Free Public Level 2 Charging Etiquette

ShaggySS

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What is the proper etiquette for free public chargers with no posted time limit? In the town I work we have a handful of free public chargers. Some have posted time limits and others don't. After I had been charging for 3ish hours (@70%) someone decided I was done unplugging me and plugged in their car. My car was actively charging at the time. I walked back over and took the charger back. About 20 min later he did it again. I took it back once again. As I was walking back to my office I watched a guy pull up in another car unplug me again and plug in his car. To put it nicely I was pissed off. In my opinion, he has no right to take my charger and I confronted him. He claimed he only had 9 miles of range and needed it for a few hours and I was being a jerk for not sharing. This was a tesla and we have a supercharger 4 miles away. He eventually drove his car to the lot across the way where there was an open free charger and charged his car.

I told my wife about it and she thinks I should have let it go. Says I was there long enough and should let others use it. She is typically the voice of reason so now I am questioning my actions. Was I the jerk in this situation? Technically there was another car next to me with their charging port open that was there before him and so he deserved it first. I do have access to the cameras in the lot which is how I know there was someone ahead of him.

Clarifications: Same guy unplugged me each time and this is not a shopping center.
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RickMachE

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What is the proper etiquette for free public chargers with no posted time limit? In the town I work we have a handful of free public chargers. Some have posted time limits and others don't. After I had been charging for 3ish hours (@70%) someone decided I was done unplugging me and plugged in their car. My car was actively charging at the time. I walked back over and took the charger back. About 20 min later he did it again. I took it back once again. As I was walking back to my office I watched a guy pull up in another car unplug me again and plug in his car. To put it nicely I was pissed off. In my opinion, he has no right to take my charger and I confronted him. He claimed he only had 9 miles of range and needed it for a few hours and I was being a jerk for not sharing. This was a tesla and we have a supercharger 4 miles away. He eventually drove his car to the lot across the way where there was an open free charger and charged his car.

I told my wife about it and she thinks I should have let it go. Says I was there long enough and should let others use it. She is typically the voice of reason so now I am questioning my actions. Was I the jerk in this situation? Technically there was another car next to me with their charging port open that was there before him and so he deserved it first. I do have access to the cameras in the lot which is how I know there was someone ahead of him.
So you're at work, using a public charger not in your own parking lot, because it's free? Are you using the facilities that are in this parking lot?

In short - IMO, if people park at a public free charger and then go to work elsewhere to get free charging for the day, that's not the purpose of the charger.
 

bshaw

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Is it a shopping district and the town installed them to provide the charging services to shoppers?
If yes, and you have an 8-hour office job nearby, then I think you should use it sparingly and not occupy the charger all day.

The town, or whomever is maintaining the service should put up signage to clearly state what the rules are.
 

BTRYPWRDPONY

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What is the proper etiquette for free public chargers with no posted time limit? In the town I work we have a handful of free public chargers. Some have posted time limits and others don't. After I had been charging for 3ish hours (@70%) someone decided I was done unplugging me and plugged in their car. My car was actively charging at the time. I walked back over and took the charger back. About 20 min later he did it again. I took it back once again. As I was walking back to my office I watched a guy pull up in another car unplug me again and plug in his car. To put it nicely I was pissed off. In my opinion, he has no right to take my charger and I confronted him. He claimed he only had 9 miles of range and needed it for a few hours and I was being a jerk for not sharing. This was a tesla and we have a supercharger 4 miles away. He eventually drove his car to the lot across the way where there was an open free charger and charged his car.

I told my wife about it and she thinks I should have let it go. Says I was there long enough and should let others use it. She is typically the voice of reason so now I am questioning my actions. Was I the jerk in this situation? Technically there was another car next to me with their charging port open that was there before him and so he deserved it first. I do have access to the cameras in the lot which is how I know there was someone ahead of him.
So my opinion is the same as jdsimard2012 -- I would never unplug someone unless an emergency. But if you know your @ 70% and don't need more to get home and charge there, than you should unplug and let someone else use the charger. Just because it's free doesn't mean you need to abuse it- if not necessary. Just my opinion.
 


ADDZ71

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Most cars (I am not as familiar with Tesla) have a SoC display near the charge port. I would only unplug someone if they were fully charged. I don't think it is appropriate to unplug anyone ever since you don't know there situation.
 
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ShaggySS

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So you're at work, using a public charger not in your own parking lot, because it's free? Are you using the facilities that are in this parking lot?

In short - IMO, if people park at a public free charger and then go to work elsewhere to get free charging for the day, that's not the purpose of the charger.
The free charger at my building is broken but our building across the street also has a charger. They are public chargers for anyone to use but typically employees in the area will be charging all day every day. The guy who took my charger worked at a car dealership a few blocks away so he drove a dealer car back to unplug me and plug him back in.
 

