basis, than what has been consumed. Since March 2009, when the system went live, we have generated >120% of our consumption from the sun.

http://www.ctcleanenergy.com/innoflash/#/solar/how_voltaic

"Sunniest" days in June?

2009-07-14T09:13:00.002-04:00

One might assume that the most sun would shine down on our photo-voltaic array in the longer daylight periods of June, but there are other factors at work in the system to creating electricity.

Certainly the longest day of the year is the summer solstice of Jun21. However, due to the orientation and location of the array, we don't immediately benefit from the sunrise start of the day, but the sunset lingers right till the end.

Next, is the typical weatherman forecast for the summer of "hazy sunshine". There is a difference between a crystal clear day in the winter when the sky is azure blue, and the summer sunshine day when the sky is a bit brown and yellow from smog.

Finally, is the nature of the polysilicon panels. They lose efficiency when warm (about 10% between a winter and summer day).

All that said, our Derby, CT location has had abnormally cool days this summer thus far, and also abnormally high amounts of rain this summer. The latter washes debris off the panels such as accumulated pollen, but the associated clouds cause lack of sunshine.

During July, we had the system down 6 days for service, yet still have been generating more electricity from the sun than what we consume for our entire office and shop operations.

The Naugatuck River Valley is where we are located, and there are several large PV arrays here(Thule in Seymour, Basement Systems in Seymour, Honey Cell in Shelton, and BJ's in Derby). To my knowledge, we are the first manufacturer in CT that entirely operates off the sun. Since Mar23, 126% of our electricity has come from the sun.

The local paper did a story (includes photo and video) on the local trend which you can read here.

Photo-Voltaic: Proof in the electric utility bills

2009-05-28T09:24:00.005-04:00

The electric utility bills have been received for two billing cycles of operation (April and May) and prove the viability of the installation.

We designed our PV system output to match our historical usage. During the implementation, we made efficiency improvements, dropping our usage below what we expected to generate.

April billing period we generated 123.3% of our consumption. May was 131.4% of consumption. Connecticut is a net-metering state, which means that you push electric into the grid, and you pull electric from the grid - paying on the net consumed. This net calculation is done during the three segments of rates from the utility: periods of peek, off-peak and shoulder. Thus, it's not a true "spin the meter backwards" concept over a billing period.

Our shop opens at 5:30AM and starts consuming electricity, but there is no solar generation at that hour, so we do cause a "demand" of electricity off the grid for which we are billed, the kwh consumed though is zero from the utility - we actually generate an excess of kwhs.

Our utility (United Illuminating) allows the credit to accumulate on your account, and it can be drawn down on - say if the inverter is out of service, or the winter months when daylight is shorter and snowpack on the roof may limit generation. If there is a credit on the account as of April each year, the balance is swept to zero and we are paid for that electricity generated. The price is based on the average spot market for the New England regional electric pool. It gets complicated, but in laymans terms: we get paid a wholesale rate of apx. 6cents per kwh for the excess.

The value in a PV (or other clean energy generating device) is to avoid purchasing electricity at apx. 22cents per kwh. The size of the system design should be close to your consumption to yield the best return on investment.

Air Conditioning Upgraded

2009-04-17T13:02:00.002-04:00

In keeping with our intent to be environmentally sensitive, the HVAC roof-top unit on our office was replaced.

The old unit was placed there in 1989, and you can see by the exhaust marks that it was no longer running at high efficiency.

Fortunately, our location allowed easy access by a crane for loading and unloading. Note the skylights in the office area that let in ample natural light into the workplace.

The new units use a environmentally sound refrigerant of R-410A.

We hope that by bringing natural daylight openings into our building's design, and following enviornmatally sensitive operating methods, we can illustrate to others the benefits of thinking toward environmental and efficient design. We may even become a "leader" in the LEED field.

Announcement of 96kw Photo-Voltaic Electric System: Operational

2009-03-24T12:00:00.002-04:00

This is a press release of IDA Internationl Inc.

