Official EV Project / Ecotality / free charger thread

[waidy]

Spread the words, Coulomb is accepting applications from Nissan LEAF customer in additional CPA (ChargePoint America) regions including Boston, NY/NJ and Southern Michigan (Including Detroit).

Check your eligibility at http://chargepointamerica.com/search-zip-code.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[overbergerc]

If this is the same old program administered by SPX, it's far from free. Your local electrician sends his quote to SPX, SPX adds a thousand or so to the quote to cover "paperwork" and sends it back to you. I had the local electrician send a quote to "hang and connect" the charger (wire was stubbed 6" from installation spot and SPX sent me a quote for over 800.00. The local guy said it would take him 10 minutes.

SPX quoted me 4500.00 for an 80' overhead run from my house to my garage (40a) to tie into an existing 40a service panel in the unfinished garage wall. The local guy said about 800.00 (60$ worth of service wire and a ground rod). I had another local electrician run it for about 1000.00. The SPX "sponsored" electrician said he was not allowed to perform the job independent of the SPX contract or he'd lose it. This was the same situation with AeroEnvironment. I hope the DOE audits these crooks. SPX offered to sell me their charger in a box for around 900.00. I have a call into Chargepoint America to see if this is the same crappy ripoff. I'll probably buy an Siemens from Home depot for 900.00 and get my garage wiring and charger cost back from Consumers Energy that has a 2500.00 rebate as long as you have everything inspected.

I'm using my EVSE upgraded Leaf charger right now and I love it !! I may just keep doing that until the 30a EV stations drop in price.

Spread the words, Coulomb is accepting applications from Nissan LEAF customer in additional CPA (ChargePoint America) regions including Boston, NY/NJ and Southern Michigan (Including Detroit).

Check your eligibility at http://chargepointamerica.com/search-zip-code.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[waidy]

If this is the same old program administered by SPX, it's far from free. Your local electrician sends his quote to SPX, SPX adds a thousand or so to the quote to cover "paperwork" and sends it back to you. I had the local electrician send a quote to "hang and connect" the charger (wire was stubbed 6" from installation spot and SPX sent me a quote for over 800.00. The local guy said it would take him 10 minutes.

SPX quoted me 4500.00 for an 80' overhead run from my house to my garage (40a) to tie into an existing 40a service panel in the unfinished garage wall. The local guy said about 800.00 (60$ worth of service wire and a ground rod). I had another local electrician run it for about 1000.00. The SPX "sponsored" electrician said he was not allowed to perform the job independent of the SPX contract or he'd lose it. This was the same situation with AeroEnvironment. I hope the DOE audits these crooks. SPX offered to sell me their charger in a box for around 900.00. I have a call into Chargepoint America to see if this is the same crappy ripoff. I'll probably buy an Siemens from Home depot for 900.00 and get my garage wiring and charger cost back from Consumers Energy that has a 2500.00 rebate as long as you have everything inspected.

I'm using my EVSE upgraded Leaf charger right now and I love it !! I may just keep doing that until the 30a EV stations drop in price.

Wow, the installation cost from SPX sounds *unreasonable". As far as I know, you don't have to use SPX. After you apply for the free charging station, you will be routed to one of their approved installer. Please let us (the forum) knows what is ChargePoint American's "approved installer" quotes you.

 

[wsbca]

I received a voicemail from an EV project electrical contractor this week, not the one that installed our unit (Baker), so I guess the other one in the San Diego area (Saturn) - they said Ecotality has asked them to do "core updates" on the Blink units and they want to make an appointment to come work on ours (one of the first to go in, plug-wired, wi-fi networking, and which has generally been functioning fine for over a year.) Strikes me as slightly odd that they'd switch installers for this type of thing.

Anybody else get one of these calls recently and/or have this "update" to their hardware done yet?

