If you’re considering buying an electric car (“electric vehicle” or “EV”), you might have questions. Many of the answers given here apply to anywhere in the U.S. But when it comes to rebates and the electricity rates for charging EVs, the info applies to Los Angeles, where I install electric car chargers. I’ve also included a link so that if you live outside of L.A., you can check which rebates or other financial incentives are available in your area.

Do I need an electrician to install a charger for my new electric car? The most common electric car is still the Toyota Prius, which an electrician can’t help you with. You don’t plug it into an outlet to recharge. The battery is recharged by a mechanism that’s triggered when you put on the brakes. With a Prius, there isn’t a worry about running out of electricity. It’s a hybrid, meaning that until the brakes recharge its battery, the car burns gas in its internal combustion engine.

While at this time, you can’t plug a standard Prius into an electric outlet to re-charge the battery, Toyota has announced that its 2014 model will have this capability. The 2011 Chevy Volt (a hybrid) and Nissan Leaf (all-electric) are “plug-ins.”

Level 1 Electric Car Charger. Plug-in electric cars come equipped with a “Level 1 charger.” This is a special extension cord that you can plug into an electrical outlet which carries ordinary house current (110 volts). You may have a suitable electrical outlet right where you need it in your garage or carport. It can charge a Nissan Leaf, empty to full, in about 20 hours. For a Chevy Volt, it takes about 10 hours. Don’t worry, there’s also a faster alternative, a Level 2 charger.

Even if you’re all set up with an outlet in your garage for your Level 1 charger, if you’re not knowledgeable about wiring, have an electrician check things over. The electrician should make sure that the charging outlet in your garage is on a “dedicated circuit,” meaning it serves no other outlets or switches. The outlet should be a GFI (safety) outlet in working order. And the electrical panel should have enough capacity to deal with the added load of charging your car.

Level 2 Electric Car Charger. Most drivers will want the speed of a Level 2 charger. It’s housed in a container about 18 inches around and hangs on the garage wall, sticking out about a foot. It takes a Nissan Leaf from empty to full in about eight hours and a Chevy Volt in about four. This will allow you to charge your car overnight even if the battery starts from empty. Nissan and Chevy have both partnered with manufacturers and installers of Level 2 chargers. Your car dealer can arrange for purchase and installation of the charger, or you can do it on your own.

What does installation of a Level 2 charger involve? Let’s say you decide to go ahead with a Level 2 charger. The electrical contractor will select a location in your garage or carport where a charging cord won’t get in the way. He will consider the location and size of your electrical panel, existing circuits, and where and how your electricity is metered.

He will give you a bid for installing the charger and, if needed, upgrading your electrical panel for the additional load. An electrician who specializes in charger installations can also tell you about tax credits and rebates. Actual installation of the charger along with any needed upgrade of your electrical panel and/or electric meter will take a few hours to a day or so.

Do chargers require an electrical permit and inspection? If you already have a dedicated circuit for a GFI outlet (no other appliance is served by the circuit) in your garage, it can be used for Level 1 charging and no additional permit or inspection is required.

If you need to install a new circuit or new electric meter or upgrade your electrical panel for either a Level 1 or Level 2 charger, you’ll need a permit and an electrical inspection.

How much does installation of a Level 2 charger cost? Without any rebates, installation of a Level 2 charger averages around $2,000. The price for your installation will depend on the distance of your charger from your electrical panel, whether your panel needs an upgrade, and whether you will be installing a special electric meter. Rebates and tax credits can reduce this price if you install before December 31, 2011. We don’t know yet about financial incentives for 2012.

INCENTIVES FOR ELECTRIC CARS The information below on incentives for electric car buyers focuses on L.A. and California. Here’s a link where you can find out more detail about L.A. and also check out incentives for electric cars in other zip codes.

What financial incentives are available for purchase of electric cars? If you purchase an electric car in 2011, you may be able to reduce your federal tax bill by $2,500 to $7,500 with a tax credit. Converting your Prius or other non-plug-in hybrid to a plug-in can reduce your federal tax bill by 10% of the cost of the conversion. Purchase of an electric motorcycle or low-speed “around the neighborhood” electric cart can reduce your federal tax bill by up to $2,500.

Californians who buy an EV and act quickly enough can qualify for a rebate from the State of up to $5,000 on an electric car and up to $20,000 on a commercial vehicle. These rebates apply to many kinds of electric vehicles, including all-electric, hybrid, motorcycles, and low-speed “around the neighborhood” carts.

What rebates are available for installing an electric charger? A homeowner who installs a Level 2 electric charger can cut their 2011 federal tax bill by 30% of the cost of purchase and installation, with a cap of $1,000 (as a tax credit).

If you are customer of the L.A. Department of Water and Power (LADWP), you may qualify for a $2,000 rebate on installation of your electric charger. To qualify, you need to also install a separate electric meter for your new car. Ask your electrician to see if you will save money with this approach.

Are there any other incentives for electric car owners? Some states, like California, provide a sticker to qualifying electric car owners so that they can drive in freeway carpool lanes regardless of the number of occupants.

Does EV charging receive any special break in electric rates? In Los Angeles and many areas of the country, yes. In L.A., both Southern California Edison (SCE) and the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) offer special reduced rate plans for charging EVs at night, during off-peak hours.

