Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

Win! Landmark Seventh Circuit Decision Says Fourth Amendment Applies to Smart Meter Data The Seventh Circuit just handed down a landmark opinion , ruling 3-0 that the Fourth Amendment protects energy-consumption data collected by smart meters. Smart meters collect energy usage data at high frequencies — typically every 5, 15, or 30 minutes — and therefore know exactly how much electricity is being used, and when , in any given household. The court recognized that data from these devices reveals intimate details about what’s going on inside the home that would otherwise be unavailable to the government without a physical search. The court held that residents have a reasonable expectation of privacy in this data and that the government’s access of it constitutes a “search.” This case, Naperville Smart Meter Awareness v. City of Naperville , is the first case addressing whether the Fourth Amendment protects smart meter data. Courts have in the past held that the Fourth Amendment ...

Customers often ask me why an electrical shutdown is needed for a modernization project. Most say they can’t afford downtime. But here’s why a scheduled outage is absolutely necessary. While it’s understandable that an interruption is not ideal for facility operations, safety is of utmost importance. Powering down and de-energizing equipment for modernization eliminates arc flash hazard, removes the chance of damaging equipment and mitigates shock and electrocution danger. These safe conditions ensure engineers, field service reps, contractors and anyone involved in the project are protected. Also, without a scheduled outage you don’t get an overall picture of the equipment condition. Frequently, when engineers perform an invasive evaluation before the install, they’ll unearth hidden issues. Serious issues like an insulation breakdown or significant rusting to the existing structure can put the larger system at risk of failure down the road if not addressed.   Low Voltage Dir...

Documents Bare How Federal Researchers Went to Absurd Lengths to Undo Problematic Tattoo Recognition Research Well, this is a first. In response to an EFF investigation that uncovered deeply troubling research practices by the National Institute for Technology & Standards (NIST), a senior federal scientist stripped off his clothes, had another scientist draw all over his skin with washable markers, and then posed for the camera. Those images—obtained by EFF through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit—illustrate federal officials’ absurd reaction to an EFF investigation that showed the research exploited prisoners while bypassing ethical oversight measures. As EFF revealed in 2016, NIST researchers partnered with the FBI on a multi-year program to advance the state of the art of tattoo recognition technology—computer algorithms that automatically identify someone by their tattoos and even identify the meaning of those tattoos. NIST documentation explicitly stated t...

California Assembly Acquiesces In Secret Police Surveillance For the second year in a row, the California State Assembly’s Appropriations Committee has effectively killed a bill that was poised to ensure transparency, community oversight, and civil liberties regarding proliferating police surveillance technology. S.B. 1186  was approved by the California Senate, as well as by two Assembly policy committees. Despite that momentum, the bill stalled in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, chaired by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher of San Diego. The bill needed to be voted on by committee members by August 17 in order to move to a floor vote, but was instead indefinitely placed on a “suspense calendar” without the committee ever voting.  Like S.B. 21 in the 2017 session,  S.B. 1186 was a straightforward measure that would have simply required police to respect public oversight before gaining access to powerful surveillance technology....

As the growing presence of non-linear loads and distributed energy resources place new demands on electric power metering equipment, standards organizations are revising their testing guidelines to address the resulting challenges. Recent updates to two of these standards, ANSI C12.1 and ANSI C12.20, specifically address the distorted waveforms and various power-quality phenomena that have become a new normal for facility operators. As a new Schneider Electric white paper discusses, these revisions support the development of ANSI revenue meters that make the most of the latest developments in advanced metering technology. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) oversees both ANSI C12.1 , “American National Standard for Electric Meters – Code for Electricity Metering,” and ANSI C12.20 , “American National Standard for Electric Meters for Electricity Meters – 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5 Accuracy Classes.” The most recent editions of these standards are ANSI C12.1-2014 and ANSI C12.20-2...

Written by Guest Blogger, Tim Hardin, Sourcing Intern I was an eighteen year old freshman walking into the six story Schneider Electric office that sits on 10350 Ormsby Park Place.  Dressed to the nines, I had several copies of my resume in hand, along with a bundle of confidence that my mom instilled in me minutes before.  On the phone call she said, “I know they will like you because I do,” with that I responded, “Well, you kind of have to.” After a few breathing exercises on the elevator ride up, I arrived at the fourth floor.  From there, I was escorted to the meeting room where my interview would be held.  It was a dim room with one circular table in the middle – frightening right?  After running through potential interview questions in my head, I realized I still didn’t know how I should introduce myself.  Timothy sounds a little too formal, Timmy is what my friends call me but I’m not a little kid anymore, and Tim sounds weird because that is what...