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My stance is that free chargers are first come, first serve. Real basic here. Only addition I would put would be that if a car is finished charging, it's free to unplug. The "I need it more than you" attitude is an issue and will always cause disputes. It creates an entitlement issue and we have enough of that going on already.

Keep it simple, first come first serve, just like every other public charger. It doesn't matter the situation and keeps things fair without trouble.
 

ARK

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My stance is that free chargers are first come, first serve. Real basic here. Only addition I would put would be that if a car is finished charging, it's free to unplug. The "I need it more than you" attitude is an issue and will always cause disputes. It creates an entitlement issue and we have enough of that going on already.

Keep it simple, first come first serve, just like every other public charger. It doesn't matter the situation and keeps things fair without trouble.
That’s partly why I am not a fan of free public chargers, my experience with them has been that nearby residents and workers tend to monopolize them so that functionally, it ends up being the ‘personal’ charger of a handful of people, and visitors who might truly need or benefit from a charge have a hard time ever accessing them.

Charge a nominal fee and it’s amazing how the nearby locals don’t need to spend 16 hours a day ever other day plugged in.
 

superdave80

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The 1st guy is totally in the wrong, and a complete a-hole. The 2nd guy I could maybe understand until he claimed "he only had 9 miles of range and needed it for a few hours". BS he needed it for a few hours. If he had said, "Hey, I was in dire need, and I just need to charge for about 30 minutes to make sure I can get to another charger. I can plug you back in when I'm done." They both just wanted free juice, and were mad that you got there first.

Public level 2 free charging is going to have to go away at some point, because 1) There is such demand for EVs that I don't see the point in spending more public money to 'encourage' purchasing of EVs and 2) There are too many EVs on the road now for them to serve everybody anyways.

My favorite example of worthless free charging is the single charger in front of a library. There are always two EVs parked there waiting to get their fix (when the parking lot is otherwise empty), and NOBODY is staying at a library long enough to need charging. What a pointless waste.

And this is coming from a guy that uses a free charger (at a business park) every day. I've got no problem spending the $5/day that it will cost me to use the paid chargers if the free ones go away.
 

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That’s partly why I am not a fan of free public chargers, my experience with them has been that nearby residents and workers tend to monopolize them so that functionally, it ends up being the ‘personal’ charger of a handful of people, and visitors who might truly need or benefit from a charge have a hard time ever accessing them.

Charge a nominal fee and it’s amazing how the nearby locals don’t need to spend 16 hours a day ever other day plugged in.
Unfortunately that's true with free locations. When it comes down to it, L2s are meant for long term use since that's how they are designed (Power delivery). They are not meant to be treated like short term L3 locations. If you want to disrupt those who are abusing them, you have to make the sacrifice of beating them to it.

We need to get away from the entitlement issue of "I need it more" mentality. That's just going to cause more trouble and property owners may not want to install them because of the drama.

There are definitely ways to social engineer chargers, and I do believe cost is a great tool. It just seems that most of these installations are managed by people who don't think about the full picture before making the decisions.

A situation I have is that my apartment has a ChargPoint charger (2 spaces in two different buildings.) It charges at 6.4kWh. They charge $1/hr with a 6 hour maximum then a $20/hr parking/idle fee. It's located in an underground heated garage with other assigned parking spaces for residents.

The issue is that due to the 6 hour limit and charge rate, it is impossible to fully charge a vehicle if that's needed and so it's creates the need to abuse the system. Myself and a Tesla owner use it regularly. His assigned spot is close enough he can easily plugin whenever, but I'm not so lucky. However, he will plug in for a while, then before bed, go down to unplug to avoid the idle fees, and plug in again in the morning. I will do this as well but in my cause, I would need to move my vehicle, or leave it hogging the spot to re-plug in for the morning. This means that it's not practical for anyone to charge overnight, so the station goes useless in that time.

The solution would be to create and idle fee when fully charged, since this creates two social solutions. They either pay a price for hogging, or they will come down and be incentivized to move since they are fully charged. Still there is an opportunity to abuse it and not move, however the risk of that is lower.

It might be fair for free chargers to consider this same approach. Idle fees do work, and honestly I wouldn't feel bad if someone ends up paying $100 to park their car for 6 hours because they were lazy to move it when done. Little poetic justice, I'd say.

*Anyone want to start a EV charger configuration and management company? lol
 

Mach-E VLOG

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Here's how I view it:
  • Follow the rules that are posted (if there are any)
  • If no rules posted, use the charger but try to be mindful of others. IE Don't charge for 8 hours at shopping center because your work is across the street.
  • Never unplug someone else with few exceptions (if they are at 100% or you can verify they exceeded a posted limit)
Hopefully karma will take care of people that abuse free charging or unplug others. We have a hard enough time dealing with people that park in handicap spots because they "were just running in."
 
 




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