Blog Archives

The story of Robert L.

3/1/2018

Our dining room table always reminds me of Robert. I was working one evening on my dining room table in the alley behind our shop. I had often seen this guy who rode around on a bicycle with a small trailer in tow that carried two beagle dogs. It appeared that he was probably homeless and this one day I was kind of irritated because he came up the alley and stopped. I just knew he was going to ask me for some money. He got off his bike and came over to where I was working and exclaimed…”Man, what a beautiful table…Are you making that!?” Now that my entire opinion of him changed in an instant, he had my total attention. “Why yes I proclaimed with bursting pride!”

We continued small talk for a while, learned each other’s names, and I petted his very friendly dogs. Off he rode down the alley and my thought was, what a nice guy! A few days later, Robert came by and asked if I would keep an eye on his dogs for just a bit while he went to put his name in at the employment place in order to try and get a job. This was shock number three. First of all, here is a homeless guy who thinks about and complements someone else’s efforts, Secondly he takes amazing care of his animals even while being homeless and thirdly, he wants to go try and get a job.

I did not mind watching the dogs at all, they were really cool dogs! However, the one started HOWLING the minute Robert left on his bicycle and did not stop until he returned! True love! Every time Robert came around, we talked more and more. I learned that he was a U.S. Marine Veteran who spent twenty years stationed at Camp Pendleton down south where my best friend Randy’s dad was stationed. I found out that he was a certified welder back East and had a driver’s license from some state on the East Coast. He had gone through a bad divorce and just kind of checked out of life. He told me he never drank alcohol and I never smelled it on him so alcoholism didn’t seem to be the problem.

Later, Robert again asked me to keep an eye on his dogs while he rode to the DMV and got his driver’s license transferred to California. To make a long story short….Robert ended up getting TWO jobs…one was a night watchman of some commercial property where he and his dogs could stay with some security and a restroom. He then got a job welding during the day that paid $10 per hour. Robert got his California driver’s license, he paid cash for an old beater car, showed me the certificate that proved he had put insurance on it, and eventually…Robert bought a small mobile home in Lake Isabella.

I don’t see Robert very often anymore but he will always remain one of my heroes in life. To come from where he found himself, and with all that was against him, to continue to strive and improve while always having a great attitude and a big smile have many days encouraged me! It all started with a genuine complement….”Man, that table you’re building is beautiful!”

I saw Robert the other day. He was not able to keep his little home in Lake Isabella due to the long commute to work in Bakersfield but he is still working and living on a friend’s property. He still has his vehicle and is still getting to work. Every time I see him, I tell him he is one of my hero’s!

0 Comments

What really is the battery business?

3/1/2018

0 Comments

What Exactly is our Business??
So after spending my entire life in the battery business, I still get the same question from people when I tell them that I am in the battery business…”Oh, car batteries?” it always makes me laugh…if people only knew how little car batteries really were a part of our business!
This is the battery business….
When I wake up at five in the morning, the alarm went off because of a UPS that backed up the power so in case of a power outage, I wouldn’t oversleep and then not be employed at all! That UPS is backed-up by two twelve amp sealed batteries that allow it to do its uninterruptible duty.
My house was safe and secure to wake up in because of my alarm system that was monitoring and securing my home all night. In case the power had gone out, my alarm would have still sounded the warning of an intruder because of a small five amp sealed battery that would allow the alarm to continue working until the power came back on. Virtually every home and business in the world that has an alarm has a battery like this working in it.
I grab my cell phone to check for messages received during the night. It works because the cell tower from which it gets its signal has a temperature controlled room at the base of the tower that is filled with batteries in order to insure service to their cell customers for a set number of hours in the event of a power outage.
When I check my computer in my home office, it also has a UPS that is run by batteries underneath my desk.
My garage door opens to let me and my car out of the garage. There is a small lead acid battery the backs up the opener so in the event of a power outage, the garage door will still go up and down. If I lived in the Midwest or East coast and had a basement, I would have a basement sump pump that was backed up by a large deep cycle battery.
Finally I get to my car battery! It dutifully starts my car the same way it does for approximately the other eleven thousand times it will do so during its lifetime. For approximately eighteen cents a day, it more than earns its worth.
I pass a truck on my way to work. That large diesel truck has four large batteries running not only its engine and electrical, it also runs all the modern appliances in the sleeper cab of the truck.
I also pass an RV and it has three large diesel batteries used to start the engine, as well as four large deep cycle batteries to run the whole RV. The Harley that races between the RV and the big rig is powered by a single AGM 20 or 30 amp battery.
I drive past the local country club. They have a hundred electric golf cars that each have either four twelve volt batteries, six eight volt batteries or six each six volt batteries in every cart. There are six hundred batteries represented in each golf course and that doesn’t even consider the batteries that are in the maintenance equipment.
So, while driving I look over to a tractor plowing a field and know that the tractor runs on two large 4DLT batteries. The tractor passes a water pump that is located in the field, that pump has two large 4D diesel batteries that run it. Also in the farmer’s vineyards are remote weather stations that report to his computer or I-phone exactly what the temperature, wind direction or wind-speed and soil moisture content is in several areas of his vineyard. This allows savings on water and electricity in managing his vineyard. These are all run on a small solar panel and an eight or twelve amp sealed battery. The farmer pulls up to his field in a Ranger or Quad that uses one small starting battery, unless he has converted to an electric Ranger which uses eight large deep cycle batteries. Did you notice the wire fence close by that encloses the herd of sheep? That electric fence is battery operated.

