GM Volt Forum banner

Recent experience with researching, planning & installing a workplace EVSE (charger)?

4K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  Voltmeister 
#1 ·
Recent experience with researching, planning & installing a workplace EVSE (charger)?

Hi-

My company is looking to install an EVSE for employee use (~40 employees, single shift, currently 1 plug in vehicle).

Silicon Valley location, PG&E is the utility
2x Level 2 required
Position is exposed in parking lot, visible from the street.
No reason to require payment, but no desire for it to be open to the public, so security is important
No driving reason for data collection or networking

ChargePoint is an obvious choice: nice looking, full-featured, maybe overkill. ~$7k for the EVSE alone

Who else should we consider? What has your experience been?

Thanks!
 
#3 ·
#5 ·
Thanks Don-

So, just plugs, no EVSE? and that means no controlling, which may be a true non-issue. And no Corporate policy issues, either.

User provides the EVSE?
 
#6 ·
Probably wouldnt work for you but I just talked my boss into letting me wire up a 240V outlet outside and I use my Turbocord. I think it was about $100 for all the wiring and parts to run it 15ft from the breaker box plus the wiring is a little overkill for a Volt, I wired it for a Tesla in mind since my boss really wants one.
 
#8 ·
We have an L2 PEP station at work that has been good to us. When our EV group grew and we lobbied for more charging capability, they went low cost and installed a bank of four L1 outlets (so it's BYO-EVSE) and that has worked well, too. It's nice to have a mix (because some people don't want to move their car during the day so they'd hog the L2 long after their car was done, now they just charge all day on L1 and everyone's happy) and the L1 plugs are a very cheap proposal. It'd be nice if they located a dual-plug L2 in the middle of 4 parking spaces so it could serve 4 cars during the day w/o having to move them (our site did not do this, probably because the snow plows would hit it... safer to locate it at the edge of the lot). Some PEP stations also have L1 plugs in the base, so they can service 2 cars at L2 and 1-2 at L1 (depending on charge rate) at the same time.
 
#9 ·
We just put in a couple of the inexpensive Clipper Creek LCS-20 EVSE's in NEMA-4 enclosures partially for protection and partially to not advertise their existence to the general public. Something like that may be an option.

Ours are in an area generally secured from the public, however.
 
#14 ·
Silverone, can you take a picture or say more about the install? I am beginning to like the NEMA box with outlet or small L2 EVSE inside...
 
#10 ·
If you are not going to charge people, there is no reason to bother with a third party service. Clipper creek and several other companies make perfectly suitable outdoor EVSE's. don't bother with high current chargers, all those will do is attract unwanted overnight use by non-employees looking for 'free' electricity. 110V or 3 kw 240 V is adequate for "the commute home" use.
 
#11 ·
10 120V plugs.

That's it - or add something like EVExtend's EVSE locker box to them for security.

Adding expensive power posts doesn't spread the future-love. You need more pluggable points for people to get a nice 40 miles or so per charging day. As more people buy plug-ins they can use more of the plugs. And plug availability can lead to more people wanting to buy a plug-in.
 
#12 ·
My thanks to everyone for the suggestions. They made me re-think the direction we were taking and I am now shying away from the networked all-singing, all-dancing version and looking at other simpler, less expensive solutions.
 
#13 ·
Apart from the installation and maintenance costs, an issue which bedeviled Qualcomm was the lost worktime prompted by having more employees wanting to charge than there were charging stations. If you have to move after a charge then your work is interrupted. You have people contacting each other wanting to know if a charging spot was available. You have people arguing who should get to charge. Just a nightmare of lost productivity.

Personally I think that as time goes on cars will get more range and there won't be a need for work charging. But in the meantime having a lot of slow plugs seems superior to having faster more sophisticated charging.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top