NC Leaf Owners

[nlagnew]

Thanks, Nancy. I tried to use the chargers at the Main Library in Downtown Durham on Saturday night and they were inoperable with no lights on the chargers at all. We ended up cancelling our reservations to one of our favorite Durham restaurants and charging up at the Tobacco campus due to this charger failure and enjoying a meal at Cuban Revolution instead. Thanks for checking on them when you get a chance.

I zipped by the Main Library and looked at the chargers at about 7:10pm this evening. I needed to be at a rehearsal, so I didn't stop and try to plug in. However, the chargers were lit and appeared to be available. Perhaps I can give it another shot on Thursday evening, when I have to go over to Durham again. I'd guess the other alternative would be to call and ask the Library folks... perhaps there are "hours" for them -- if the library is open they are available, and if not, they stop the circuit or something? Maybe I'll be able to check on that Thursday evening. The library is open until 9pm on Monday evening and Thursday evening, so I should be able to run in and ask, perhaps.

Nancy

 

[NuclearLeaf]

All,
I got an email about the apron install & software upgrade

I have not heard anything about the upgrade, no emails, no phone call, nothing at all. Anyone else in the same boat? If I am the only one, maybe it's time to contact the dealer?

I received the notice in the mail today, so they didn't forget about me.

 

[nlagnew]

Thanks, Nancy. I tried to use the chargers at the Main Library in Downtown Durham on Saturday night and they were inoperable with no lights on the chargers at all. We ended up cancelling our reservations to one of our favorite Durham restaurants and charging up at the Tobacco campus due to this charger failure and enjoying a meal at Cuban Revolution instead. Thanks for checking on them when you get a chance.

I zipped by the Main Library and looked at the chargers at about 7:10pm this evening. I needed to be at a rehearsal, so I didn't stop and try to plug in. However, the chargers were lit and appeared to be available. [snip]

Nancy

I have been in touch with the Durham County folks who list themselves as "in charge" of the EVSE at the library (he said you, or someone who had wanted to use them, had been in touch as well). There was a SNAFU and the stations should be up and available at all times. Perhaps there is some circuit breaker in the library and whoever was locking up thought it should be "turned off" as part of the lock-up-the-library process. He said they are looking for a way to make sure they are not turned off by mistake or by someone not authorized to do so. He also said they plan to put contact info in the event they are off. He said he was pleased that people are sharing the info about the stations.
Nancy

 

[lpickup]

FYI, for those that have to spend a significant amount of time at Duke Raleigh hospital, I found that the visitor parking deck has plenty of 120V outlets. It's not obvious when the deck is full, but today it was so full I had to go up almost to the roof to park. I figured I'd go all the way to let the solar panel trickle charge the 12V and saw a whole bunch of outlets. So I grabbed the portable EVSE and trickle charged for about 6 hours today. On the way back down I noticed quite a few outlets on the other levels as well, but there are lots on top and plenty of open spaces!

 

[muleferg]

I received my upgraded EV Cord from EVSE Ugrade. I can now plug in the 240v installed at the farm. Cost $332.00. Thats a lot cheeper than buying a charger. and you can take it with you to other 240v twist lock recept.
http://evseupgrade.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Mule

 

[lpickup]

Hey, this is late notice (I did post on the RTP LEAF Fan Facebook page), but for you Triangle folks, there is a screening of Revenge of the Electric Car at UNC in Chapel Hill tomorrow night. I am planning on going, so if anyone else is so inclined, maybe I'll see you there:

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/revenge-of-the-electric-car/getinvolved.html

From the site, there is one NC screening:
Chapel Hill
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 7:00 PM
Carroll Hall Room 33
UNC Chapel Hill

 

[sarahnc]

Hey, this is late notice (I did post on the RTP LEAF Fan Facebook page), but for you Triangle folks, there is a screening of Revenge of the Electric Car at UNC in Chapel Hill tomorrow night. I am planning on going, so if anyone else is so inclined, maybe I'll see you there:

Dang! Sorry I missed it. Hope it was fun! Was there a big LEAF pile? Oh. I see from FaceBook it was a bust. So sorry. Yes I know Orange county is not EV friendly (yet).

--Sarah

 

[lpickup]

Charging station update: Wilmington (Blount) St deck in Raleigh (NW of Moore Square)

Sorry, I'm a bit tardy in posting this one. It was a bit hard to find this charging station since I entered the Wilmington St. side (which is the official address), but the charging station is just inside the Blount St. entrance.

I'm not sure what to make of the charging station placement/signage here. It's either the worst I've seen in Raleigh, or absolutely brilliant:

Here is the spot (apologies for the blurry photo and my nephew who wanted to pose):

and the standard Raleigh city signage which as we know doesn't really say much:

Here's one potential problem. On the other side of the column, the spots are all reserved for city vehicles only (there are other signs at the entrance indicating that that whole section is only for city vehicles):

So that side, while open, is apparently off-limits to the public.

