6 ms·

Ask HN: How did you get the electric car charger fixed at your apt complex?

ggm 4y ago
Sidebar comment, not EV owner yet. We asked for 10amp ringmain to as many apt carparks as possible, owners paid. We get a minimeter off the mains, so it can be accounted for. Five of us paid for what I think is up to ten future fits in a 420 apt complex. Nothing like as good as a proper charge port, but it didn't require a new 3phase delivery from the street. We expect to get trickle charge benefit at car park and share fast charge at the few places we can budget for as a body. Adding high load boards into the basement is not cheap but with exposed ducting at least the cabling isn't bad. The main cost is the new pad mount transformer on the street and fixing local supply: older buildings have lower quality Volts coming in off the network basically. (OK the fast charge hardware isn't cheap but I'm talking the infrastructure one level back) the body corporate is nervous about this cost. The 10amp ring main was so cheap it glided in on cost recovery to specific owners who asked for it. I do not care if some johnny-come-lately dodges some cost, its worth it to me right now to have guaranteed power at my park. This is retrofit to a 7 year old build. 1 block away has EV charge stations built in from day #1 including public charge but has retail as co build tenancies. Another got ringmain to every carpark. New design spec requires some minimum eg 2 per complex > 50 units (this is eg. I have no idea what the spec is) and also requires bicycle storage. Queensland, Australia.
- jaclaz 4y ago
  And a few side questions, since - even if you are not yet an EV owner - you (and your complex) are preparing for them. The "envisioned" recharge paradigm of EV's (right now) is the US self-standing home, with one or two EV's and a "personal" charge point, what will happen in a complex when the EV's exceed the charging points? What would be the regulations or the expected "chargiquette"? I mean with ten charging points in a 420 apt complex you can deal (obviously) with 10 EV's "simply", but what will happen when there will be 20? People will probably use them alternately on odd and even days/nights. When there will be 70 of them, there will probably groups of ten, one for mondays, one for tuesdaya, etc. With some good planning, maybe these can be doubled, with "shifts" in the night and in the day. But there will be the cases of people that make more km's (and thus need more charge time) and as well people needing only a little time to fully charge their vehicle. Will there be a sort of market (official or unofficial) for time slots? Will everyone respect their allotted charge date/times? Knowing how even minor things (a dog barking, a bycicle parked outside the dedicated place, doors slamming, etc.) is often cause of attrition in apartment complexes, I wonder whether there will be some added tensions when the EV's charging will need to be shared.
  - ggm 4y ago
    I think rate of uptake here is behind the US for simple reasons: lack of incentives, lack of structural support and a love affair with a dream of big drive. We also retain cars quite a long time. We have some of the lowest pollution standards in the developed world for sulphur and NO and we are widely expected (and derided) for being the likely dumping ground of future ICE cars. In reality most Australians live in cities and drive less than 200km a week. But, that aside we've had a change of government and low cost EV are peeking round the corner: the BYD atto 3, the MG ZV and the coming VW id4 common chassis. So your problem statements are good but the "slope of the line" to open warfare over charging ports is possibly 5+ years off. I'd like to think the body corporate knows it has to intercept and plan NOW for the capex to meet market demand in future. I suspect they mostly won't and this will become another dynamic alongside "why didn't we put pool heating in" driving arguments.
    - jaclaz 4y ago
      >So your problem statements are good but the "slope of the line" to open warfare over charging ports is possibly 5+ years off. Undoubtedly there is still a few years time, but that's why it is (IMHO) something that needs to be talked about "now", the 5 or so years from now are nearer than they seem.
      - ggm 4y ago
        I think you're right. The struggle is getting people who want to let sleeping dogs lie, to wake up to unavoidable cost and sell them on spend now, to head off the future. The problem is most of them buy "wait 5 years and let others decide the shape of the future"
speedgoose 4y ago
It was simple because the apartment complex was relatively new and was ready to have a charger at every spot, with load balancing and energy measuring for billing. About half of the spots had a charger installed and mine didn’t because the previous owner didn’t think it was necessary. I asked the board to get one, and their contractor installed it.