Derby, CT (March 23, 2009) - IDA International Inc. announced today that it had completed installation of a 96kw photo-voltaic system at it's facility in Derby, CT.

Company President, Thomas Harbinson, recognized this as an exciting milestone for the company. "I'm pleased to announce that our facility will now be generating over 90% of our electricity needs, purely from the sun. This is an investment in our company's future and it's location in Derby, CT. While this is a decision that has taken significant time to implement, this has given us time integrate many decisions that will yield the optimum of results. We believe following our company's vision with emphasis on a "green" standard will be rewarding to the company from a financial perspective, and earn respect from it's customers, vendors and community as a company that sets environmentally sensitive standards."

The photo-voltaic (PV solar) system is a 525 array of panels mounted on the south facing roof of IDA's manufacturing building, a structure that dates to the late 1800's. Buildings then were often constructed in a "solar oriented" manner to take advantage of the sun lighting the workplace through windows and skylights, making this location ideal to take full advantage of solar electric generation potential. Our location is Lat: 41.324845, Long: -73.098274 Our building compass reading is 223-226 degrees (a "true" or "solar" reading adjusted for magnetic declination is 210-213 degrees). Our building roof pitch is: 25 (degrees). This data yields a Solar Pathfinder Annual Average of 98%

The location has a history of "green" energy use. The building was constructed adjacent to a canal where hydraulic power was taken from the river to run manufacturing machinery. One of the early occupants was a munitions company that built cannons. The building later housed a fabric dye and printing operations that were not clean operations by modern standards. The Hull Dye and Print Works was the last such entity, closing after a fire in the mid 1980's which substantially damaged the facility, leaving contamination from dyes and chemicals that needed remediation. The property was purchased from the City of Derby in the late 1980's and the long task of returning the property to viability began.

The project was partially funded by a grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund’s On-Site Renewable Distributed Generation Program, which provides qualified projects funding that can equal as much as 50% of a project’s cost. Combined with federal investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation, solar projects in CT can realize returns in the range of 15-20%.

IDA International Inc. is a turn-key operation for curtain-wall and other building facades. IDA serves the greater metropolitan area with engineering, fabrication and installation of construction elements that create a structure's building envelope. For more information regarding IDA's solar system, contact thomas.harbinson@ida-intl.com, or visit the company's green manufacturing page at their website, http://www.ida-intl.com/

Solar Operations - Witness Test

2009-03-23T16:45:00.004-04:00

UI has observed testing of the PV system's inverter in operation.

Commonly referred to as a "solar system", a photo-voltaic (PV) system has many components. First of course are the panels where photons are converted to electrons. Those electrons move in a direct current (DC) type of manner - much like electricity in your automobile. This current is sent to an inverter which changes the electricity to an alternating current (AC) with correct phase, frequency, voltage and other aspects that will match what is being delivered from the utility so it "marries" properly. Lastly, the meters record what is being consumed and generated for the utility company.

Important to the utility company is correct equipment that "marries" with theirs and will not damage their infrastructure. They confirm this through testing that they witness - thus the term "witness test".

We did our test today, and were given the ok to run our system. Once we have some averages and time to generate reflective data, I'll update the blog with information. Till then, here is a video of our installer's representative explaining our witness test while it was happening.

Solar operations - Metering

2009-03-20T19:00:00.006-04:00

UI has installed meters to record both what is generated, and what is consumed.

With solar installations, you both consume an amount of electricity and generate an amount of electricity at the same time. Some solar installations areas are able to get by with one meter. Consumption tries to move the meter forward (as it normally operates), while generating tries to move the meter backwards. If the solar array generates less electricity than what we consume, the meter's pace toward moving forward is reduced. This is what's called "net-metering".

Connecticut is a "net metering" state under Dept of Public Utility Control regulations. At our location, United Illuminating is the delivery agent for electricity. You can buy your electricity from a number of sources (including UI), but the delivery infrastructure (poles, lines, transformers, meters, etc) are owned by UI. It is UI as the delivery agent that carries out all the metering and billing work.

