Charging at restaurants hotels and work

[Tinker71]

Personally on my long distance travel I am kind of looking forward to slowing down a little . Have a leisurely breakfast lunch or dinner and take 40 minutes to charge my rig. Same with hotels. Save a pit stop by charging at night. Include the KWhrs in my bill. If I were an electrical contractor or electrical engineer I would specialize in packaging and building superchargers and or level 2 charging stations for these applications. Any new building should be thinking of adding a charging station or 2.

At work charging. This will be huge. With the increase of solar we should all be trying to charge during the day if possible. This will keep the load off the peaker plants. Level 2 chargers are not that expensive either.

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[ajdelange]

If you can charge at home being able to charge at work doesn't do much for you unless you have a very long commute. Conversely if you can conveniently charge at work you wouldn't need a home charger. This is where I see workplaces installing chargers as having overall benefit. There are many who can't charge at home. IMO they are pretty much barred from the benefits of EV ownership. Employer installed chargers could fix that problem.

 

[Crissa]

If you can charge at home being able to charge at work doesn't do much for you unless you have a very long commute.

Yes, the average commute is only a few miles. But there are those who have longer.

Being able to charge at work means being able to opt for smaller, cheaper commuting vehicles like a Zero or Leaf or Plug-in EV. And it brings the possibility of taking advantage of Vehicle to Grid in the future.

Being able to charge at almost any restaurant parking would be the freedom to roadtrip without taking special stops at Superchargers... Which need special consideration to tie to the grid while most L2 (aka Destination chargers) are simply a special connection to the breaker panel (like a dryer or oven).

These stations are also useful to maintain cabin and battery conditions in inclement weathers, tho all you need is a L1 old fashioned dumb outlet for that.

So there's good reasons to encourage L2 chargers everywhere even as the 'L3' DC fast charging networks expand.

-Crissa

 

[ldjessee]

Charging at work would help those in apartments, etc that cannot or cannot easily charge at home.
The chargers at my work (only 2 and I think they are like 7 or 11 KW max) have really kept the need for installing a dedicated socket for charging our Leaf at home. Leaving it to charge overnight was enough.
Back when we drove to work.

 

[ReddykwRun]

Already seeing a lot of SC here on the Gulf Coast competing for that tourist time and the dollars do follow in the restaurant and hotel venues. Would like to see heavy saturation in the travel segment and agree with your post and raise you a SC station. I have even approached Calloway Gardens in Georgia and their response was if I had 3 heads. Some get it and some don't, kind of like the dinosaurs I suppose.

 

[VolklKatana]

Just thought i would share how charging at work goes for me. i have an OG Model S with about 240 usable miles of range left. I have about a 30 minute drive each way to work, which does have a few chargers. These chargers are for everyone to use and we have a calendar that you sign up on, and are allowed to use 4 hours at a time. Many of the Chevy Bolt users need to charge every other day, and some daily depending on their commute. The rest of us Telsa owners rotate through. Even with the limited range of my S, I find that charging on Tuesday and Friday tend to work pretty well. I do have the ability to charge at home as well, but if my company is paying for it, I might as well utilize it!

 

[ajdelange]

So you use about 12 kWh per day. That's about $1.60 worth. If it meant having to sign up and keep track of when my slot was etc. I'd probably give it a pass. Forcing me to even that level of organization just isn't worth $5.50 a week (I have solar panels which cover half my cost). Plugging it in when you come home is just so convenient.

 

[VolklKatana]

So you use about 12 kWh per day. That's about $1.60 worth. If it meant having to sign up and keep track of when my slot was etc. I'd probably give it a pass. Forcing me to even that level of organization just isn't worth $5.50 a week (I have solar panels which cover half my cost). Plugging it in when you come home is just so convenient.

its really quite easy, you sign up on a recurring schedule and then every week you get that time slot. Its a bigger deal in the winter when it give you priority parking by the entrance, and is -20 outside.

 

[ldjessee]

its really quite easy, you sign up on a recurring schedule and then every week you get that time slot. Its a bigger deal in the winter when it give you priority parking by the entrance, and is -20 outside.

That is the mistake my work made, making the charging spots by the building. This has turned them into premium parking spots, so people plugging in their PHEV and leaving them there for the whole 4 hour charging window (or longer unless reminded), even when it is obvious the vehicle finished charging hours ago...

And our work has not implemented a schedule, it is first come, first serve, 4 hour max during business hours. I like the ideal of a rotating schedule.

 

[ajdelange]

Its a bigger deal in the winter when it give you priority parking by the entrance, and is -20 outside.

Now that's worth $1.60 a day!

 

[VolklKatana]

That is the mistake my work made, making the charging spots by the building. This has turned them into premium parking spots, so people plugging in their PHEV and leaving them there for the whole 4 hour charging window (or longer unless reminded), even when it is obvious the vehicle finished charging hours ago...

And our work has not implemented a schedule, it is first come, first serve, 4 hour max during business hours. I like the ideal of a rotating schedule.

we also have a group chat where folks are pretty good about offering to move if they are charged up. It doesnt happen often as they arent the fastest chargers by any means but im not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Just this week we had Facilities put up a EV only sign as we have had a recent rash of getting ICEd out of these spots.

 

[Crissa]

That just proves they need more chargers!

-Crissa

 

[Tinker71]

That is the mistake my work made, making the charging spots by the building. This has turned them into premium parking spots, so people plugging in their PHEV and leaving them there for the whole 4 hour charging window (or longer unless reminded), even when it is obvious the vehicle finished charging hours ago...

And our work has not implemented a schedule, it is first come, first serve, 4 hour max during business hours. I like the ideal of a rotating schedule.

My charging at work comment was mostly because grid solar will be very low cost during the day. I predict we will see tier energy structures in the future. Kudos to your employer.

 

[Sirfun]

Already seeing a lot of SC here on the Gulf Coast competing for that tourist time and the dollars do follow in the restaurant and hotel venues. Would like to see heavy saturation in the travel segment and agree with your post and raise you a SC station. I have even approached Calloway Gardens in Georgia and their response was if I had 3 heads. Some get it and some don't, kind of like the dinosaurs I suppose.

It may have to do with this: https://www.callawaycars.com/

 

[ReddykwRun]

It may have to do with this: https://www.callawaycars.com/

Callaway is a nice botanical garden/golf resort which does not allow any motorcycles on the premises (?????) so I was oddly surprised when they had no interest at all of making an attempt to welcome the EV driving segment of the population to keep the $$$ flowing. Dinosaurs, go figure.
I am a plant nerd so going there is like a kid going to see the Mouse.

How about everyone reading this message give them a call or e-mail and mention you would like to come for a visit and ask about EV Charging. Let's be the squeaky wheel. Make the leap.

Callaway Resort & Gardens
17800 US Hwy 27
Pine Mountain, GA 31822
(844) 512-3826

https://www.callawaygardens.com/