IQ Power Xpert meters - Westinghouse, Cutler-Hammer, Eaton, INCOM - brought to TCPIP.

Have a bunch of IQ meters and/or switchgear? - maybe branded Westinghouse, Cutler-Hammer or Eaton?... Know the meters? - They are the ubiquitous first generation digital meters in practically every facility. Either one has never networked these meters (though one might have a blue INCOM line running between them one barely even recognizes), or one has soldiered through the ups and downs of the Power Xpert software gateway architecture running on PCs.

Have in mind that the only way out to the future is to upgrade the meters, but that would be a major project with shutdowns and swap outs. So one just sits and does nothing and waits for the meters to "inlast" the building; though that is rife with danger from normal maintenance failures.

Eaton has a little known solution/pathway for these meters.
It is called the Eaton Power Xpert Gateway PXG600.

How does it work:
- Upgrade set of meters to INCOM (sometimes with a PONI/IPONI = INCOM product operated network interface - often these are already in place).
- Run blue cable bus for INCOM between local sets of meters (up to about ten (best) to forty (pushing limits)) in a group. Often "blue hose" is already in place.
- Attach meter group(s) to the INCOM port(s) of PXG600.
- Attach PXG600 to a TCPIP Ethernet network system (attach like any common IP device).
- Setup PXG600(s). The PXG600 has internal template maps for the long history of IQ meters. It supports a variety of protocols like Modbus TCP and in some cases BACnet IP and SNMP.
- Get "middleware" together. One probably has systems that can consume and log meter data (HVAC, SCADA and such). One wants to convert the Modbus TCP data into such,  whilst also leaving openings for others to attach to Modbus TCP in parallel. Something like a Cimetrics B6035 does the intermediation job nicely. But it is also the case that many management systems will read the interfaces directly (especially if you have BACnet/IP in your building management system
or Modbus TCP in your SCADA system).
- Enjoy.

Too hard? Talk to Eaton. Eaton can set this up for you.
Too expensive? The PXG600 is "open channel" and supportable by third parties. Talk to someone like PWA - Physical World Analytics in their troubleshooting capacity or Cimetrics in their network-architecture design capacity. They too can set this up for you.

Continuous Monitoring Based Commissioning.

Article regarding Continuous Monitoring Based Commissioning.
http://w3.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies/us/en/Smart_Buildings/Documents/the-12-things-you-need-to-know-about-monitor-based-commissioning-a-siemens-white-paper-final.pdf

Most everyone knows about commissioning. For most systems the concept is straightforward, and the goal is universal - optimization - chiefly for reliability (be it economic or functional.. and this is not really an "or" at transcendence).

It is more nuanced what happens with re-commissioning a system... Is it a snapshot? Does one stop the process? etc.

Then after one gets the before/after understood... one is faced with understanding ongoing versus batch/jump. The real winners (sometimes better termed "non-losers") are the ones who can harness the power of continous improvement.

Here is Contiuous Improvement with a large "C". 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continual_improvement_process

Green Tomato and Onion Chow.

Grama's (both family sides) green tomato and onion chow.
Goes by the name "chow chow" all over North America.
Closely related to Picalilly (relish). Unsure where this type of "pickles" comes from.
A close approximation is Habitant Chow Chow Green Tomato.
Habitant is a Smuckers brand.
Howard's Picalilli Green Tomato is reasonably close.

So looking for a recipe?
Chow [Yahoo Answers]
Bernardin Chow
Both of the above involve cabbage and peppers.

But for Canadian variants.
A. Mostly no one grew peppers (wrong climate).
B. Cabbages were relatively hard to grow (pests).

Here is a straightforward formula more in line with the version of my childhood
Elizabeths Chow Chow [Food.com]

Take any of the formulas and go with green tomatos and onions (roughly equal portions - less onions) and make them up to the "other" veggie totals. Omit all other veggies. Use the spices you favor, but the core is made up of mustard and tumeric. Boiling/cooking longer to soften the tomatoes and onions, and evenly embue them with tang/spices, gives a better product by my tastes. Proportions of sugar, salt and vinegar control sweetness and tang. Cornstarch is there to thicken if you wish. Leave it out and cut the water for authenticity, though it might then end up less smooth if not cooked until the tomatoes soften.

Recap of rough ingredients:
Green tomato, onion, sugar, water, vinegar, salt, cornstarch, mustard, turmeric.

