North Coast Electric Company

The lighting at a car dealership is akin to the lighting in a jewelry store. The product it’s illuminating is buffed, polished and then placed under a lighting system that is designed to make that product sparkle. Metal halide is a great choice for sparkling light in outdoor applications.

However not all metal halide is created equal.

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The theme of NCE Seattle’s Open House this year was eco & charitable.  Over 30 vendors shared their eco-friendly products and customers had the opportunity to see NCE’s new Nissan Leaf & completed solar powered charging station before the official unveiling. Customers, Vendors, and Associates also had the chance to help raise money for charity by testing their aim and throwing balls at a dunk tank raising $2,690 for school supplies for Roxhill Elementary School.  NCE Seattle has three grads from Roxhill so it was rewarding for them to support their alma mater! Read more

We recently completed an energy efficient lighting upgrade with a partner in Eastern Washington called Firefly Lighting and Design. Firefly is a creative company that is always looking for opportunities to bring value to their clients. They found what they were looking for in the parking lot at the Northpointe Office Building.

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I've been noticing those little square blob things appearing more and more frequently so I thought maybe I should figure out what they are before I'm the last one to know. When you are more "mature" like I am you need to protect your coolness image by understanding these kind of things that seem so commonly understood by those less "mature" people you work with...you know the ones that can type faster with 2 thumbs on a keyboard the size of a postage stamp than you can with all your fingers on the full-size ergonomic model that takes up 1/2 your desktop? I think I beat them back where they belong today! Read more

We have been working on the installation and commissioning of the first Energy Transfer Merchant in Washington State. Last week, in the parking lot at our corporate support center in Seattle, we cut the ribbon and celebrated the completion of Phase 1 which includes a solar canopy and electric vehicle charging stations. It has been an interesting experience in many ways.

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North Coast Electric's Eugene Service Center recently held their Energy Solutions Kick-off event.  Everything from energy-saving lightbulbs to solar panels was on display. 

KEZI 9 put together a great news clip and article talking about the event:
http://kezi.com/greenspace/recycle/223337

 

North Coast Electric held a ribbon cutting event last week, unveiling Seattle's first ETM Solar Car Charging Station.  We had a good turnout, including King 5 news.  Check out the clip that aired on August 31st during the 5:30 news cast.

http://www.king5.com/news/Running-On-Solar-128849128.html

 

As preparations for Wednesday's big event get finalized, we wanted to take the time to proudly announce our honored guest speakers.  These individuals are at the forefront of Green technologies and we are excited that they will be here to share their knowledge and expertise.

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North Coast Electric Company demonstrates its commitment to sustainable business practices by leading the race to Seattle’s zero-carbon city goal by installing a solar powered electric car charging station at their corporate office in South Seattle. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be at noon on August 31, 2011.

The station’s canopy, manufactured by EV4, is not only designed to charge cars using power from the sun, it will also act as an ETM™, Energy Transfer Merchant, and store power using batteries. The system then makes the power available to the local public utility, Seattle City Light, by utilizing a smart grid module manufactured by GridMobility™ a Kirkland WA-based company. The EV4 canopy combined with GridMobility™ technology will allow North Coast Electric and its customers to charge their cars by using renewable energy.

“We take our commitment to the environment seriously”, says Mike Miller, President of North Coast Electric. “We're bringing new technologies to the market, be it electric vehicle charging, solar and wind renewable systems, or our vast array of lighting products designed to save substantial energy. Giving customers the ability to combine power generation with vehicle charging while being connected to the smart grid of Seattle is exciting. “

McKinstry, a nationally recognized energy services company headquartered in Seattle, performed the installation in record time. “I was surprised how fast McKinstry was able to install our solar canopy and charging system, start to finish. They did a great job working around all of our customer activity.” stated Mark Greene, Director of Business Development for North Coast Electric.

We recently completed an energy efficient lighting upgrade for a really neat company in Poulsbo Washington called Watson Furniture. After visiting their facility and meeting some of their people I was really impressed with their forward thinking corporate culture which included an obvious commitment to sustainable practices.

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North Coast Electric Seattle is hosting their Annual Open House on August 4th from 11AM to 1PM. This year’s theme is “Are you Eco-Friendly?”

 

Join us for food, fun, and the latest eco-friendly products. A BBQ lunch will be provided by Murph’s; meet vendors promoting eco-friendly, low carbon, products and see our new Leaf electric car! Buy raffle tickets to win one of eight $50 gift certificates to fabulous restaurants: El Gaucho, Waterfront Seafood Grill, Elliott’s Oyster House, and Metropolitan Grill. Test your skill and hit a dunk tank target and soak Scott McGaugh, Jeff Baechle, and Leo Kunkle! All proceeds from the raffle and the dunk tank will buy much needed basic school supplies for Roxhill Elementary school students.

