Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Preparing for electric cars on site

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

Well, yes...I anticipate there will be some, ah, spirited discussion
between the people in the two camps you describe.  :-)

On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 11:02 AM, Jerry McIntire <jerry.mcintire [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> Diana, if you add EV charging spots in your general parking areas, just put
> them in the "bad" (more distant) spots-- or if the community wants to
> encourage EV ownership, put them in the "good" locations. Either way,
> prohibit non-EV's from parking in those spots. A blocked charger is of no
> use-- though they can be located between two spots, so they can be accessed
> from either.
>
> Jerry
>
> Jerry McIntire
> Stone's Throw Ecovillage, in the heart of Wisconsin's beautiful Driftless
> region
> http://stonesthrowcommunity.wordpress.com/
> 1-608-637-6620
>
> On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 8:40 AM, Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > We, mosaic commons, unfortunately did not prepare for electric cars so we
> > are now having to figure it out after the fact.
> >
> > In our community, we have two types of parking: carports, which were
> > optional to purchase at the beginning, and general parking lot parking
> for
> > those who don't have carports.
> >
> >   The carports have electricity already installed.  Each carport houses
> 4-6
> > cars, but the circuit that provides the electricity has enough power for
> > one or at most two electric cars. (This is the "we didn't plan for this"
> > issue.)
> >
> > So far, two people have purchased electric cars, and both happen to be
> > people who already owned spots in carports...separate carports,
> > conveniently.
> >
> > We required those two owners to install an electricity monitoring device
> to
> > keep track of how much electricity their cars use, and reimburse the
> > community for the cost of that electricity. This works out okay for now
> > when we have just the two, but totally doesn't scale.
> >
> > There's a group in our community working on plans to build an additional
> > carport. ( fortunately we do have space for this.). The new carport would
> > be built with sufficient electricity for all the spots to have electric
> > cars.  This will give us an additional 6 or so spots suitable for
> electric
> > cars, but will only be available to those who can afford the purchase of
> a
> > carport, which is in the vicinity of $8k.
> >
> > With the new carport in place, our community of 34 units will be able to
> > support some 10-12 electric cars.  If we need more than that, we are
> going
> > to have to do some serious thinking about economical ways to address the
> > issue.
> >
> > Less technically difficult but perhaps more challenging are the social
> > ramifications: other than those with carports, our community parking is
> > undesignated, and the "best" spots (those closest to the units) are taken
> > on a first come first served basis.  (Hotly contested, let me tell you!).
> > If we set up charging spots outside of carports, how do we make sure that
> > the people with electric cars can access those spots when needed?  Do we
> > reserve them just for individuals with electric cars?  Is that fair to
> > everyone else, who are now competing for even fewer "good" spots in the
> > lot?  We have not yet addressed these questions but I'm guessing before
> the
> > decade is out we will need to.
> >
> > Hope this is helpful.
> >
> > Diana
> >
> > On Saturday, February 14, 2015, mburkel [at] juno.com <mburkel [at] 
> > juno.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Winslow Cohousing is beginning to recognize that electric cars are here
> > > and have started working on a plan.  I see a 2010 cohousing-L posting
> > that
> > > asked many of our questions but received NO responses.  In case more
> > > communities have looked at the issues since then, I'm restarting that
> > > thread.  Our shared electric car died several years ago and hasn't been
> > > replaced but 2 members now have electric cars on site and more are
> > > expected. From 2010:"I wonder what Cohousing communities are doing to
> > > prepare for electric vehicles, owhich are likely to become more common
> as
> > > the plug-in hybrids (Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt) become available. On
> > this
> > > list there are a few references to individual with electric cars, but
> not
> > > much in detail or in the last couple of years.
> > >  Questions: Where will such cars be parked?How many spaces are you
> > > planning for?Who will pay for the infrastructure (outlets, etc)?How
> will
> > > the electricity used by paid for (metered or flat fee paid by the
> owner,
> > or
> > > paid by the community)?Are there objections in the community to
> > supporting
> > > electric cars (Examples: "Internal combustion vehicles are more
> > > eco-friendly." Or, "Electric cars will be acceptable only after we put
> in
> > > the infrastructure to capture/generate renewable energy ourselves.")?
> > Marci
> > > ____________________________________________________________
> > > How Old Men Tighten Skin
> > > 63 Year Old Man Shares DIY Skin Tightening Method You Can Do From Home
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