Now you can see where I'm parked, which definitely looks like the spot that belongs to the charging station. The only reason I was able to get that spot, which was originally ICEd on a Sunday afternoon, is because the driver of the ICE happened to show up as I was investigating where to park, freeing up the spot for me to park in. This is basically the first spot on the right once you pull into the deck so I would be extremely surprised if it was not consistently ICEd.

But here is why it might be brilliant: if you look at the first picture where my nephew is standing, there is actually room to park a car perpendicular to the rest of the parking spots. There is no marking that says you can't park there, but no good lines that indicate it's a spot. If you look really closely at the floor you can see some diagonal lines that MAY indicate that it's not okay to park, but at the same time (and you can't see these at all in the picture, and you can barely see them standing right there, you can also see some very faint green parking spot outlines the shape of a parking spot. If the ICE vehicle had not left I was actually going to park there. So this could be a brilliant strategy (if intentional) of making an incognito EV parking spot!

 

[lpickup]

Revenge of the Electric Car screening @ UNC Chapel Hill, take 2:

April 18, 2012 at 6:30pm in Bingham Hall 103

http://uncsustainability.blogspot.com/2012/03/revenge-of-electric-car-film-screening.html

Will this one be better than the last attempt? Well this one seems to be hosted by a group with more of a vested interest in the film, and features a guest speaker. I've been in contact with her and she's definitely going! The UNC Sustainability office was also on copy...have not heard back from them yet.

But I would say this one has a good chance of working out, so I'm going to give it another shot. I have let them know that I am willing to have my LEAF available for display if they would like (parking will probably be an issue though).

I do realize that it's a weeknight and there is a general lack of charging stations in the area, but this could be a fun opportunity to get together. Let me know if this sounds like something you'd be interested in doing.

 

[Atebit]

The garage on Morgan Street is set up similarly. I often (try) to park there early Sunday mornings. Most of the time there is at least one ICE parked in one of the two spots at that hour. Last Sunday, there was an ICE parked in both spaces.

Wasn't it the Mayor that came to the shindig at North Hills back in January & gushed about all the charging infrastructure that's downtown? It doesn't do much good if you can't ever use it due to the spaces being ICEd.

I also tried to park there one afternoon during the week & figured that at least one of the spots wouldn't be in use. They were both ICEd. The attendants there said it happens all the time, but they can't do anything about it because the signs only identify where the charging stations are, not who can park in the spots.

Meanwhile, there is a spot around the corner with a sign explicitly reserving it for "Plug in Hybrid Vehicles Only". Looks like there's a government Prius that's always parked there. So if they can reserve that spot, why can't they reserve all the PEV charging spots downtown?

 

[lpickup]

Are you talking about the Municipal Deck and the spots on Hargett St?

Here's the run-down on the current situation:

1) It is true that the city is currently powerless to enforce spots being ICEd because there is currently no ordinance that would allow them to restrict spots. That doesn't necessarily mean that they can't put up a sign such as the one you saw (although most city signage is pretty tame in this respect). But it's unenforceable at the present time.

2) It wasn't the mayor at the North Hills ribbon-cutting, but there was a City Council member--and fellow LEAFer, Bonner Gaylord, who has actually been working behind the scenes to address this--and several city employees. This is from the Mar 6 City Council minutes:

ELECTRIC CHARGING STATIONS – CITY ATTORNEY TO DRAFT ORDINANCE – TO BE PLACED ON MARCH 20 MEETING

Mr. Gaylord indicated he feels the City should look at our current policy as it relates to charging station parking places and look at the possibility of making them exclusive parking for charging plug in vehicles. He stated as everyone knows he has recently purchased a plug-in vehicle therefore he is very mindful of the utilization of the spaces. He stated the City has installed stations around the City and almost always he sees those spaces taken up by vehicles with internal combustion engines, “ice” He pointed out he feels we are not utilizing our investment the best way we could and feels we could be loosing revenue as people come into our parking decks and plan to plug in but when they see the space is taken by a ice vehicle, they simply leave therefore we lose the parking revenue. He stated he feels we should look at our policy. Brief discussion took place as to how to proceed, whether refer it to committee or with the City Manager pointing out he heard about this problem recently. He had checked with the City Attorney to see if we could make these spaces exclusive for plug in vehicles. He has not received an answer but pointed out if it is determined we cannot, we could place some type signage or guidelines, etc. He stated the only conflict is if we make these exclusive for plug in parking only since it is on street we could be loosing revenue from those spaces.

City Attorney McCormick indicated the City can make them exclusive for a plug in and he would be happy to draft an ordinance and bring it to the next meeting. It was agreed to follow that course of action.

3) So what happened as a result? Well apparently the agenda item was dropped from the March 20 meeting. I'm trying to get more information on this (hoping it was just postponed vs. permanently dropped).

