Can You Charge at Work?

[evil HR director] If they have to charge their Leaf with a level 1 charger, I get free overtime. [/evil HR director]

For Volt and PiP owners the slave labor is less pronounced, but I can't see it benefiting HR to have faster chargers.

I am self employed and visit my copier clients about every other year, so charging outside my home is no likely anytime soon.

 

I have been given permission to charge at work (for free). My small company has outlets available on the outside of the building that I can use. I need to use an extension cord to reach my car. There are no plans (that I know of) for a L2 charge station (the outlets on the outside of the building were not installed for car charging, but they work). I'm just pleased I can leave work each day with a full charge.

It will be interesting to see if the company's policies change when there are other employees who have cars in the parking lot capable of being charged.

 

My work is supposedly installing 50 L2 chargers by year's end in a partnership with the local power company and Blink. The only problem is that they'll be charging Blink rates ($1-$2 /Hr) for the first year.

 

I park in a public garage. There are outlets available, but I have not asked if I may use them. Others have suggested just to do it without asking, but that could backfire when they discover it and ban it altogether. I don't mind paying a surcharge to cover the power but I really don't know if they will go for it or not. Waiting to get my car and see how much EV I end up with to see if it's worth it.

 

I'm doing that in my apartment complex. I figure asking for forgiveness is a better idea for me than asking for permission.

 

Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished. They likely won't understand what you're asking for. The concept is so new, there are a surprising number of assumptions made when the topic of plug-in is brought up.

As for me, the ramp I park at has 2 charging-stations established by DOE funding. So, they the most complete understanding of the need realistically possible at this stage. Of course, they have no idea what usage will be like...
.

 

I teach at a community college. Usually colleges are ahead of the curve on these things but not this one. There are a lot of public L-2 charging stations around, one is two miles from where I work and is located at a city rec. center where I can exercise while my car is charging. The electicity is currently free there

 

We have 2 outlets at work, right now being occupied by me and a Leaf owner. Some other employees noticed the cars charging and asked our Facilities people about it. Surprisingly, they were very open to the idea and said they would look into equipping a few buildings (at least the 2 main buildings, I assume) with either outlets or charging stations. They're supposed to let us know on 3/22/12 what their decision is.

 

Yes - we have 4 ChargePoint Chargers. Currently $3.5/hr! National Grid has 30+ in MA and they are free for the next two years.

 

I asked our facilities department and there are no plans to provide charging facilities. If they do get considered there will be a fee involved.

 

The university I work at doesn't have any charging stations or even any outlets in parking areas (not sure about the garages), but one of my bosses is on a committee looking at the power infrastructure and he's lobbying for a pilot program. It would be nice for me, but it's not a necessity due to my very short commute. I can do my commute and run most errands daily without needing to charge at work.

 

We can charge at work. However, there are no L2 chargers that will work with a PiP/Leaf/Volt. The existing chargers are the old style paddle ones. They have, however, provided some 110V outlets at the same location. Unfortunately, there's only a single duplex for 4 parking spots. When I see 3 Leafs all plugged into the same 110V outlet, I go seek out the other charging location.

In theory my work is looking into installing modern L2 chargers. do not know what the status is, yet. I've suggested that at the very least they should convert the existing
unused chargers to provide 110V outlets for us to use.

 

we're putting in an L1 for my pip. everyone else drives suv's and i don't see that changing soon.

 

It cost me 30 cent for a Level 1, 3.45 kWh charge taking 2-1/2 hours.

I believe the cost would be the same 30 cents for Level 2, 3.45 kwh charge, but would only take 1-1/4 hours.

For Blink to charge $1 - $2 per hour is a Money Maker !!!

It cost me $80 in material to install a Level 1 50' fron my breaker panel. To make it a Level 2 would be around $100.

At 70 cent to $1.70 profit per charge, each Blink outlet if used once each workday would make $175 to $425 per charger outlet per year. Therefore, their payback is less than 6 months.

I would sitdown with your building owner and tell them to just get a contractor to install the charger outlets and forget about Blink. They're doing it, Not for a Green Planet, but to put the Green in their Pocket.

 

I just don't get the SUVs. Do they own them because they are 'safer' (as in...so if you crash into another big car you are better off because your car is also big)?

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-h...atural-selection-darwin-suvs.html#post1337219
http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-h...atural-selection-darwin-suvs.html#post1337192

Some people think they have a need as well. Or, they buy a vehicle for the worst case of cargo loads when in fact it almost never sees that.

There's not much incentive for people to conserve, buy more efficient vehicles or care about the safety of other drivers (an issue w/full-sized SUVs). Those folks fail to see or are incapable of seeing the connection between driving full-sized SUVs, national security, safety of others or associated consequences.

Minivans have unfortunately become "uncool" for some reason and somehow SUVs are more acceptable/cool. So, some who have legitimate space needs buy monstrosity class SUVs instead of minivans.

 

My family will stick with our Prius. No need even for a minivan!

A friend of mine once said that SUVs are 'evil'. I did not expect him to have said that and that is why I have forgotten that he said it.

Driving a Prius that gets 50 MPG AFTER it runs out of electricity is a social statement.

 

No, I can't charge at work. Not for lack of stations, though - I don't have a PIP.
I think our parking garage has one L2 charger and 2 outlets for L1 charging, all free as far as I'm aware. I don't know how often they get used, but I've seen several different LEAFs and a Tesla around. Probably a Volt or two as well. I haven't seen a PIP parked there yet, but I don't often go by the plugs anyway - the bike rack is closer to the buildings.

 

My company has just built a new garage. It's open to parking but some parts are clearly still incomplete. There's been an assertion that there will be two chargers in it, but I think those plans might have expanded -- there are about 6 spaces each with two (closed up and incomplete) electrical boxes placed where chargers might go.

They're really primo parking spaces, too, almost as good as handicapped spots.

The (other) good news is that there are regular 110v outlets strewn throughout the garage, maybe 4-5 per floor. I think that it will be a while before it gets too crowded for me to find a place to charge.