GM Volt Forum banner

Finally got charger installed at work...

5109 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  wainair
After several months of waiting, estimates and approval the SPX Level 2 is installed. (Install was less than $300 by licensed electrician) It will be open to any employee with an EV. It's a courtesy/pilot test EV spot to see what use it gets beside me. My mileage should get back up above 600 mpg pretty quickly....

MrEnergyCzar
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
So will you move the car during the day? That's the problem with with work chargers.
One of the things that was on my "smartphone app ideas" list was an app that would allow relatively blind exchange of unplug requests/grants - using QRcodes on a placard. Somewhat like the "EV-1 charger protocol" (I probably botched the source AND the name), where people who are willing to be unplugged placed a placard on their dashboard indicating so, and another placard if they weren't willing to be unplugged. People aren't always willing to allow their mobile numbers to be placed in public or exchanged with random people, hence the blind exchange.

Feedback?

(Oh, btw, I'm a little jealous because the trip from home to my office is right at the end of electric range for the Volt. I would be at 10K EV miles by June if I had a charger at the office...)
"Nothing beats our full color, CMYK QR code delivered in a high resolution EPS file format. Free, vector based QR codes created using your CMYK colors and delivered in PDF, EPS, and TIF (300 dpi) formats"

http://www.pressero.com/page/cmyk-vector-qr-code-generator
One of the things that was on my "smartphone app ideas" list was an app that would allow relatively blind exchange of unplug requests/grants - using QRcodes on a placard. Somewhat like the "EV-1 charger protocol" (I probably botched the source AND the name), where people who are willing to be unplugged placed a placard on their dashboard indicating so, and another placard if they weren't willing to be unplugged. People aren't always willing to allow their mobile numbers to be placed in public or exchanged with random people, hence the blind exchange.

Feedback?
Uh, why is this necessary? Can't you just leave a placard with something like "feel free to unplug me to use the EVSE if my green light is flashing"? 2012s can disable the charge cord disconnected alarm, and 2011s can have it disabled by the dealer if you are using public charging regularly.

It seems to me you only need contact if someone needs to move their car. If I were in a garage where there were more EVs than EVSE accessible parking spots, I'd do something like make it a habit to move my car at lunchtime.
I wish I was having as much luck getting a charging infrastructure at my work. I was plugging in at one of our unused truck docks were I could feed my charge cord into the building and plug in to the outlet by the dock door. I had asked permission from my managers on 2 of the cycles I work on and they were fine with the idea. Then I was put on the third cycle and the station manager had a fit. He wasn't concerned about energy consumption, he was concerned that me plugging in would set a precedence and if someone else bought an EV they would want to plug in too....:mad: . My thought was why don't we worry about that when it happens. So I sat down with the station manager and cycle 3's manager and we discussed getting charging infrastructure in the employee parking lot. We are on airport property and don't own our parking lot unlike MiniFuels situation just down the road from me who had his management put in plugs for him. My company won't put infrastructure investment into a parking lot they don't own. I can understand my station manager not wanting costs coming out of his budget, so it is up to the airport authority. We've contacted them and they replied that they were installing chargers starting with their administration building, then some of their service lots around the terminals followed by the short term parking lots at the terminals. Though they originally didn't have any plans to put chargers in any of the employee lots around the airport, since myself and some other employees over on the terminal side have been asking for charging infrastructure they have decided to have a meeting to discuss what employee lots to possibly put chargers in. So that is progress I guess but it is slow progress to say the least, and in the mean time I'm not allowed to plug in anymore.... It can be frustrating sometime.
See less See more
So will you move the car during the day? That's the problem with with work chargers.
I offered to pay a monthly fee to own the spot outright but instead they will be paying the electricity and when a second EV comes along we'll be assigned specific days to avoid hassles. If more than 2 EVs emerge, they'll probably add more chargers. I also donated the SPX while they paid the install and electricity which helps. I met with senior management months ago to sell it and focused on the positivies. Positive publicity, co-workers feeling good about the company attempting to be green and most importantly they might lose top shelf future employees that want a charge spot at work. Those applicants might drive though first to check for spots before applying etc...

MrEnergyCzar
I wish I was having as much luck getting a charging infrastructure at my work. I was plugging in at one of our unused truck docks were I could feed my charge cord into the building and plug in to the outlet by the dock door. I had asked permission from my managers on 2 of the cycles I work on and they were fine with the idea. Then I was put on the third cycle and the station manager had a fit. He wasn't concerned about energy consumption, he was concerned that me plugging in would set a precedence and if someone else bought an EV they would want to plug in too....:mad: . My thought was why don't we worry about that when it happens. So I sat down with the station manager and cycle 3's manager and we discussed getting charging infrastructure in the employee parking lot. We are on airport property and don't own our parking lot unlike MiniFuels situation just down the road from me who had his management put in plugs for him. My company won't put infrastructure investment into a parking lot they don't own. I can understand my station manager not wanting costs coming out of his budget, so it is up to the airport authority. We've contacted them and they replied that they were installing chargers starting with their administration building, then some of their service lots around the terminals followed by the short term parking lots at the terminals. Though they originally didn't have any plans to put chargers in any of the employee lots around the airport, since myself and some other employees over on the terminal side have been asking for charging infrastructure they have decided to have a meeting to discuss what employee lots to possibly put chargers in. So that is progress I guess but it is slow progress to say the least, and in the mean time I'm not allowed to plug in anymore.... It can be frustrating sometime.
When potential employees start asking about EV parking amenities for staff they'll start being put in so the company won't lose top candidates over EV spots...

MrEnergyCzar
I offered to pay a monthly fee to own the spot outright but instead they will be paying the electricity and when a second EV comes along we'll be assigned specific days to avoid hassles. If more than 2 EVs emerge, they'll probably add more chargers. I also donated the SPX while they paid the install and electricity which helps. I met with senior management months ago to sell it and focused on the positivies. Positive publicity, co-workers feeling good about the company attempting to be green and most importantly they might lose top shelf future employees that want a charge spot at work. Those applicants might drive though first to check for spots before applying etc...
You've done a great job of developing a plan and getting it in place. That's a nice piece of planning. You've also benefited from not having twenty EV owners all looking for a spot. Ultimately I think people have to pay somehow because you can never provide enough of a free good. But that's down the road, and for you a donation of an SPX charger is definitely "paying".
I used the power of persuasion to get a fast charger installed at work. It's a reserved spot just for me -- no one else is allowed to park there and it's a secure parking spot so no one messes with the car or the charger.

The key is to pick a good place to work. I work at home.
I was thinking maybe I should just go over to MiniFuel's lot, park on the grass on the other side of the fence and feed an extension cord through to plug in. His management is progressive, they shouldn't mind! LOL ;) Oh I'm green, green with envy that is!

I'm hopeful that we will get chargers eventually but the Airport Authority is a former government bureaucracy, so nothing happens fast, and everything has to go through a comity. So maybe this time next year I'll be able to plug in.
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top