I'm not sure where this should go, so mods, feel free to move it where it belongs.
I just did some research and wrote a lengthy email to my condominium association detailing options for adding charging to our parking lot. I think this might come in handy to someone in whole or in part, since I cover all the possible charging solutions:
About the charging stations for our condominium. There are a number of ways of accomplishing it.
The easiest of all, would be to permanently move electric car owner's paking spot to a location near an existing power outlet or where an outlet 120V 15A could be added for the least amount of money (possibly using existing wiring) and charge a flat fee as explained futher below.
One point to be made is that having charging stations or outlets available would allow people with electric cars to consider living in our condominium, thus increasing the pool of potential buyers when a unit goes on sale (which I'm sure in the long run would have an effect on unit prices).
I've done lost of research and there are basically four ways of doing it (if not using an existing outlet):
1. Install a "managed" charger:
-Initial cost of $1500 each plus installation
-Automatic billing by Chargepoint, checks mailed montly to condo assoc.
-Condo association decides how much to charge for electricity
-Condo association can choose to charge any $ as a "per use fee" to recover initial expense until paid off (then possibly reduce fee to just cover maintenance)
-I suggest this fee should be no higher than 50% of the cost of the electricity used, otherwise it will make charging more expensive than using gas and people just won't charge. I see a $1 or $1.50 per use as fair.
-These chargers have a built-in cell antenna that handles all the billing, and they last for years.
2. Install a simple outlet.
-Wiring will be the only initial cost
-Charger equipment is the responsibility of the car owner (which gets rid of maintenance costs)
-Outlet is set up with a lockable cover, copy of key given to those who pay fee.
-240V 30A would be best.
-120V 15A is a cheaper option to install, this has the drawback of taking 10hrs to charge a car to drive 30-35 miles, which will not be enough for many people (for me it's fine).
-Electric car owner would pay flat monthly fee along with regular condo fees to cover electricity cost, or a $15 metering device could be installed to measure actual electricity usage (drawback would be who would read the meter montly, the car owner?)
-I have records to show that my car has used on average 230kw/h of electricity per month for a year, which would cost $38 (assuming $0.16/kwh), so I propose the montly electricity fee be $38, with a second tier for those that also charge at work paying half of that ($19). The reasoning behind that is that in my example, I charge at work (11 miles away) and arrive at home with my battery 70% full, requiring about $0.64 of electricity to top it off overnight mon-fri.
-Condo association can choose to charge any $ as a montly fee to recover initial expense until paid off (then possibly reduce fee to just cover maintenance)
-I suggest this fee should be no higher than 50% of the cost of the electricity used, otherwise it will make charging more expensive than using gas and people just won't charge. I see a $10 fee per month as fair (considering the greatly reduced cost of this setup).
Both of these two options can be set up in one of two ways:
a. unassigned parking for charging only:
-two spots can be set up (initially just one) in the easiest location to have wiring pulled, if spot is empy, park and charge, move when done.
- option 1 would be best for this because of billing
-would require 240v 30A to allow quicker charging so spot can be made available for next person (if any)
-drawback how few guest spaces we have, not viable.
b. charge at assigned spot:
-two spots can be set up (initially just one) in the easiest location to have wiring pulled, condo owner that wants to charge, has their parking space oficially and permanently moved to wherever charger (or outlet) was installed. I suggest pulling the wiring for two plugs at once, and only install the second one when a second owner asks for a charging spot.
-could use flat fees or cheap metering device to charge for actual electricity usage.
-charge a flat montly fee to recover installation cost.
I just did some research and wrote a lengthy email to my condominium association detailing options for adding charging to our parking lot. I think this might come in handy to someone in whole or in part, since I cover all the possible charging solutions:
About the charging stations for our condominium. There are a number of ways of accomplishing it.
The easiest of all, would be to permanently move electric car owner's paking spot to a location near an existing power outlet or where an outlet 120V 15A could be added for the least amount of money (possibly using existing wiring) and charge a flat fee as explained futher below.
One point to be made is that having charging stations or outlets available would allow people with electric cars to consider living in our condominium, thus increasing the pool of potential buyers when a unit goes on sale (which I'm sure in the long run would have an effect on unit prices).
I've done lost of research and there are basically four ways of doing it (if not using an existing outlet):
1. Install a "managed" charger:
-Initial cost of $1500 each plus installation
-Automatic billing by Chargepoint, checks mailed montly to condo assoc.
-Condo association decides how much to charge for electricity
-Condo association can choose to charge any $ as a "per use fee" to recover initial expense until paid off (then possibly reduce fee to just cover maintenance)
-I suggest this fee should be no higher than 50% of the cost of the electricity used, otherwise it will make charging more expensive than using gas and people just won't charge. I see a $1 or $1.50 per use as fair.
-These chargers have a built-in cell antenna that handles all the billing, and they last for years.
2. Install a simple outlet.
-Wiring will be the only initial cost
-Charger equipment is the responsibility of the car owner (which gets rid of maintenance costs)
-Outlet is set up with a lockable cover, copy of key given to those who pay fee.
-240V 30A would be best.
-120V 15A is a cheaper option to install, this has the drawback of taking 10hrs to charge a car to drive 30-35 miles, which will not be enough for many people (for me it's fine).
-Electric car owner would pay flat monthly fee along with regular condo fees to cover electricity cost, or a $15 metering device could be installed to measure actual electricity usage (drawback would be who would read the meter montly, the car owner?)
-I have records to show that my car has used on average 230kw/h of electricity per month for a year, which would cost $38 (assuming $0.16/kwh), so I propose the montly electricity fee be $38, with a second tier for those that also charge at work paying half of that ($19). The reasoning behind that is that in my example, I charge at work (11 miles away) and arrive at home with my battery 70% full, requiring about $0.64 of electricity to top it off overnight mon-fri.
-Condo association can choose to charge any $ as a montly fee to recover initial expense until paid off (then possibly reduce fee to just cover maintenance)
-I suggest this fee should be no higher than 50% of the cost of the electricity used, otherwise it will make charging more expensive than using gas and people just won't charge. I see a $10 fee per month as fair (considering the greatly reduced cost of this setup).
Both of these two options can be set up in one of two ways:
a. unassigned parking for charging only:
-two spots can be set up (initially just one) in the easiest location to have wiring pulled, if spot is empy, park and charge, move when done.
- option 1 would be best for this because of billing
-would require 240v 30A to allow quicker charging so spot can be made available for next person (if any)
-drawback how few guest spaces we have, not viable.
b. charge at assigned spot:
-two spots can be set up (initially just one) in the easiest location to have wiring pulled, condo owner that wants to charge, has their parking space oficially and permanently moved to wherever charger (or outlet) was installed. I suggest pulling the wiring for two plugs at once, and only install the second one when a second owner asks for a charging spot.
-could use flat fees or cheap metering device to charge for actual electricity usage.
-charge a flat montly fee to recover installation cost.