As we leave the agriculture area and head into the oil field, we see a SCADA (Supervisory control and Data Acquisition) device that is also run on solar and a much larger 115 amp gel battery. What this does is monitor the oil well and send valuable information to the well manager as to quantity of production, maintenance requirements etc. A small ways away, a new well is being dug by a drilling crew and each rig has four large 150 amp batteries running it. The welder/maintenance person has two batteries in his diesel and usually one or two in the back to run all of his equipment. The welder on the back of his truck has a small 35amp battery to run it.
By the way, those seismic detection devices that run across the road….they are powered by a 100 amp AGM battery nearby in a plastic battery box and charged by two 100 watt solar panels.

Driving from the oil field towards the mountains, we go up the state highway which has traffic cabinets at each intersection containing four deep cycle 80 amp batteries that back up the signal lights in case of a blackout. Once we reach the remote mountainous region, we see many homes that have either solar panels on the roof or a wind generator in the yard. These homes are off-grid and they have no service whatsoever from a utility company. Somewhere in the garage or a detached shed, these homes have anywhere from eight to forty eight large deep cycle batteries that run their entire home. They are recharged by the solar panels and wind generator and there is usually a gas or diesel generator installed as a back-up for a series of cloudy days or times when there might be no wind. To enter the driveway, the owner has a battery operated gate opener that is recharged by a solar panel.

Looking way up on the top of the mountain in the distance we see several radio towers. Each one of these are backed up by a series of GEL or AGM batteries that can withstand extreme temperatures.
A short ways from that mountain top is another set of mountains covered by large wind machines. These machines use a series of sealed AGM batteries to move the pitch of the blades.
Usually somewhere in the foothills is a shooting gun range. Not only are all of the carts, tractors and vehicles powered by batteries, each clay disc throwing machine is powered by a 100 amp sealed AGM battery and recharged by a solar panel.

Back down in the city we need to swing by Home Depot. If you notice a mobile cart that is rolling around containing an inventory counting device, just look inside the bottom of the cart and you will see a 24 series Sealed Gel battery. The machine outside that pushes the shopping carts into the store operates on two deep cycle batteries. The little electric shopping carts you see cruising around the store operate on batteries. If you are there early in the morning or very late at night, you might see a person riding a floor scrubbing machine. That is run by four or six very large deep cycle batteries.

We roll past the local newspaper headquarters. In the basement are cabinets filled with large fifty pound batteries that back up the entire newspaper making process. Not only does the news have to go out to the customer’s everyday…in the event of a disaster or power failure…it’s even more important.
We then drive past a roofing shingle manufacturing company, they also have an entire room filled with battery cabinets that back up their manufacturing process. One power failure that ruins one batch of fiberglass at the wrong time can cost the company millions of dollars.

Every radio station, TV station, Hospital, medical facility and communications facility has these back up batteries as well. Each major airport has thousands of batteries being used in their operation. Some of these batteries will be backing up critical control tower communication and runway lighting; some will be operating all of the tarmac equipment.

Almost all of the batteries we have been talking about, are batteries made out of lead ore which has been the primary ingredient used in the manufacture of batteries for about the last hundred years. Lead batteries are durable, cost-effective and 100% recyclable. When you drive next to a Tesla, Leaf or Prius vehicle, the drive batteries in those vehicles for the most part are of Lithium construction. Some batteries are constructed of Lithium-Ion, Lithium polymer, Lithium phosphate among many others. Lithium is a much lighter material so is much preferred in electric motive applications looking for longer range between recharges. Where the typical lead-based automotive battery costs roughly $150, the same size Lithium battery can cost closer to $1200. The weight savings for a Lithium battery can often range in the 175% less than lead batteries!
Before the year 2030, I believe we will see batteries get smaller, lighter, better and more cost effective as the need grows for more portable power to drive all of the many technological advances that we seem to keep coming up with. I started working with batteries forty years ago and it has been an interesting journey. Imagine the next forty years!

0 Comments