If over a billing period, we generate more than we consume, the "bill" for electricity "use" will be a negative number, and UI's billing system can not properly address that (UI likely has algorithms that monitor usage patterns to detect fraud). Thus, UI requires 2 meters to be installed. (see above photos) Meter A records how much we consume. Meter B records how much we generate. Meter A minus Meter B is what we are billed upon.

Installing the new meters required co-ordination with IDA's workplace, as the power was required to be shutdown to the building. Before UI would install the 2 meters, the City of Derby electrical inspector was required to close-out our permit with an inspection. Before that could happen, some final housekeeping work had to be completed on the DC side of the system on the roof - which was difficult due to weather. Delays, delays.

So, finally after weather improved and final workmanship was completed, we could schedule the City of Derby inspection (which Derby delayed a week due to scheduling conflicts). When the electrical inspection was done, we scheduled to have the meter work done (which UI delayed for a week due to scheduling conflicts). Now with meters in place - we can schedule a witness test of the entire system.

Solar Panels in Final Testing

2009-02-17T16:21:00.009-05:00

Cold weather has impacted the 3rd parties who must test the solar array.

We had a very cold winter in Derby, CT this year with lots of snow and prolonged sub-freezing cold periods. This has impacted the testing and 3rd party verification of the array since the roof is accessed from the north facing slope which is in the shade most of the day with the low winter sun, causing snow or frost to linger and make it unsafe to climb. Also, the inverter and associated equipment is in a courtyard where snow sheds off a standing seam roof - see the photo to the right to see the look after a partial snow-slide. Safety is not an option in putting this solar array together, so we had to wait out mother nature.

The photo-voltaic array has been operational, and only testing has been complicated by the weather. The interconnection agreement has been signed with the utility, and it calls for 3rd party verification of equipment attaching to their infrastructure. They also have to witness a test that the system will automatically shut-off in case of a local area power failure. Although the system is fully functional, I am prohibited from even running it in parallel to the electric utility's system - so I must wait.

The utility additionally relies on local building inspectors to confirm that the work interior to the private property is done to code and they have issued a "CO" or "Close-Out" (sometimes called a Certificate of Occupancy) of the work. Derby's electrical inspector is part-time 1day per week, thus far he has only inspected the AC side of the system, and the DC side of the inverter requires access to an area where this snow was causing hazard (snow guards were planned to be installed once this roof access activity was finished). Also the building inspector must say the structural work was completed according to the structural engineer's design (I hired a 2nd structural engineer to inspect the work as the building inspector asked me to provide that verification - besides the welders license that my employee had who did the work).

There have been NUMEROUS questions about our array and when it will be throwing out electricity, how much power is generated, etc. We will have a webpage to dynamically present that data, but till then I offer the following photos taken when we briefly tested the system. During the 5min of operation at 3pm (sun getting low in the sky), the air temp was mid 50's, sunny sky clear with no clouds. Input was DC 375Volts at 178Amps. Output was AC 61.3Kw.

U.S. Green Building Council

2009-01-21T11:40:00.005-05:00

IDA International Inc. has joined the U.S. Green Building Council.

Several of our recent projects have attained LEED ratings for their construction methods. IDA has long held the same beliefs and practices upheld by the USGBC, and our membership with them formally indicates our support of their ideals.

The USGBC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization with a vision of a sustainable built environment within a generation. Its membership includes corporations, builders, universities, government agencies, and other nonprofit organizations. USGBC is dedicated to expanding green building practices and education, and its LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™.

Inspections

2008-12-31T12:41:00.006-05:00

We have reached a point of completion where inspections are done. The City of Derby electrical inspection was done last week and everyone was satisfied. Today a Proffessional Engineer looked at our truss work and that was satisfied. So the system has reached a completion point, but due to some weather issues (today is a snow storm) we have had to hold off on flipping the switch until after the holiday.