 

[pchilds]

About 2 months ago, took about 15 minutes, they replaced an SD memory card. Funny thing, I was keeping the breaker off, when the car was not plugged in, to charge, (The Blink is such a power pig, 30 watts doing nothing.) Someone turned it back on, when I was out of town. Now I just pull the plug when I am done charging. They can't get in the garage, to plug it back in. :lol:

 

[ENIAC]

About 2 months ago, took about 15 minutes, they replaced an SD memory card. Funny thing, I was keeping the breaker off, when the car was not plugged in, to charge, (The Blink is such a power pig, 30 watts doing nothing.) Someone turned it back on, when I was out of town. Now I just pull the plug when I am done charging. They can't get in the garage, to plug it back in. :lol:

Pulling the plug is the way to go. Throwing the breaker too many times will cause it to fail. Circuit breakers aren't designed to be switches unless they are marked “SWD”, for switch duty.

 

[DaveEV]

Anybody else get one of these calls recently and/or have this "update" to their hardware done yet?

What firmware is your Blink running? If it's < 2.0 then that's why - it seems that most have had their firmware updated already.

Pulling the plug is the way to go. Throwing the breaker too many times will cause it to fail. Circuit breakers aren't designed to be switches unless they are marked “SWD”, for switch duty.

The outlet isn't rated for constant plug/un-plug duty, either, so expect it to wear out over time as well. The breaker is probably cheaper to replace.

The Blink draws less than 10W with the screen off, still a waste but not really worth messing with it.

 

[wsbca]

Anybody else get one of these calls recently and/or have this "update" to their hardware done yet?

What firmware is your Blink running? If it's < 2.0 then that's why - it seems that most have had their firmware updated already.

It's definitely got 2.something. Not sure if it's all the way up to the 2.1.20120404B version that the blinknetwork site says is 'available', I'll have to check when I get home. Hardware rev is WE-30CIRE/XXX2.

 

[DaveEV]

It's definitely got 2.something. Not sure if it's all the way up to the 2.1.20120404B version that the blinknetwork site says is 'available', I'll have to check when I get home. Hardware rev is WE-30CIRE/XXX2.

I know that when they came to swap out the SD card in mine to get it to the latest version, the tech also removed the RFID reader and adjusted the position of the CTs in the unit. Could be that they are slowly making sure that all residential units have this done as well to prevent future issues.

 

[pchilds]

I never received the $700 rebate from Ecotality for the DC QC port. Does anyone know who I can contact at Ecotality, to check on my check.

 

[TomT]

With the software updates it only pulls about 6 watts now in standby so, really, what is the point. I refuse to be that anal or OCD, plus I don't like the idea of constantly cycling it... But yes, originally it was quite a power pig...

Pulling the plug is the way to go. Throwing the breaker too many times will cause it to fail. Circuit breakers aren't designed to be switches unless they are marked “SWD”, for switch duty.

 

[pchilds]

With the software updates it only pulls about 6 watts now in standby so, really, what is the point. I refuse to be that anal or OCD, plus I don't like the idea of constantly cycling it... But yes, originally it was quite a power pig...

After using 16 kWh in 3 weeks with no charging, I started shuting it down. I guess can plug it back in, I can live with 6 watts, but 32 watts is too much.

 

[linkim]

I never received the $700 rebate from Ecotality for the DC QC port. Does anyone know who I can contact at Ecotality, to check on my check.

For MY 2011, the refund of $700 came from Nissan. I called Nissan Customer Service at 877-664-2738 to discuss the refund and the information required. The complete process took about 25 days until I received the check. As far as I recall, Ecotality was not involved.

 

[coolfilmaker]

With the software updates it only pulls about 6 watts now in standby so, really, what is the point. I refuse to be that anal or OCD, plus I don't like the idea of constantly cycling it... But yes, originally it was quite a power pig...

Pulling the plug is the way to go. Throwing the breaker too many times will cause it to fail. Circuit breakers aren't designed to be switches unless they are marked “SWD”, for switch duty.

Wait a second. The new 2.1 firmware decreases power consumption considerably too but they're only pushing it to people who complain? That takes ecotality from scumbag level to evil level in my book.

 

[TomT]

I was referring to the reduction from the first version of the software to that with 2.02. I think that the major reductions came with version 1.6 or 1.8... I'm not sure how much, if any, reduction there is from 2.02 to 2.1...

Wait a second. The new 2.1 firmware decreases power consumption considerably too but they're only pushing it to people who complain? That takes ecotality from scumbag level to evil level in my book.

