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Nicholas Bautz
DeBock
English IV Honors
20 November 2015
Real World Narrative
The anticipation of the senior exploration project felt like a burden that weighed upon me
for what seemed like an eternity. As I was assigned the truculent project, I perhaps doubted my
own cognitive abilities as a scholar. I have heard all of my friends complain constantly in regards
to the maledictions of the senior project throughout my four years at St. James. Subsequently,
English IV has grown to become one of the most avoided classes in St. James High School
history. Despite the resentment, I was determined to complete the senior exploration project with
exemplary competence.
When I was first assigned the service portion of my senior exploration project, I instantly
knew that finding a service for the topic of Energy Consumption was not going to be easy.
Initially, I figured that I could tour a nuclear power plant where one of my close friends has
worked for several years. He, being a South Carolina graduate, is an electrical engineer at a Duke
Energy plant in Wilmington, North Carolina. Unfortunately, he was informed that such visits
take months to coordinate; due to time restraints on the project, I was unable to partake in a tour
with Duke Energy. Undeterred, I went on to find another form of service that I could complete
within my project time constraint which was less than a month at this point. I decided to make
several calls to an array of organizations throughout the Myrtle Beach area. I managed to get in
touch with the educational director at Santee Cooper after several calls and left voicemails. She,
Nicole Aiello, informed me of a job shadowing opportunity for the seventeenth of November. I

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immediately signed up for the job shadowing experience knowing the huge benefits it would
bring to both me and my project. I signed up about a week and a half prior to my scheduled date
for shadowing. On the morning of the day when I was scheduled to complete my shadowing, I
received a call from Santee Cooper. They were reluctant to inform me that my job shadowing
had to be moved to a later date due to unforeseen circumstances. It told them that I was just
going to have to cancel since I would be unable to complete the shadowing on a later date. I was
devastated in melancholy that morning; I felt desolate as I had no idea what to do for my service
which was due in just two days. I thought long and hard on what to do. I decided to make a call
to Halls Auto Repair in Surfside Beach.
My longtime friend, Tyler, answered the phone and expressed serious empathy for my
situation. He handed off the phone to the Halls Auto Repair owner, Chance Hall. Chance was
pleased to inform me that I could spend the entire day at the shop. He went on to say that he
would gather shop energy consumption information and would also allow me to check the shop
electrical meter. I immediately rushed home to dress in appropriate auto shop apparel. Once I
arrived at Halls Auto Repair, I received a warm welcome from the employees. They noticed
some damaged to my two front tires on my car and they urged me to replace them as soon as
possible. I saw the odd wear of the tire tread and the cracking of the brittle tire wall so I decided
to go with the replacement. They swiftly lifted my car and proceeded to remove the tires and
even allowed me to assist with the process. Then we proceeded to put in an order for two brand
new low profile tires for my vehicle. After the order was complete, a new shop employee, Jacob
Seifert, showed me to the electrical meter located at the rear of the shop. I was extremely
surprised to see the massive amount of energy being consumed by the shop. I watched the meter
for roughly 5 minutes and approximately .8 kilowatt hours or 800 watt hours of electricity were

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consumed in that time which is pretty substantial. I went back inside the shop where shop owner,
Chance Hall, was waiting for me with a monsoon of paperwork regarding all kinds of energy
consumed by the shop. While I analyzed the paperwork, Chance went to get lunch for all of the
shop employees. The first paper I analyzed revealed 2014 energy consumption data for Halls
Auto Repair Inc. The paperwork noted that in 2014 the Surfside Beach location of Halls Auto
Repair consumed approximately 32,533 kWh of electricity from Santee Cooper. Their billing
rate was the commercial demand rate of $19.72/kW which definitely adds up. Most of the energy
bills for Halls Auto were around the $1500 area; offseason electrical bills were sizably less than
summer electrical bills. Also, I noticed that Santee Cooper charged a bit less per kW in the
offseason which is reasonable given the economic circumstances of the Grand Strand area. I was
pleased to observe the commercial energy consumption of a business like Halls Auto Repair. As
I finished with the paperwork, Chance arrived back at the shop with two brand new low profile
tires for my vehicle and, most importantly, lunch. He gladly offered the mountain of Bojangles
that he brought, and I gladly accepted. After we were finished eating, we proceeded to reinstall
the new tires on my vehicle. They allowed me to assist with the entire process which was
fantastic. After my car was reassembled, I moved it out of the garage to a parking spot. Chance
gave me the family discount which essentially helped me out as I was strapped for funds at the
time. For the rest of the day I assisted with various tasks around the shop until my departure that
evening.
My service with Halls Auto Repair was an astonishing experience. The friendly family
atmosphere and their willingness to inform made my Senior Exploration service swift, painless,
and fulfilling. I live in a home that only consumes roughly 6,000 kWh of electricity annually and
Halls Auto Repair consumes 5 times that amount. All of the machinery that is used by Halls

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Auto Repair surprisingly consumes an enormous amount of electricity. I am beyond thankful that
I was able to have this experience as I learned a gargantuan amount of information regarding
both energy consumption of a commercial business and automotive repairs on vehicles. I express
deep regret in initially resenting such a primitive and informative assignment. Without
completing this assignment, I would not know nearly as much as I do now about energy in the
business sector.