Advice Requested: solution to manage communal charger at a condo bldg

[GreaseMonkey]

I would greatly appreciate advice from anyone who uses a multi-user level 2 EVSE at home or work that is not managed by ChargePoint. What service provider do you use and how has the experience been for you, and for the equipment owner?

After a 2-year fight with the HOA, we finally got the board to unanimously approve installing a communal EVSE at our condo building. The set up will be a single parking spot dedicated to EV charging and a shared 48-amp EVSE. The HOA is footing the bill for the parking spot (~$30,000) and installation cost (~$7,500). However, they want to charge residents for incremental / ongoing costs (electricity, association fees, taxes, and some markup). The charger under consideration is either a Universal Tesla or a Wallbox Pulsar Plus that can deliver 11.5 kW, but we are flexible to consider other units.

There are two service providers that can help manage billing for us: Tesla for Business (which is great for Tesla vehicles, but would make everyone go through additional steps to initiate charging) and Wallbox (which has expensive recurring fees).

We would like to identify any other software solutions that provide residents with: 1) an app, 2) the ability to pay with a CC, and 3) settles with the HOA on a regular basis. Any thoughts?

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[bshaw]

How many units in your condo building? It seems rather limiting to have just a single charge handle and parking spot shared amongst multiple EVs at a residence.

For L2, people are going to park for the night and goto sleep. You don't need a single 11.5kW charger, you need two (or more) handles that each provide 5.75kW.

Edit: removed reference to Chargepoint

 

[ChasingCoral]

You might reach out to this company that is expanding. They provide these sort of charging solutions:
https://usa.zeplug.com/general?gcli...3TlhFnJ1EcXlwc6qYcuGB7iCB6bjNCRRoC9vgQAvD_BwE

I spoke with one of their reps at the Electrify Expo in NY earlier this month.

 

[RickMachE]

He's specifically looking for a non-ChargePoint solution.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

How many units in your condo building? It seems rather limiting to have just a single charge handle and parking spot shared amongst multiple EVs at a residence.

For L2, people are going to park for the night and goto sleep. You don't need a single 11.5kW charger, you need two (or more) handles that each provide 5.75kW.

If possible, could you get one of those dual handle commercial Chargepoint units? Logan Airport and the last hotel I stayed at had Chargepoint units and the app works great from the customer POV.

A few things:

We have limited number of people who either currently own or are interested in EVs. We also don't drive much at all - think an average of 5,000 miles per year and most are trips where we'd have to charge elsewhere anyway.

But the most significant factor is that each parking spot is $30,000 and are deeded, so it's virtually impossible to find two adjacent ones with an owner willing to sell. We also have funding for one.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

He's specifically looking for a non-ChargePoint solution.

Yes, ChargePoint would have worked well, but is ridiculously expensive. They are well outside our budget.

 

[iam-s-Hon]

How many units in your condo building? It seems rather limiting to have just a single charge handle and parking spot shared amongst multiple EVs at a residence.

For L2, people are going to park for the night and goto sleep. You don't need a single 11.5kW charger, you need two (or more) handles that each provide 5.75kW.

If possible, could you get one of those dual handle commercial Chargepoint units? Logan Airport and the last hotel I stayed at had Chargepoint units and the app works great from the customer POV.

Agree. Multi unit building (maybe 500 units) I lived in at time of MME purchase was installing about 5-6 of the chargepoint dual charging units covering about 10-12 spots in the resident-only (badged) section of the garage. Moved before completion so don't know the recharge rate but was expecting it to be less than 2 public L2 Evgo stations.

Work HQ has close to same number of CPs in the parking garage next to building. So great when I make the occasional drive away from home.

My point.. CP seems to work for this type of case for any EV.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

You might reach out to this company that is expanding. They provide these sort of charging solutions:
https://usa.zeplug.com/general?gcli...3TlhFnJ1EcXlwc6qYcuGB7iCB6bjNCRRoC9vgQAvD_BwE

I spoke with one of their reps at the Electrify Expo in NY earlier this month.

Excellent. Thank you. I will contact them.

 

[iam-s-Hon]

Yes, ChargePoint would have worked well, but is ridiculously expensive. They are well outside our budget.

But a poor, unworkable and/or ineffective solution will be wasted dollars from the budget.

 

[mccdeuce]

Take a look at these guys:
https://grizzl-e.com/grizzl-e-smart-business/

 

[RickMachE]

I know that JuiceBox has a commercial division, but that's the extend of my knowledge of it.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

But a poor, unworkable and/or ineffective solution will be wasted dollars from the budget.

It doesn’t have to be either or. The issue with ChargePoint is that they cater to commercial installations where the customer is unique each time, which requires certain features that we don’t need and drives the cost up.

 

[superdave80]

Not a direct solution to what you are asking, but I thought I would throw a potential different solution at you.

Would it be feasible to install outlets (240, or 120 if that would be sufficient) to the parking spots of those that want EV charging, even if it requires swapping parking spots with non-EV people to get all the wired spots next to each other? And then have those with the outlets just share the entire bill each month (or separate meters, if possible?).

Seems this might save the big cost of the $30k single parking spot+ $7.5k L2 EVSE, and no jockeying for the single L2 charger. Also will eliminate a lot of ongoing costs, with the EV user responsible fore their own plug-in EVSE. Just a thought.

 

[kodiakng]

Yes, ChargePoint would have worked well, but is ridiculously expensive. They are well outside our budget.

my guess is that since you're only installing one EVSE the overhead of the multi-user platforms will all be expensive.

if your possible user base works together well you might be able to get by with a simpler solution.

wallbox's pulsar plus and their myWallBox portal have multi-user access with an administrator account.

of course, this would take a little work on your HOA side instead of paying a service for it.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

Not a direct solution to what you are asking, but I thought I would throw a potential different solution at you.

Would it be feasible to install outlets (240, or 120 if that would be sufficient) to the parking spots of those that want EV charging, even if it requires swapping parking spots with non-EV people to get all the wired spots next to each other? And then have those with the outlets just share the entire bill each month (or separate meters, if possible?).

Seems this might save the big cost of the $30k single parking spot+ $7.5k L2 EVSE, and no jockeying for the single L2 charger. Also will eliminate a lot of ongoing costs, with the EV user responsible fore their own plug-in EVSE. Just a thought.

What you articulated was our starting point. However, the HOA thinks that the building doesn’t have enough power to support it. Plus, routing conduit and wire will be cost prohibitive especially when you start coring 6 floors of concrete. The issue is that my wife and I are the only ones making a fuss about it. She’s on the board, so her voice matters, but not enough to launch an ambitious effort. The current plan worked for them because we sold it as an interim solution for the next 5 years until we study the plan you mentioned and see how to implement it. We don’t see the $30,000 parking cost as waste, since it can be sold to a resident. The only sunk cost is the installation cost, but that’s minimal in the whole scheme of things.

It’s not an easy problem to solve.

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