Your Browser is Not Supported - Below the Fold

Lately have been served more than the usual number of pages along the lines of “Your browser is not supported by our website”. Some are quite clever, but most are brief (and no matter how polite – they make one want to leave). Such an approach misses a huge opportunity.

The one liner redirect (zinger which effectively says you are sub-human for using browser X) is itself content, and could easily be replaced with a few lines and a few images which at least portray the most important site message(s). And then sends you…

Have often changed browsers to find a graphic heavy website, with little dynamics (no warrant for browser features), which does not answer basic questions like:

A – What is your offer/business?

B – Am I the right customer? (service versus product, and ideas of scale – individual versus corporate/government).

C – How to contact? (multiple methods).

D – How can I see/touch/feel/experience what you offer?

E – What are your best features? (these must be simple, innovative, and fit within my world view).

Notice it is mostly about “me” *grin*. Who you are and your history come later. And so do fancy media presentations (unless that is what you are offering… though those websites – those in the business of making media presentations, or truly deeply predicated on history – are seldom offenders in this regard… think about that).

Tangentially related:

Long (real) content on a single page is no harm. Everyone scrolls (especially mobile). Only recently have been shown outcomes from the “above the fold” controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_the_fold

http://uxmyths.com/post/654047943/myth-people-dont-scroll

Get your message out quickly. Back it up firmly and succinctly. Present action items.

Cimetrics Launches Analytika

Cimetrics just released the new analytics offering website - Analytika.
http://www.analytika.com/
With Analytika for buildings, cut energy usage and cost, improve comfort and performance, detect faults, and manage the workflow of any maintenance or improvements.
With Analytika for process, predictive analytics are utilized to provide early warning, actionable recommendations and supervisory control, before parameter drift causes quality problems, process disruptions and waste.

Picked up by media outlets:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cimetrics-inc-launches-analytika-145700352.html
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140212005852/en/Cimetrics-Launches-Analytika
http://automatedbuildings.com/releases/feb14/140212013404cimetrics.html

Cimetrics
http://www.cimetrics.com/

Grama Beryl's Passing

Grama - Ethel Beryl Putnam passed away in January 2014. She had a rich and long life and provided the cornerstone for the family. This says it best... [Well done Natalie.]

http://www.obitsforlife.com/obituary/841940/Putnam-Ethel-Beryl.php

http://thechronicleherald.ca/obituaries/1181843-putnam-ethel-beryl

Pre-deceased by Grampa - Albert Perley Putnam (HH #814 1996)
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CAN-NS-OBITS/2007-05/1179348744
And by Mum - Marion Elizabeth Putnam  (HH #4337 2002)
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CAN-NS-OBITS/2009-06/1244890267
And by Dad - Ralph Curtis Putnam (HH #367 1999)
http://www.forposterityssake.ca/Obituary/DS/DS-OBIT-0001-1000.pdf

How Many Tonnes of CO2 in a ....? And How Much is it Worth?

CO2 value and content? 

Short article in Dec 14, 2013 Economist p70. Easy to miss.
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21591601-some-firms-are-preparing-carbon-price-would-make-big-difference-carbon-copy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Emission_Trading_Scheme
ETS price $5 - "EUA" (which appears to be a tonne of CO2 'equivalents')
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/euets/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_credit
California price - very roughly $12.

But for businesses internally: $6 to $60.
Non-energy companies around $10.
Energy companies around $30-40.

So how much CO2 in, say, a barrel of oil?

0.43 equiv-tonne CO2/barrel.

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/refs.html

Comprehensive, yet simple open book calcs.

Given carbon credit (tonne of CO2, ETS EUA, etc.) prices above; what fraction of an energy unit cost is this cost/price?

http://www.oil-price.net/ Barrel of oil Jan 2014 about $100.
0.43 equiv-tonne CO2/barrel @ $10-40/equiv-tonne CO2 implies $5-20/barrel carbon price… five to twenty percent of oil price. Not insignificant, but not so high as to set off reality alarms.

"Theoretical" societal CO2 cost of $33/tonne implies $15/barrel.

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/EPAactivities/economics/scc.html (using %3 rate at 2013?)

How much does it cost to produce a barrel of oil?

EIA: http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=367&t=6

[And this excludes transportation and such.]  Very roughly $30/barrel.

Observations for rules of thumb:

“Market” cost divided by two gives roughly sum of production, societal and transport.

Production cost divided by two gives roughly societal cost.