ggm 4y ago

Sidebar comment, not EV owner yet. We asked for 10amp ringmain to as many apt carparks as possible, owners paid. We get a minimeter off the mains, so it can be accounted for. Five of us paid for what I think is up to ten future fits in a 420 apt complex. Nothing like as good as a proper charge port, but it didn't require a new 3phase delivery from the street. We expect to get trickle charge benefit at car park and share fast charge at the few places we can budget for as a body. Adding high load boards into the basement is not cheap but with exposed ducting at least the cabling isn't bad. The main cost is the new pad mount transformer on the street and fixing local supply: older buildings have lower quality Volts coming in off the network basically. (OK the fast charge hardware isn't cheap but I'm talking the infrastructure one level back) the body corporate is nervous about this cost. The 10amp ring main was so cheap it glided in on cost recovery to specific owners who asked for it. I do not care if some johnny-come-lately dodges some cost, its worth it to me right now to have guaranteed power at my park. This is retrofit to a 7 year old build. 1 block away has EV charge stations built in from day #1 including public charge but has retail as co build tenancies. Another got ringmain to every carpark. New design spec requires some minimum eg 2 per complex > 50 units (this is eg. I have no idea what the spec is) and also requires bicycle storage. Queensland, Australia.

jaclaz 4y ago
And a few side questions, since - even if you are not yet an EV owner - you (and your complex) are preparing for them. The "envisioned" recharge paradigm of EV's (right now) is the US self-standing home, with one or two EV's and a "personal" charge point, what will happen in a complex when the EV's exceed the charging points? What would be the regulations or the expected "chargiquette"? I mean with ten charging points in a 420 apt complex you can deal (obviously) with 10 EV's "simply", but what will happen when there will be 20? People will probably use them alternately on odd and even days/nights. When there will be 70 of them, there will probably groups of ten, one for mondays, one for tuesdaya, etc. With some good planning, maybe these can be doubled, with "shifts" in the night and in the day. But there will be the cases of people that make more km's (and thus need more charge time) and as well people needing only a little time to fully charge their vehicle. Will there be a sort of market (official or unofficial) for time slots? Will everyone respect their allotted charge date/times? Knowing how even minor things (a dog barking, a bycicle parked outside the dedicated place, doors slamming, etc.) is often cause of attrition in apartment complexes, I wonder whether there will be some added tensions when the EV's charging will need to be shared.
- ggm 4y ago
  I think rate of uptake here is behind the US for simple reasons: lack of incentives, lack of structural support and a love affair with a dream of big drive. We also retain cars quite a long time. We have some of the lowest pollution standards in the developed world for sulphur and NO and we are widely expected (and derided) for being the likely dumping ground of future ICE cars. In reality most Australians live in cities and drive less than 200km a week. But, that aside we've had a change of government and low cost EV are peeking round the corner: the BYD atto 3, the MG ZV and the coming VW id4 common chassis. So your problem statements are good but the "slope of the line" to open warfare over charging ports is possibly 5+ years off. I'd like to think the body corporate knows it has to intercept and plan NOW for the capex to meet market demand in future. I suspect they mostly won't and this will become another dynamic alongside "why didn't we put pool heating in" driving arguments.
  - jaclaz 4y ago
    >So your problem statements are good but the "slope of the line" to open warfare over charging ports is possibly 5+ years off. Undoubtedly there is still a few years time, but that's why it is (IMHO) something that needs to be talked about "now", the 5 or so years from now are nearer than they seem.
    - ggm 4y ago
      I think you're right. The struggle is getting people who want to let sleeping dogs lie, to wake up to unavoidable cost and sell them on spend now, to head off the future. The problem is most of them buy "wait 5 years and let others decide the shape of the future"

speedgoose 4y ago

It was simple because the apartment complex was relatively new and was ready to have a charger at every spot, with load balancing and energy measuring for billing. About half of the spots had a charger installed and mine didn’t because the previous owner didn’t think it was necessary. I asked the board to get one, and their contractor installed it.