 

[grommet]

Yep, the standby draw went way down right after they enabled the screen saver (shutoff) function... somewhere in the high 1.x range. The upgrade to 2.0 (stable! yay!) didn't make much of a difference on draw, and I wouldn't expect 2.1 to be any different.

 

[Chris30269]

Hey west coasters! As you may know, the EV Project just expanded to Atlanta, Chicago, and Philly. Unlike the launch states, we already have our Leafs and EVSEs. In my case (and probably many, many others), I have Phil's EVSE Upgrade, which I use as my primary EVSE. I'd like to have a more permanent EVSE in the garage (especially if it's free!), but I'm wondering about the hassle and hidden costs.

Was getting the EVSE through the EV Project worth it? How much did everything cost, all said and done? Do the units work well or do they break down a lot? If you could do it all over again, would you bother? Why or why not?

 

[JPWhite]

Hey west coasters! As you may know, the EV Project just expanded to Atlanta, Chicago, and Philly. Unlike the launch states, we already have our Leafs and EVSEs. In my case (and probably many, many others), I have Phil's EVSE Upgrade, which I use as my primary EVSE. I'd like to have a more permanent EVSE in the garage (especially if it's free!), but I'm wondering about the hassle and hidden costs.

Was getting the EVSE through the EV Project worth it? How much did everything cost, all said and done? Do the units work well or do they break down a lot? If you could do it all over again, would you bother? Why or why not?

In my opinion the blink evse's have a lot of features beyond the average evse's. The current models with current firmware are reliable. I have not missed a single charge in 13 months. For free I'd grab one if they are offering them. The install process will depend on the local sub contractor. My experience was great, some in other regions had horror stories.

I would do it again given the opportunity.

 

[EricBayArea]

Hey west coasters! As you may know, the EV Project just expanded to Atlanta, Chicago, and Philly. Unlike the launch states, we already have our Leafs and EVSEs. In my case (and probably many, many others), I have Phil's EVSE Upgrade, which I use as my primary EVSE. I'd like to have a more permanent EVSE in the garage (especially if it's free!), but I'm wondering about the hassle and hidden costs.

Was getting the EVSE through the EV Project worth it? How much did everything cost, all said and done? Do the units work well or do they break down a lot? If you could do it all over again, would you bother? Why or why not?

There are A LOT of discussions if you search this board. You'll hear from people that they have had nothing but problems (for the most part with earlier firmware versions) and you will hear from people that have had no issues (me - for 10 months). Assuming you have 2 open breaker slots and enough electricity coming into your house to take the load, the location of your breaker box determines the final cost. For the most part, if your breaker box is in the garage and you are having the Blink setup a few feet away, there shouldn't be any additional cost. If your breaker box is in the house and you want the Blink in your garage, well, then you'll probably have to pay a bit out of pocket (depending on the electrical contractor).

In hindsight, I should have hired an electrician to run the needed electrical line from my house to a new outlet in my garage. That way, the electrician for the Blink unit could have just popped in the breakers and plugged in the Blink unit. Because this is a federally funded program, the contracted electrician (at least mine) was required to use all parts made in the US, on all of the work - which cost more. In addition, he had to charge me the union rates he agreed to with Ecotality. So in the end, I paid several hundred (mine was overly complicated). However, in my mind I was either going to be paying $700 of my my pocket for the QC if I didn't go through with this, or $700 towards the Blink install. So it was a sunk cost either way.

 

[FairwoodRed]

When the few EVSE’s available were all several thousand installed, it was worth it. All said and done, it cost me nothing as they installed it right next to my panel in my garage. Some installations may have additional costs, but they were disclosed at the home inspection time and not hidden. My unit has never failed to charge.

Having said all that, I would not do it again. The Blink units that I’ve found in the field have too high of a failure rate. The EV project is woefully behind in delivering the public chargers that they said they would and only one of them was close enough to my regular route to be of use. They have added a zip code entry for “enhanced security” but it mostly just makes it frustrating to use their station. The big kicker is the sneaky way they are trying to change my Residential Participation Agreement. If I could get out of the agreement today, without having to pay back their thousands of dollars, I would – I hate being tied to a company that operates the way they do.