This 2-hour presentation explores recent trends in electricity use that will impact the engineering design process and might even be of interest to engineers to help evaluate whether or not to invest in any of the products discussed for personal use.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of the course, the student should understand the terminology and the benefits, advantages and disadvantages, including environmental impacts associated with electric vehicles, home automation and increased interest in small-scale distributed energy storage.  Specific topics discussed are

• Major trends in electricity generation.
• Major changes in grid use that will effect engineering design.
• Classification of electric vehicles.
• Electric vehicle charging – charging levels, Code requirements, unidirectional, bidirectional, cost comparison of fossil vs electric fuel.
• EV battery storage capacity, range, calculations of charging time and miles/kWh.
• Smart home device communication methods and protocols.
• Considerations for selection of smart home devices.
• Demand and energy management facts and fiction.
• Small-scale storage system sizing.