Thanksgiving/Christmas/End-of-year travel – Charge ahead?

With the recent massive increase in electric vehicle sales, combined with free fast charging included with particular new car models this year, you may be wondering if the current charging systems can handle it?? This thanksgiving weekend had quite a line on specific stations like the one out of Arizona, as you may have seen in the news and forums! but what about major holidays in general such as Christmas? Let’s look at some of the recent busy days and see if it’s as bad as some have presumed…

Continue reading “Thanksgiving/Christmas/End-of-year travel – Charge ahead?”

Where are the big roofs for Solar? A mathematical look at pulling data from OpenStreetMap

In recent years there has been a lot of talk about solar and more renewable energy. In USA the recent IRA has provisions for extending solar and renewable energy, and the Florida governor last year supported Solar benefits which turn out to be helpful in many natural disasters, making an energy grid more easily self-sustainable after hurricanes that are common to that state. What if we could go over a map and see what buildings are the best candidates for solar generation? OpenStreetMap has not just street maps, but many other features, including building coordinates, which can give us polygons that can calculate areas for potential solar!

Continue reading “Where are the big roofs for Solar? A mathematical look at pulling data from OpenStreetMap”

NodeRed for Onstar access for GM/Chevy vehicle access

In recent years there has been a surge in popularity of Chevrolet vehicles like the Chevrolet Bolt and, coming soon, the Equinox EV. There has also been increased popularity for Linux phones like the Librem phone, but unfortunately there has been no equivalent for the “myChevrolet” app for your own computer or Linux-phone… unless you know where to look.

Continue reading “NodeRed for Onstar access for GM/Chevy vehicle access”