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I came to work recently and was informed that I was in “charge” (pun intended) of the new, all electric, ZERO Emission, North Coast Electric Nissan Leaf! So I’ve been thrown headlong into the world of range anxiety and other assorted electric vehicle challenges. Yesterday was the pinnacle of the chaos so far, as 3 of us (including a very forgiving customer and a North Coast associate with a soon-to-depart flight) became stranded. Our transportation day included car ferries, passenger ferries, airplanes, conventional cars, a taxi and the beloved electric vehicle. Despite the rather inconvenient truth (can you believe I worked that phrase in here ;-) of our initial EV experience, our area is a focal point for the development of the infrastructure necessary to support a substantial adaptation of plug-in electric vehicles.

One might wonder…what’s the attraction to this?

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Caledonian Alloys is a world leader in the manufacture and recycling of sophisticated alloys. Their facility is a typical foundry type structure with lots of concrete, dark surfaces and few windows. Light levels were not meeting their needs so their electrician invited our North Coast Energy Solutions Team to audit the site and propose a solution.

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Our customer, TYCO electronics, was looking for a way to cut operating expenses by utilizing available incentives for upgrading to a more energy efficient lighting system. Our local North Coast Energy Solutions team was tasked with helping them find a solution that met their criteria for cost effectiveness, light quality, maintenance efficiency and energy savings.

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The lights at a car dealership (get it?..."driving force") are similar to the lights at a jewelry store. They are meant to show off the product at it’s best. So a proposition for an energy efficient lighting upgrade must also address the quality and volume of light. Electronic HID did just that for a North Idaho car business icon.

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Have you ever watched the news and thought, ”What in the heck were they thinking??" after seeing some story about a bridge to nowhere or a project that cost 3 times as much as expected, or the ever popular thousand dollar toilet seat?

Well North Coast Electric recently completed a project with Silverdale Electric in Kitsap County that I think we could categorize as government “investing” as opposed to government “spending.”

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This blog entry comes from one of our local Rockwell Automation Solution Providers and North Coast Electric customer and partner; Systems Interface. Located in Bothell, Washington, Systems Interface has been in business for over 25 years, supplying automation solutions for a variety of complicated industrial and commercial applications. Read more

It seems the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry, with a huge funding push from US taxpayers via the Federal Government, is showing signs of actually achieving critical mass and becoming a viable transportation option. Read more

I remember when LEDs first started to gain some share of mind in the lighting industry. The 2 things that grabbed my attention were energy efficiency and lamp life. The original LED lamp-life claims were often 100,000 hrs or more. As the dust of actual testing and industry scrutiny settles, the number I hear most often now is 50,000.

One of the first LED brochures I saw had a picture of a newborn baby boy on the front and invited me to "imagine installing this light the day he was born, and not replacing the light until he graduates from college." Still one of the best marketing brochures I've ever seen at driving home the point of just how long LEDs could last in real applications. Then as I looked further into this promising new technology, another thing grabbed my attention?the price! Read more

There has been a lot of talk recently about the incandescent light bulb provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. Many have claimed that the government is phasing out or even banning the incandescent light bulb.

As always, there's more to the story.

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I had the opportunity to attend the annual lighting extravaganza called Lightfair a couple weeks ago.
It was literally "eye opening." I can't recall ever seeing the light in quite such spectacular fashion. As expected...the star of the show was LED.

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In the past couple years we have witnessed a meteoric rise in the interest in, and availability of, LED based lighting products.  I'm convinced we are in the middle of a historic and fundamental change in the lighting business being driven by the burgeoning desire to find more energy efficient and environmentally friendly ways to live.  From the perspective of life in the supply channel, it's been an interesting couple of years to say the least! Read more

Fuel efficient cars apparently are not the only way to save energy at the pump. We recently completed an energy efficient lighting upgrade project at a gas station using electronic HID "smart ballasts" from Metrolight and the results look very promising.

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The EPA released a list of the Metropolitan areas with the largest number of energy efficient buildings to garner the EPA Energy Star label. Both Portland and Seattle made the list.

More info is available here:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/b3f51c0c0396abc1852576ee0072db8d!OpenDocument

Tom Woltjer - Energy Solutions Manager

On September 30, 2008 the Energy Star Solid-State Lighting (SSL) program went into effect starting with a standard for LED Luminaires.

This past December, after a long and arduous process of analysis, the Department of Energy has published the final Energy Star criteria for LED replacement lamps. Given the somewhat Wild Wild West experience with LED lamp supply we've been experiencing this is welcome news! Unfortunately, due to testing requirements, it will be August before the first official Energy Star LED lamp list is published but at least now we see the proverbial LED light at the end of the tunnel.

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In case you haven't noticed...what was a rising tide of LED's being brought to market is quickly becoming a Tsunami!

Sometimes it seems as if the only thing standing between us and world peace is that we're not selling enough LED's!

Like any new technology, especially one with so much demand, there are risks as well as rewards.

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North Coast Electric has made the decision to enter the solar energy market. Experts predict that the U.S. will surpass Germany and become the largest market for solar installations in the world by 2011. Also, solar technologies have benefited from extensive research and development over the past two decades, bringing down the delivered price of solar electricity. Read more