Phil, I called EVDS to get some clarification on the answers to your questions. Your questions and statements are highlighted.
Now concerning installation costs, every system I am aware of that monitors the contents of a UST, requires one to excavate to the top of the tank so that electrical conduit can be installed and an access port can be utilized for the probe that monitors the level of product. This is a major cost in the retrofit.
In order to install an electrical conduit as companies you have mentioned do at least a portion of the tank must be excavated in order to install a probe to monitor the level of petroleum fluids in the tank. This is the major cost of a retrofit. The numbers I have read are in the neighborhood of $6,000 per tank. Does that sound about right to you?
If this device can be installed in the fill pipe, is there no requirement for electrical conduit? If not, it is a mechanical device and not an electrical device at all. And if it is not an electrical monitoring device, it is very little better than someone sticking the tank as necessary. In fact, not as good, as I have found very few mechanical devices that maintained consistent accuracy. This is the very reason for a lot of the EPA regulations, in the fact that the mechanical devices would hang up, and would cease to function.
It is indeed battery operated. The CAPSCAN device will have one battery and the hand held computer two, using one as a back up. I was told the battery life would be three to four years. The bottom line is the CAPSCAN device is far more accurate than anything any competitor has ever produced. EVDS has one patent and two more pending which will protect their device, preventing anyone else from going directly through the fill pipe.
You say the device is an electronic device that can be read with a handheld computer. Where is the power source. With no conduit, it must have batteries. What is the battery life? What is the requirement to change them? What happens to the memory (history) if they go dead?
The battery system has a fail safe system and a warning system as well to prevent loss of data. The CAPSCAN itself reads the data but does not store it so a single battery is no problem. Since the batteries have a long life, and the hand held computer a fail safe system, it seems that EVDS has thought along the same lines as you to prevent data loss.
Thanks for asking some tough questions. I admittedly don't enjoy your investment bias but they were for the most part very good questions. I think the CAPSCAN will have a tremendous competitive advantage based both on cost and accuracy. Service stations are required to keep daily records on their tanks. The EPA or state regulatory bodies can check on these records at any time. If these records are inaccurate, or miss even a small leak, fines and associated clean up costs can be very severe. That's why Lloyd's of London is already offering to give a 15% discount to service station owners-operators who use the CAPSCAN device for their tank monitoring and inventory management on their Environmental Impairment Liability Insurance. Keep your eye on the EVDS thread where I hope we will be discussing this company as anything but your typical OTC BB stock.
InvestRight
Regards, Jeff |
