Level 1 Charging Pedestal

I would think that the customer service department at the headquarters of the electric car manufacturers would have a list of contacts. The success of their business is dependent upon the success of people like you.

The first person that answers the phone probably will not be able to help you but if you have a well rehearsed "I can't believe you invest billions in making the cars but can't help the people that want to make ownership a good experience" then they should transfer your call up the food chain until you get to someone who can help you.

I also would think the electric utilities would have something on how to make the power charges--credit cards or whatever.

Off-topic this time: Are the electric utilities ready for the additional demand for their energy. Will they need additional generating & distribution capacity?

And again off-topic: I don't like giving Google free advertising, so I am using DuckDuckGo for my search engine.

No point in trying to reinvent the wheel....

https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/apartments-and-condos/

While not meeting my 3 taps per pedestal spec, this link has a wealth of useful information. Of course, I'm aware of ChargePoint, but was focusing on just the hardware and not the whole program. Anyway, thanks for link, much of what they offer will be useful to our committee.

These come in single and double pedestal configurations, so you could put them back to back, resulting in a 3 charger location....they also offer smart card restriction for private group use...

https://semaconnect.com/products/series6/

https://semaconnect.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2018_Series_6_EV_Charging_Station.pdf

You could integrate this system for individual billing...

https://qmeters.com/us/solutions/ev-charging-station-metering/

More helpful links. Thank you for providing them.

In my opinion you really need to start from the ground up...for a comprehensive plan we would need to know a great deal more information....How many cars, is the parking assigned, any indoor or covered parking, how many....You need to calculate the final power requirement and address that first....level one charging may be ok for plug-in hybrids, but not really adequate for pure EV's...and fast chargers are mostly for visitors who are traveling....so eventually you would want all of your parking to be charging capable, and calculating the power requirements now will make the power upgrade a one time deal, instead of an ongoing struggle...so most of your parking would fall into the level two category, with maybe 3 out of a hundred, superchargers...and maybe 20% level one....The chargers requiring the most power would be located the closest to the source, so the superchargers would be as close to the meters as possible, and the level one chargers the furthest away....

https://www.evmeter.com/where-to-place-ev-charging-stations-in-a-parking-lot/

http://www.pluginncw.com/installing-charging-station

Hi SE,

We are in the very early stages, and much will depend on the results of a survey to all owners that will go out in the near future. It sounds like you're open to providing further input, so if that's the case, I will additional questions when we know more of what to ask. I have recorded your suggested considerations for the project to be incorporated (where applicable) into our planning. Some answers, for now:

1. Except for possibly a very limited number of HOA-owned vehicles, there are zero assigned parking spots.

2. Zero indoor or covered parking.

3. We have 309 condo units spread over nine 3-story buildings, stretching 3/8-mile from end-to-end.

4. Occupancy varies with seasons from ~20% to ~40%

What state are you in? We need to check for any government incentives available...

Depending on your location the local Utility provider will have everything you need. If not, then you will have to deal directly with a charger company like Charge Point.

Otherwise you can wing it like so many do. This is not rocket science.

First thing to understand is most all electric cars have their chargers on board. Most are capable of common use up to level 2 through the J1772 standard. Its the DC fast charging thats difficult to set up and is auto specific.

Level 1 - Any 15 to 20 amp normal grounded outlet. Yep electric cars have more places to charge than there are gas pumps in the world. LoL Usually around 3 miles per hour on the charger.

Level 2 - Usually needs only a 240 volt 60 amp supply per vehicle. Usually 8 to 12 miles per hour on charger depending on supply limits and car capability.

Anything beyond this and you get into vehicle specific stuff.

My advice to HOA's is install them for free use, the cost to your utility bill is negligable. (good PR advertising too) Our Model 3 charges in the garage from a standard NEMA14/50 plug through the supplied cord. Did not notice the increase. took six months of charging to average it out as 13cents a day. Doubt you will break the HOA bank by providing them for free.

If you need to have a for pay set up then contract with your local utility or a charger provider and let them have all the headaches of site work, pulling permits, constuction, billing, repair, etc.

Good Luck and welcome to the revolution!

Ha ha that's hilarious....but not appropriate...there's no such thing as 'free' electric....

..." a 2020 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus, rated at 24 kWh/100 miles "...

At the average per kwh cost of $.13 that would be $3.12 per hundred miles, and at an average 10k miles per year that would be $312...now times that by 200 cars = $62,400 dollars per year...add to that the cost of installation maybe $5 to 600,000 dollars plus maintenance costs depreciation and management costs ...

https://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/the-true-cost-of-powering-an-electric-car.html

FYI: Just like MACs and PCs back-in-the-day the various charger/ vehicle combinations don't always play well together. Tesla's don't work with anyone else, some chargers (using interface blackboxes or plugs) will work with with some vehicles not in their specified design scheme with a downgrading of efficacy, and some (again with interfaces) will work just fine with nonspecified vehicles.

Bluntly: there is no universal standardization, however there are multiple-headed chargers available. Whether they cover all the available vehicles, Tesla is the most problematic, I don't know.

To SolarEagle,

We're in California and will definitely check into incentives, etc. Also, PG&E can likely provide assistance and advice. And, our Tier1 cost is $.259/KWh.

To rashavarek,

Probably won't provide free power as a perk, but that will be evaluated against costs and manpower to manage payment system(s).

To Stephen Archer,

Had given some thought to applying for a Tesla-funded Supercharger installation, but since all Teslas (AFAIK) can use DC fast chargers, it's probably not worth the hassle.

The thing is Tesla uses a propietary connection. All Teslas come with a J1772 adapter standard so they can easily use other chargers. The draw with the Tesla box is it can put out slightly more current because the charger in the car can handle it. So it charges slightly faster. Not faster enough IMO than the 14/50 to justify the 500.00 expense when the 14/50 outlet and included cord works just a well. 8mph vs. 12mph at best.

For Hotels its a sales incentive. We intentionally look for places with Tesla destination chargers. For your installation I would stick with the mainstream charge providers as those will cover more cars and any Teslas can use them as well.

To All,

Much progress since I first posted this. We have proceeded with a proposal for two ChargePoint CT4021 dual-port chargers. However, we have run up against a potential dead-end.

We have a situation with RSRP's of -98 to -116 and RSRQ’s of -11 to -13, in an area where ChargePoint CT4021 chargers are being proposed. We are advised that a conventional cell repeater/booster will not work, as this is an OUTDOOR area (i.e. no walls, no roof/canopy) – confirmed by both Wilson and ChargePoint. The 20’x40’ area consists of four 10’x20’ parking lanes, with the two chargers (each serving two lanes) along the 40' side at 20’ apart. For the chargers to function properly, ChargePoint requires a minimum RSRP of -90, and a minimum RSRQ of -10.

This is a deal-breaker unless we can come up some magic remedy that does not involve a lot of expense (<$2,000) and is legal. Would a Yagi antenna aimed at a Verizon/Sprint-shared cell tower 4.75 miles away have any chance of enhancing the signal (obviously needing some additional components to handshake with the antenna)? Any other ideas we could consider/pursue?

Don’t bother recommending that we talk to ChargePoint. We have, and they either don’t have the expertise, or don’t want to invest any resources for such a small job. Their representative was of no use. Also, the chargers need at least 3G, not Wi-fi compatible.

Looks like you might just have to wait for some phone company to install a closer tower...maybe check with city hall building and permitting for any pending projects....

You might look into these to check cost and performance reliability....

https://usatcorp.com/product-category/antennas/

It just would worry me that about the time you get these deployed, you find them installing a new tower about a block away....isn't that the way it goes?