4) I spoke with assistant city manager (and also fellow LEAFer) Julian Prosser at an event and he did give me a contact at the city to report ICEing situations to, to give him ammunition needed to make sure something got done about it. Therefore I have started collecting reports and forwarded him a list (with pictures in most cases) of violations. I will add your report to what I send.

If you do have any additional reports (even if you think it's redundant), let me know. Include the date/time/location (and pictures if you have them) and I'll be happy to forward them along.

If all these charging stations are simply going to go unused because we can't get to them, then it was all a horrible waste of money and we should certainly work on getting the enforcement issue in place before worrying about putting in more charging stations that can't be used.

 

[lpickup]

Meanwhile, there is a spot around the corner with a sign explicitly reserving it for "Plug in Hybrid Vehicles Only". Looks like there's a government Prius that's always parked there. So if they can reserve that spot, why can't they reserve all the PEV charging spots downtown?

Also, was the Prius plugged in? I.e. was it actually a PHEV (obviously a conversion if it was) or just a standard Prius?

 

[lpickup]

Okay, that was quick. I got a response already.

It basically says this:

The ordinance IS still coming. There were some last minute changes to the draft that required delaying, but it should be on the next agenda. He will also be asking Public Affairs to prepare a press release about the new ordinance to give it additional exposure (my optimistic, but possibly naive opinion is that the public simply doesn't know and is not used to looking for these new types of spots). There will be a $50 fine for parking in these spots.

He did say he was surprised to see ICE's parking in the EV spaces because he does keep an eye on things (particularly the on-street spots) and has not seen the problem himself, but did say that he appreciates the photos as it clearly shows that there is a problem.

 

[lpickup]

Another update on the ordinance: I've been discussing this with the parking administrator, and the ordinance (unless this is what the last minute change was all about) will require the car to actually be plugged in, or a violation will occur.

The common sense reasons for this are (which I think got lost in all the uproar over CA AB475):

1) The enforcement officers can't be responsible for knowing which cars are electric and which aren't just by their appearance. I'm not sure I could really, especially when it came to conversions. The immediately recognizable differentiator is the charging cable plugged into the cable itself.
2) They have to document each ticket with two photos. It is easier to capture the unplugged vehicle in a photo than it is to capture the absence of a charging port (which on some vehicles may look like a gas door!)
3) Most of the spots in question have parking time limits anyway (2 hours on street and 3 hours in many decks). [I guess this would apply to daytime only] so from a timing standpoint it's likely that cars would have to be moved shortly after achieving a meaningful charge anyway

I'll add a fourth myself:

4) How likely is it that the community at large will adopt and use a plug sharing protocol anyway? Sure, one exists, but, particularly when there are enough EVs on the road that EVSE shortages become a reality, do we really think we can get the word out and have people start using a protocol? My guess is that unlike those of us who read this forum, many won't be bothered. Besides, I suspect that during busy times adjacent spots will not be reserved/available anyway.

There were a few other ideas I threw out, such has having a placard to indicate valid parking (too easy to abuse though), special license plate (that could take some time to get through the state legislature), or a sticker (too easy to forge).

Maybe this whole thing is looking for a completely different solution, such as a J1772 Y-connector similar to this: J1772 extender/splitter That way we can plug share and both be plugged in!

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[copdoc]

Driving in downtown Raleigh today I passed the Progress Energy Center and saw a set of solar panels which looked to be charging about 4 or 5 leafs. I rarely come there and didn't have time to turn around and investigate. Anyone know what that was?

 

[lpickup]

Yeah, that's a solar energy charging station. There is a bank of batteries the panels charge up so that you still get solar power into your car even on a cloudy day or at night. For awhile it was running a surplus of energy (i.e. the batteries were always full) but hopefully now they have more vehicles to charge.

Unfortunately it's not open to the public (yet).

There was a news article about it in January sometime maybe?

 

[Atebit]

Lance
Thanks for following up on this, good to see it being taken seriously. Here are some pics from the Morgan Street garage last Sunday Morning at 7:15

http://pbckt.com/pK.NITdsw

http://pbckt.com/pK.NITMGU

 

[lpickup]

Oh man, and monstrous gas guzzlers to boot! That picture is worth TWO thousand words!

 

[muleferg]

http://news.bostonherald.com/business/automotive/view/20120323car-charger_maker_aims_to_cut_the_cord/srvc=home&position=also" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wireless charger built in Morrisville. NC

Mule

 

[pclifton]

Three Leaf(s) in Salisbury, NC for the "Going Green" class!
Any time I see something like this in a small city (pop < 30k) it merits sharing

If interested, the event information (which is past) can be seen at: http://www.kenclifton.com/wordpress/2012/03/thanks-for-going-green-at-rccc-today/
BTW: The college building is Gold LEED Certified. Could be platinum if a charging station were out front (hint, hint).

Best Regards,
Ken Clifton