I have focused on the hi-tech side of our installation, but the building structure itself had to be reinforced to satisfy the design engineer and building dept. It was a very difficult to access area that required some special rigging of ladders and safety harnesses, and the work was done by one of our employees who is a certified welder from Local 580 Ironworkers Union in NYC.

The below photos are a closup of a truss, a view of trusses over the shop manufacturing space, and a view of the trusses over the warehouse area. The building was constructed in the late 1800's with primarily riveted steel construction, and was first used to make cannons.

Pulling the cables

2008-12-15T13:24:00.008-05:00

The conduit and junction boxes are nearly all in. Now it's time to pull some cable through them.

Below is a photo from the ridge looking north/west with the Lake Housatonic in the background. The strings are wired into collector boxes and into junction boxes and then on to the inverter.

Next is a close-up of a collector box where the strings of panels are brought to a location for combining into a bigger wire.

Once past the inverter and converted into alternating current, the electricity runs on some heavy cable that you can see here being readied for pulling through the conduit. In addition to 4 electricians in photo, there was another 3 guys on the pull wheel at the other end.

Given weather issues (snow, ice, frost, cold, wind) we have been impacted from staying on schedule, but hope to have everything in place and inspected before the holidays. Click on any photo to see it in larger format.

Beyond the solar panels - piping, cables, inverter

2008-12-04T16:08:00.010-05:00

The electricians are hard at work dancing around the weather and supply deliveries.

After the panels generate electricity, the DC current is converted to AC and tied into the grid. The Solar panels will be generating electricity in a DC (direct current) form. This is routed by cable within heavy galvanized conduit to an inverter. You may have seen this type of a device that plugs into a car 12 volt outlet (also DC) and converts it into AC (alternating current) form for DVD players or shavers, and ipods. This inverter obviously does a bit more.

In addition to converting from DC to AC, there is synchronization needed with the utility's electricity, and this has a monitoring device that delivers a data signal showing how much electricity is being generated (which I can then format and publish live in a streaming format on the internet). Coming out of the inverter will be AC current that is carried in a similar heavy galvanized conduit, leading to a big on/off switch. This is required by the utility and the fire department. In case of an area outage, they have the ability to "throw the switch" and prevent my solar panel "power plant" from dumping live juice into the electric grid.

Below is the inside "guts" of the inverter, and the electrician installing the on/off switch. It is a very big switch!

525th panel is installed on the 9th day

2008-11-26T16:36:00.010-05:00

The last panel was attached to the roof today, Nov 26th, 2008

Yesterday (Tue) was a washout for weather, but today the morning frost gave way to temps in the upper 40's with cloudy skies and the crew installed 70 panels to complete the 525 panel array. There are still connections to be made with combiner boxes and working the wires carrying the clean energy toward the inverter, but that will come after the Thanksgiving Holiday.

The electrician sorted out his final permitting last night, and our permit is in place to finish off the connection from the inverter onward to an emergency shutoff switch (in AC) and into our meter. This is so the utility can shut us off from dumping live juice into the grid in case of an emergency. More on the electrical / technical side of the project next week.

You will note in the below video, at the beginning, you see a good sized area of the roof without panels. Yes, the system can be expanded even further as our business grows. We chose to size the system to match our consumption, since if we generated more than we consume, the electric utility only pays a wholesale rate for that electricity, and thus the "extra" panels do not have a feasible return on investment.

Where there are no PV panels, you can see the roof material is quite reflective. It is "Galvalume Plus" metal used in the standing seam roof. It reflects a significant amount of the radiant energy, and thus reduces the cooling load on the building (for which there are tax credits if you are considering a similar course of action). For our purposes, it also reflects back onto the panel. About 15% of the panels surface area is translucent. Of that light that passes through and hits the roof, 60% of it is reflected back based on the emissivity of the metal. Of that reflected energy hitting the back of the solar cells within the panel, there is a certain amount of electricity generating "bonus". These PV panels are a newer model, and are somewhat a "proof of concept" for their efficiency given the roof material.

Solar nearing the last panel

2008-11-24T16:16:00.005-05:00

The Solar panel installation continued on Monday, but it looks like we have hit bad weather.