Both power companies encourage people thinking of buying an EV or installing a charger to contact them. Call (800) DIAL-DWP or call SCE at (800) 4EV-INFO. SCE has extensive information on its website at www.sce.com. Both companies are particularly interested in customer plans regarding EVs because they need information for planning power demand.

Are electric car chargers safe? At this time, all the evidence points to extreme safety. At Level 1, the EV charging cord is plugged into a GFI outlet carrying ordinary house current (110 volts), very much like outlets in newer bathrooms and kitchens. GFIs are specially designed to protect people against shocks. Should something go wrong, like the outlet gets wet while charging your car, the GFI immediately shuts off power. Homeowners and businesses have many years of safe experience with GFIs.

Level 2 chargers carry more current, 240 volts. Manufacturers have designed Level 2 chargers for every eventuality and advertise that Level 2 chargers are 100% safe. Of course, nothing is 100% safe. But, so far there have been no reports of someone figuring out how to injure themselves with one.

Do all chargers serve all electric vehicles? Your new electric car will come with a Level 1 charger that is compatible with any ordinary electrical outlet.

The manufacturers of Level 2 chargers have worked out universal standards. Regardless of the make of your electric car, any Level 2 charger will be compatible with it.

Where can you charge an electric car in Los Angeles? Level 2 chargers are currently available for a fee in Los Angeles train stations, LAX, the Bob Hope Burbank airport, the L.A. Convention Center, and other public places. Click here for an on-line map of electric car chargers. You can type in your zip code to find publicly-accessible chargers near you.

Click for more information about charging EVs in L.A. For more about my company, The Electric Connection — all the stuff you wanted to know but were afraid to ask — click here. If you’re interested coupons for electrical work, for example $50 off installation of a Whole House Surge Protector in the L.A. area, click on our coupon page.

Energy deregulation gives consumers choices when it comes to the companies that provide their home electricity. Suppliers can compete for your electricity dollars in a variety of ways, offering low prices, short and long-term contracts, fixed or variable rates, and a choice in how your energy is generated. The sheer volume of options can seem so complicated that you need to ask an electrician to help you tangle out the pros and cons of the available plans. One area in particular that can trip up consumers has to do with whether the source of their electricity is green or renewable. Read on to learn the difference.

Green Customers are Loyal Customers

Currently, 15 states plus Washington, D.C. have active electricity deregulation programs, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and these states are largely concentrated in the Northeast. Consumers who live in deregulated states are likely to be flooded with energy offers, often promising electricity that is derived from green or renewable sources. Purchasing this environmentally friendly power usually costs a bit more than electricity that comes from more traditional sources like coal, but some homeowners like to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.

Those customers who go green are valuable to the supplier because they are less likely to jump ship based on the availability of a cheaper energy source. "A customer on a renewable-energy product has actively decided what is important to them and has selected their supplier accordingly," Ritchie Hudson, Pennsylvania chairman of the Retail Energy Supply Association, said to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A Question of Semantics

However, while many suppliers and consumers treat green and renewable sources of electricity as synonymous, there is a distinction. Green energy is that which comes from specific sources that have the highest environmental benefit, including solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and small hydroelectric sources, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Meanwhile, renewable energy “includes resources that rely on fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish,” which includes all the green options but also other sources such as large hydroelectric dams, which present certain environmental tradeoffs.

That means that if you really want to limit your impact on the Earth as much as possible, go green in lieu of simply choosing renewable energy. You can further refine your choices by asking about the specific source of the electricity, if you have a preference for solar, wind or another option.

Ask an Electrician About Your Options

Deregulated energy markets give you flexibility, but can also sow consumer confusion. If you need help deciphering the offerings of your state's electricity providers, ask an electrician who can walk you through your choices.

“No two snowflakes are alike.” This is a statement nearly every schoolchild has heard at least once, either while crafting unique snowflakes with a sheet of folded paper and some scissors or while learning a lesson on the science of snow. While even most scientists don’t quite understand what causes a snowflake to form such complex and beautiful columns and points and branches, one thing is for certain, the composition of snowflakes guarantees that no two will ever be identical.  However, it is possible for two snowflakes to appear to be nearly exactly alike.

A snowflake begins to form when a piece of dust catches water vapor out of the air. Water is created when two hydrogen molecules attach to an oxygen molecule. The two hydrogen molecules are angled from one another in such a way that they form a hexagonal shape when they come together during the freezing process; thus, a snowflake begins as a simple hexagonal shape or as layers of hexagons called diamond dust. The emergent properties that follow from the original hexagon are what differentiate one snowflake from another, as the humidity, the temperature in the air, and many other factors (some of which remain unclear to scientists) allow each snowflake to form in an entirely unique way with a seemingly endless variety of shapes.

However, in 1988, a scientist named Nancy Knight claimed to have located two that were the same while studying snowflakes as part of an atmospheric research project. And it appeared to be so; when put under a microscope, the emergent properties looked nearly identical. But while it is feasible that two snowflakes can appear to be exactly alike on the outside, they are never identical on an atomic level. Deuterium is an atom that appears attached to about one in every 3000 hydrogen molecules in the air. Because there are millions of atoms that make up a snowflake, the random assortment of deuterium in any two snowflakes—even in two that so very closely resemble one another—simply cannot be the same.