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

[John Beutler (jabeutler]

From Liberty Village Coho in MD

My wife Ann purchased the first plug in in our community, a Nissan Leaf, 
last spring. We have existing 120V outlets at all of our parking lot 
lights, where she has plugged in. She monitored her usage and came up 
with an average kWh/day times the electric utility rate, which is about 
7 cents/kWh. This worked out to about $15/month, which is what she pays 
the community association. Last summer, she investigated wind powered 
electric utilities, and arranged for both our home account and the two 
community association accounts to be all wind power. This adds a bit to 
the rate, but negates the coal-->electricity argument. In December, we 
purchased a used Chevy Volt, and it uses about the same amount of 
electricity as the Leaf, so we've just gone with that for the HOA.

Now 120V charging is rather slow. We're in the process of getting a 240V 
charger put in at our own expense, and this will cut charging time in 
half. We happen to have a convenient spot right next to the electric 
meter for the parking lot where we hope to have a weatherproof box 
installed for the 240V charging line. We haven't quite figured out how 
to get community approval, but don't think there's any opposition since 
we're footing the bill. The 240V charger costs about $450 and the 
electrician bill looks like it will be about $800. Most 240V chargers 
are installed in garages, so we have had to do some research to find one 
that's weatherproof. While the Leaf 120V charging cable has done fine 
outdoors, the Volt is only sorta kinda weather resistant, and I had to 
replace it after a month of ice and snow. This not something that's well 
documented, so I got it replaced under warranty coverage.

Both cars work very well for commuting to work (4 and 13 miles each way 
respectively) and we've almost forgotten how to pump gas, except on 
longer trips, where we take the Volt. The Leaf is a wonderful car too, 
though it takes a bit of getting used to figuring out its range in 
wintertime, which is lower than in summer, as with all battery systems 
including regular hybrids. The wind power deal is a bit tricky - they 
keep upping the "introductory rate" but will renew it if you threaten to 
change to one of the other companies selling the same wind power.

Cheers

JAB


2/14/2015 1:28 PM, 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
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