With a bit warmer weather today, we neared the end of installing the 525 panel system (still have apx 70 left to go). I had a photo-journalist from the CtPost with me taking photos for an upcoming article, so we hoisted the boomlift up pretty high for these shots.

Our building was built in the late 1800's and you can see other similar mill-buildings in the valley next to the Housatonic River. My hope is that other industrial building owners might see the potential to cast a new view on their property with an eye toward making them "greener".

The left photo shows a view of neighboring mill building factories with a glimpse of the Housatonic River and Route 8 bridge in the far background. The right photo is the panel array as of Monday afternoon (about 434 panels are in the photo, the entire system will be 525).

Cold, but install continues

2008-11-22T13:33:00.003-05:00

This morning, the temperature was in the upper teens, and there was a frost on the roof, but there was no precipitation, so we kept on installing.

I thought it would be nice to see what it is like from above, since all previous photos have been taken from the ground. At mid-day Saturday, we have 259 panels on the building, so just about halfway done. The weather doesn't look good on Mon/Tue and Thu/Fri is Thanksgiving, so thus the work this weekend to try and keep on pace.

If you look at the ridge of the 2nd photo, you can see where the strings feed to a combiner box. They then route via cable to an inverter that's located on the otherside of our building (in a sheltered courtyard - more efficient when kept cool) where it will convert from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) and be tied into the electric utility grid operated by United Illuminating.

Panels over 150 mark

2008-11-20T19:01:00.003-05:00

The good weather continues for our installation of solar panels, helping us reach 160 on the building by day #3.

The weather has been quite cold yesterday and today (upper 30's, low 40's), but yesterday's wind has subsided today, and it was quite workable. Thus, the installing crew diversified their tasks because as the mechanical attachment continues, the strings of panels need to have cables routing the electricity to combiner boxes. 7 panels attach in series to form a "string". 8 strings come together in a "combiner". The combiners then come to a junction box, and the cable runs to an inverter. The layout of the panels on the roof involves not only how many can physically be placed in the space, but how they connect electrically in the most efficient manner.

Invertor arrives

2008-11-19T11:31:00.011-05:00

The inverter arrived today from Canada, solar panel installation continues in clear yet cold weather.

The inverter is made by SatCom and converts the DC current generated from the panels, into AC current that can be tied and synchronized into the meter and utility grid. Electrical work should begin shortly, and the panel installation progresses. The starting area is a difficult spot with some steel beams from a previous structure making access difficult. Fortunately, a large articulated boom lift is able to negotiate the swings and fit into areas where it can project the boom out to reach the install location.

Solar Panels Begin Installation

2008-11-17T14:05:00.005-05:00

With the building permits now squared away, the solar panels started installation on Monday November 17th, under sunny blue skies.

The panels attach with a clip arrangement to the standing seam roof. Starting at the bottom of the pitch and moving up the slope, there are 13 rows of panels reaching toward the ridge. Today was spent in mobilization mode of getting lifts and equipment on site, installing safety lines and rigging harnesses and walking through the installation procedure.

Solar Panels arrive

2008-11-12T15:33:00.003-05:00

The Solar panels finally arrived today.

We hope to have them installed and generating clean electric energy within the month. This photo was taken just after we unloaded the truck, before they were moved to be out of the elements. There are 20 panels to a pallet, 26 full pallets and 1 pallet with 5 panels = 525 panels. Quite a bit of square footage once it is laid out on the roof.

Announcement of 96kw Photo-Voltaic Electric System Installation

2008-10-29T09:33:00.004-04:00

This is a joint press release of IDA International Inc., and The Solar Center.

New PV System to Reduce IDA-International’s Energy Consumption by Over 90% Percent and Annual Carbon Emissions by 43 Tons.

Rockaway, NJ (October 29, 2008) – The Solar Center announced today that it will be commencing installation of a 96 kilowatt solar system for IDA-International of Derby, CT, its largest solar installation to date in that state.

