Ethical Elctrical Charging

i don't get out, but i would always ask first. it's not so important as to alienate people to ev's.

 

I always ask. After all, why not?

I was never refused. It usually draws a little knot of onlookers with eager questions to meet me when I come back to the car. Small businesses like gas stations are great for this.

It's rare for me to find a 120V outlet that's close enough to publicly charge from a parking space. I suppose in the 1950s "nose-in park" town centers it must have been different. The newer architectural trends that relegated parking away from buildings' walls also decreased the likelihood of finding a 120V plug close enough to plug in.

The one solidly Gestapo-like environment which by fiat refuses any hint at 120V charging is any property owned by the Federal Government. There, the official rule that seems to have grown up throughout 2012 is that "Stealing Taxpayer Electricity via Use Not In Accordance With Congressionally Appropriated Intent" is both legally and socially a crime. Of course, no one ever questions the hundreds of thousands of personal coffee pots these same Federal employees bring into every office... whose resistance heating elements use up "Taxpayer Electricity" not in accordance with the official office / bureau mission all day long...

 

Mostly caused by the political pressure that comes primarily from the demographic associated with a particular cable news channel, which might spin it as something like: "Your Tax Dollars At Work: How Liberals Force You to Pay For Their Fuel."

Having worked in government, I learned that the reason behind most of the idiocy and waste is all of the rules and regulations put in place to prevent idiocy and waste. No joke. Red tape isn't just for business.

 

It isn't worth my time. You aren't really saving much mileage.

Now charging stations I will use every chance I can with a L2 charger. 120 is for home charging or work if they let me.

Anywhere else and I am wasting my time and risking my $1000+ cable.

 

I charge at home and at work. The other places I go, there aren't any outdoor outlets. The malls don't even have charging stations.

 

We don't have public stations yet. I only charge at home and work.

Not asking is stealing.

 

Don't take your personal EVSE with you unless you are using it at work. I use mine at work because we have the old paddle systems. They were nice and added 120v plugs onto the side of the paddle chargers as they realized that they were old tech and nobody was charging there, and the spots were always getting ICEd. Now that there are a few of us with EV/PHEVs, we have a filling area.

As far as being out in public: absolutely DO NOT use your personal EVSE. It can be stolen or broken or whatever. In California we have a lot of public charging stations. Have you looked at plugshare.com to see if there are any public stations in your area? They have a great iPhone/iPad app also. I just checked and there are several public stations around Columbus and Cincinnati, and almost none in Cleveland.

 

What Ken said... I doubt many of us would just grab a can of gasoline from a business to top off the gas tank, so why should a business or neighbor or a gas station give you "free" fuel for your car. Ask and offer to pay a buck for it. Now at work if it is given as a "perk" of the job, that is quite a different story. Do you run an extension cable over to your neighbors house and plug in over there to avoid paying for your charge?

I charge here at home and at my son's house on occasion when I have driven over to babysit the granddaughters. Oh, BTW he told me I could!

 

Agree with all the above!
Even with $4/gal gas- a full charge in the PIP only saves you 87 cents... For the free 9-12 miles you may get- it's just not worth risking your $1000 cable, wasting 3hrs charge time and going through hoops to find the responsible party to beg for permission.

 

If you don't have public charging stations in your area yet, and you are interested in charging around town, I would speak to businesses or city council to see you can get them to install a charging location in your downtown shopping area.

Obviously we are moving toward EV/PHEVs in the next 10-20 years, so it is an investment for the community.

 

Most portable EVSE's do lock onto the EVSE receiver. If Toyota would have placed the charge lid in the front of the car, you could lock it inside the motor compartment, as some Leaf'rs do. Agreed you can't get much out of 120v at a public parking, because you're usually there for just an hour or so. With 120v charging efficiency/loss - at best that's going to get you a couple miles farther down the road. That's hardly worth the bad will it causes, when the general public considers folks that do that "free-loading".

L2 - charging? If you read some of the "WattStation" comments (they almost always charge $2/hr) on the PlugShare.com website - that come from plugin hybrids .... my god, you'd think the EVSE owner was a serial killer the way they lambaste "such outrageous costs!" I mention that in relation to charging philosophy of, "every chance I can". Seems to me that 'green' goes out the window, if/when the "Freeeee!!" electricity or bargain cost electricity aint available. I duno ... I see some plug-in owners who'll stay right in their car (texting or whatever) while they charge ... and that way if a 100% EV comes in on turtle mode, then they can free it up. Then, you have the other end of the spectrum where some will actually just LEAVE their ride overnight! ... pull a bike out of the car and ride it home. For some, the thought of considerateness has never entered their world. So much being ambasador's for our new technology.

As for coffee pot electricity at the Fed building - at least an argument can easily be made that when workers are all jacked up on cafine, they'll be more productive. You can't rationalize begging use for a 120v outlet at the gas station. For cryin' out loud, I sure hope you at leat go in an buy a donut or coffee or something.
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