Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Electric Car usage in communities

[Henning Mortensen (hmortensen]

Hello Chuck,
Thank you for your description of what you are doing. Can you tell me what
smart charger you are using?
I would be interested in the "smart" control system. If you can point me to
the right charger I will do the research rather than asking you to teach
me.

Thanks
Henning

On Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 11:13 PM Chuck Harrison <cfharr [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> At my community in Seattle, the first electric vehicle (a Leaf) arrived
> almost 10 years ago. The owner paid all costs to install a level 2 charger
> at one of the common buildings adjacent to his assigned space in the
> parking area. The installation included a commercial-quality usage meter
> (kWh) and the owner pays an amount every month reimbursing the community
> for the measured usage.
>
> When the second EV (mine) arrived about 5 years later, the community
> realized that simply repeating the pattern of the first installation would
> be unsustainable as we would quickly run out of electrical service capacity
> for all the vehicles to charge simultaneously. Inasmuch as I have an
> engineering background, I began to look for an "optimum" solution. It was a
> long time coming.
>
> Fast forward to today. We have six electric vehicles now, mostly charging
> on 120V (level 1) outlets, and the arrangements are rather ad hoc. However
> we are building out a plan which will soon (next month!) provide four level
> 2 stations and a "smart" control system which spreads out the charging
> power over time so that our existing electrical service will not be
> overloaded. Our plan has a long term vision of supporting about 25 stations
> in our parking lot at a loosely estimated total cost of $100,000. The build
> out will be incremental as demand arises.
>
> The money is not coming from the community budget; we established an "EV
> Collective" organization which is primarily funded by a one-time member
> subscription fee. All charging stations are owned by the Collective (no
> personal chargers permitted) and every EV owner is expected to join and pay
> in. EV owners will reimburse the community for the amount of electricity
> used (the new level 2 stations we are installing automatically measure
> consumption and report it electronically).
>
> As I have shepherded this process for 5 years, I can probably answer almost
> any question about our system. However I can't tell you how the "smart"
> charging actually performs until we complete the installation next month
> and get some experience with it.
>
> Chuck Harrison
> Duwamish Cohousing
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 8:47 PM Henning Mortensen <hmortensen [at] gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Thank you Muriel,
> >
> > We have all outlets in our parking garage charged to our common
> electrical
> > charge, so when I plugin I am upping the usage by charging and I offered
> to
> > pay for it. We are just very confused about how this should be handled.
> > What happens when other larger battery cars (ie. tesla's and such) also
> > join the community and demand more than a 110v plug.
> >
> > I applaud your community for thinking ahead and getting ahead of the
> curve.
> > We have a level 2 charger installed but then assigned parking so the
> > charger is not available to me.
> >
> > btw we have been calculating KWH = battery size (24kwh) * (charge out -
> > charge in) * .95 charger efficiency
> > For my car this has resulted in calculations that correspond to a
> > kill-o-watt meter and a charge monitoring program from our power company.
> > I keep track of when I charge, the mileage on the car and the charge
> level
> > out and it)
> >
> > I am glad to hear that your community saw the future need and invested in
> > charging infrastructure. I am going to assume that the investment is
> being
> > recouped through charging fees beyond just the electricity used.
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 9:01 PM Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu> 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Why the consternation? Is it because your neighbors are all paying for
> > your
> > > car's electrical charging?
> > >
> > > My community made a large investment (being paid back over several
> years)
> > > to install high-level charging stations in several locations. The
> initial
> > > installation was completed just a few months ago and the project is
> still
> > > being rolled out. What I just wrote is all I know about this so don't
> > > bother asking me for details, but it should be great for current and
> > future
> > > EV owners.
> > >     Muriel at Shadowlake Village
> > >
> > >
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