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

[Catya Belfer (catya]

(I'm one of the electric car owners in Mosaic Commons and happy to chat
with folks about it)

     - cat

Catya Belfer   -  www.catya.org
Technical Director   -   www.cohousing.org
Cohousing in MA - www.mosaic-commons.org

On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 2:26 PM, Jerry McIntire <jerry.mcintire [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> Thanks John, I'm glad to hear that Liberty Village has so much opportunity
> for charging EVs, and that you are driving two of them!
>
> At Stone's Throw Ecovillage in Wisconsin, we haven't discussed Ev
> infrastructure but we have discussed buying a neighborhood electric vehicle
> (NEV) which would have a max speed of 35 mph and would be able to do all
> the around-town driving our members would want (it's only 3 miles at most
> to go anywhere in our small town).
>
> I will advocate for plenty of 120V outlets for level 1 charging (slow, as
> John mentioned) in our parking areas. Members with EVs would be expected to
> pay something for their electricity use in those spots.
>
> We own a Toyota RAV4 EV and a Prius, which we hope to replace with a
> plug-in Prius. We paid to install a level 2 charger (240V) for our EV,
> though we haven't started home construction yet! I imagine such charging
> stations will continue to be the responsibility of individual EV owners,
> until EVs are more popular. At some point I hope the community will put a
> level 2 charging station in our visitor parking area-- that may be a few
> years.
>
> We are fortunate to have at least two options for "green power" in our
> area. The electric utility offers renewable energy credits from renewable
> power projects, as a higher rate per kilowatt hour. We have a local
> non-profit that offers the same type of credits, but they are all from
> in-state renewable projects. It's called REpowerNow http://repowernow.org/
>  Maybe other areas have such local generation options also?
>
> 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 10:52 AM, John Beutler <jabeutler [at] comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > 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
> >> ____________________________________________________________
> >> How Old Men Tighten Skin
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> >>
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