Company President, Shannon Whitworth Kayen, hailed the project as another big step in The Solar Center’s continuing expansion of its CT presence, especially in the commercial solar marketplace. “We’re pleased to be able to work with IDA-International and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund in advancing the cause of solar, reducing global warming gasses, furthering the goal of national energy independence, and supporting Connecticut’s congested southwestern electric grid, all while providing our customer with a project that will, ultimately, yield a substantial low-risk return on investment,” said Whitworth Kayen.

For its part, IDA, a manufacturer of facades and custom curtain-walls for commercial buildings, made a mission several years ago to bring an environmental awareness to its operations, with the vision toward becoming a green manufacturer. Many of the facades they construct are for buildings where the owner is seeking LEED status from the US Green Building Council. Thomas Harbinson, IDA's President, stated "we already use components that have a high recycled material content, and now our fabrication and assembly of those parts into a finished product will also be done in an environmentally sensitive manner." Harbinson adds, "Generating electricity from sunlight is a decision that took time to implement. Fortunately, when our 1800's era factory building was built, the designer took solar orientation into account for bringing daylight into the workplace. That orientation now works to our advantage with maximum potential for solar electrical generation. A standing seam metal roof as part of our building envelope both eases the attachment of the solar panels to our building, and reduces the heat gain on the building structure due to it's high emissivity." IDA hopes to illustrate that former under-utilized industrial buildings can be given new life with a green aspect such as solar electric generation. It's a business direction for other companies to take a serious look at.

The project was partially funded by a grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund’s On-Site Renewable Distributed Generation Program, which provides qualified projects funding that can equal as much as 50% of a project’s cost. Combined with federal investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation, solar projects in CT can realize returns in the range of 15-20%.

The Solar Center, Inc. is one of the largest designers and installers of solar energy systems in the region, serving NY’s Hudson Valley, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. For more information contact them at 973-627-7730, or visit their web site at http://www.thesolarcenter.com/

IDA International Inc. is a turn-key operation for curtain-wall and other building facades. IDA serves the greater metropolitan area with engineering, fabrication and installation of construction elements that create a structure's building envelope. For more information, contact them at 203-736-9249, or visit their green manufacturing page at http://www.ida-intl.com/

Derby facility - new roof

2007-12-12T15:08:00.003-05:00

The shop building had an asphalt shingle roof that had reached the end of it's 25yr life. We took considerable time deciding the proper direction for it's replacement that would fulfull our company's vision statement.

One alternative would have been to do a 2nd layer of asphalt shingles. This would have been inexpensive, but a questionable direction if a photo-voltaic array were pursued in the future for the building. Also, because we had waited, the 1st layer had started to curl in addition to the numerous patches we had to undertake.

We decided to replace it with a standing seam metal roof. This would allow easy attachment via clips with set screws along the seam, to attach a PV array without penetrating the building envelope.

We also choose a special reflective pigment to increase the reflectivity of the surface (emmisivity of radiation) and reduce the absorption of heat by the building. Such a roof will have a 40+yr life.

It is made from recycled content material and thus works toward a goal of being a Leed status building as defined by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). This choice of material and design reduces energy demands for the cooling load on the structure.

A coil of material is formed on site with special equipment that "rolls" the flat sheet into a profile, and with a CNC controlled hydraulic "flying" sheer, can cut the material as it continuously comes out the end. Think of it as "Playdough" in one end, and in a profile after coming through the form (although it isn't really an extruded process like playdough).

We were very satisfied with the Contractor, Tell them that IDA in Derby referred you:
Standing Seam Roofing Company LLC
West Haven, CT. 06516

Welcome to our company blog

2007-07-01T00:00:00.001-04:00

Greetings, and welcome to the first entry on our company web log.

Our intent is to use this venue to convey items which both customers and the community may find of interest. Typically referred to as press releases, a blogging publication tool allows the concept to be expanded from those typical subject to include items a reader might have difficulty discovering about otherwise.

For example, we will discuss our upcoming solar array installation that is of interest to both customers and the community.

All the best - TomH