Public L2 Charging Is So WEIRD

[Astraea]

I have a theory… I think a lot of EV enthusiasts are kinda weird.

Awwwwww thank you! ?

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[TargaGone]

The local hospital has One shared Free ChargePoint Level 2 charger. 3 or 6 kW. My mother was In-house for 4 days and during my visits I picked up some free electrons amounting to about 130 miles total.

There was usually one of several Teslae (is that the correct plural?) backed into the #1 spot - staying there for 3-7 hours. Making their arrival at 5 AM in one case. It was surprising how quickly the space would fill once a charger freed up. I had only about 3 hours total of 6 kW charging of the 10 hours (50kW total) over three sessions throught Thanksgiving and the weekend. Both spots were filled on three of my arrivals - despite an opening when I left home - yeah, I times my visits for potential openings! According to the ChargePoint site the charges are mostly busy during workdays - less activity at night

I presume that the other cars (a RAV4 Prime included) were looking for free juice just like me. Maybe they were employees or visitors of the hospital, I do not know. Maybe they don't have home chargers! Most knew (RAV4 didn't) that the lock latches were broken and needed to be pulled away from the contact switch for the charger to work.

I enjoyed playing the game of 'charge when you can' with my anonymous teammates. During the weekend the handwritten 3 hr max sign disappeared - it was windy?! PlugShare only has posts complaining of no charges because of the broken latches - like my first few tries a year ago.

It seems that the frequent chargers don't comment or Tip on ChargePoint or post on PlugShare - keeping this free one with a rating of ONE/Ten!

 

[Mirak]

It's a "state of the union" situation. The upwardly mobile homeless have figured out that EVs are a better solution for car camping. The problem with car camping is where you park and sleep legally. Answer: Not many places. They're constantly getting nailed for trespassing unless it's California or Oregon. So charging while sleeping solves the problem.

I'm sympathetic to their housing situation because most of them have serious mental illnesses, too. But it doesn't bode well for people needing to charge when many public chargers are increasingly used in this fashion.

Amazing if true.

 

[ARK]

This is far more a "free" behavior than an EV behavior. L2 is usually free. Free stuff causes illogical, unnatural behaviors that wouldn't otherwise happen. We see it over and over and over, in all kinds of things.

Charge for it and 80% of the weirdness goes away.

My thoughts exactly, people have a hard time being rational when something is free, and will spend way too much time and energy going after stuff they aren’t paying anything for.

 

[superdave80]

Charged today at a L2 in the parking garage of a local hospital and got…..2 kW. I think I’d have added more miles hooked up to a defribulator…

"Doc, we're at 2% charge! What do we do???"
"Get me the defibrillator, STAT! CLEAR!"
**ZAP**
"It's OK, people, were back up to 20%." *wipes brow*

 

[DCC233]

I'll probably get roasted for this but the local community park has a free L2 charger that for the past two years has gone relatively unused. After replacing two ICE cars this year with BEVs we use the chargers on a weekly basis, mostly during the spring and summer, for charging. I work from home so we drive very little to begin with, but once a week we alternate dropping one of the cars off for a charge and pick it up usually after work or during a lunch break. I either jog home or ride my bike to pick it up. About 1.2 MWh this year according to ChargePoint.

Back to the original posters message. Does it make sense to have a L2 in a public park? More so than other locations that I've seen them at i.e. banks, grocery stores, or any other place where you are going to be for an hour or less. At this point I'll take any misguided infrastructure vs none at all. Would these locations be more beneficial with a 50kW L3 charger? Absolutely, but until the cost of those comes down by a factor of 10 then I'll go with something is better than nothing.

I have a L2 in my garage, a 10kWh solar array on my house, and total electricity cost is 0.15 (including transmission and distribution fees). There is no other reason for me to go through all of that other than being a thrifty SOB, that and I've saved a couple hundred in energy costs. Plus it comes out of my taxes indirectly, so call it a local tax refund that doesn't exist.

 

[jasdf2345]

I'm gonna be harsh here, but public L2 chargers make zero sense, and are probably more than anything a waste of money and effort on the part of those that install/pay for them.

 

[SWO]

This is far more a "free" behavior than an EV behavior. L2 is usually free. Free stuff causes illogical, unnatural behaviors that wouldn't otherwise happen. We see it over and over and over, in all kinds of things.

Charge for it and 80% of the weirdness goes away.

Agree. My office building has two "free" chargers. They're only 12A and there's a 4hr limit.

People with $100k EVs will stalk the chargers trying to get their free buck fifty of electricity.

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