To upgrade home charging or not...

[joeriv]

I agree that having a L2 is the way to go because it allows me to use my Leaf more during the day. I do some errands in the AM, charge at home, then if I use the car later it's fully charged - no range anxiety!

 

[sub3marathonman]

It always bothers me that the L1 is so inefficient at charging, using some of the electricity to run the coolant pumps. The L2 runs the same pumps, but of course it is a shorter time period, so the L2 is (according to Phil (Ingineer)) 91% efficient as opposed to 78% with the L1. Believe it or not, this does add up over a long time, I've figured about $260 or so in 100K miles @ 5 miles / kwh, $0.10/kwh for electricity. Not that it really would throw the calculations if you didn't need L2 anyway. And of course, if you're only charging at L1 rarely at home, I would be simply using the L1 charger and forget about an L2 until you really need it.

 

[alanlarson]

I work 5 miles away from home.
My work building has a L2 Charger that is free for tenants. So far, I have seen maybe 2 other electric vehicles using the charging station and it's maybe 1 per week.

For obvious reasons, it is very convenient for me to just charge my car while I'm working. Even going from almost zero to full is only 6 hrs or so.

So... I am undecided about what, if anything, to do at home. I think my boyfriend (who actually owns our home) wants to get a home charging system but the cheapo in me thinks "why?... I should just charge at work and we can get that if/when it is ever actually needed!" (like if I change jobs.) However... it would be nice to be able to top off quickly on the weekend, especially if I want to go on a longer trip.

Of course you like charging at work. I would love free charging at work, too. In addition, when I drive my other car to work, could someone drop one or two gallons of diesel fuel in the tank for me -- free energy is free energy, after all.

How would this free car charging at work do if everyone in the company used it for most of their charging? How would you be affected if others did the same thing?

 

[apvbguy]

I work 5 miles away from home.
My work building has a L2 Charger that is free for tenants. So far, I have seen maybe 2 other electric vehicles using the charging station and it's maybe 1 per week.

For obvious reasons, it is very convenient for me to just charge my car while I'm working. Even going from almost zero to full is only 6 hrs or so.

So... I am undecided about what, if anything, to do at home. I think my boyfriend (who actually owns our home) wants to get a home charging system but the cheapo in me thinks "why?... I should just charge at work and we can get that if/when it is ever actually needed!" (like if I change jobs.) However... it would be nice to be able to top off quickly on the weekend, especially if I want to go on a longer trip.

Of course you like charging at work. I would love free charging at work, too. In addition, when I drive my other car to work, could someone drop one or two gallons of diesel fuel in the tank for me -- free energy is free energy, after all.

How would this free car charging at work do if everyone in the company used it for most of their charging? How would you be affected if others did the same thing?

do you realize that the cost of the charge is minimal? most people spend $20-$40 a month to "fuel" their cars

 

[alanlarson]

do you realize that the cost of the charge is minimal? most people spend $20-$40 a month to "fuel" their cars

The cost of the charge is minimal for one or two users. How about 100 users?
The access to the charge station is not a problem for a single user. How about if 100 users are trying to use it?

The original poster seems to feel sufficiently entitled to free charging to not even have her own charge station.

 

[sub3marathonman]

The cost of the charge is minimal for one or two users. How about 100 users?
The access to the charge station is not a problem for a single user. How about if 100 users are trying to use it?

The original poster seems to feel sufficiently entitled to free charging to not even have her own charge station.

I just don't see that at all:

I work 5 miles away from home.
My work building has a L2 Charger that is free for tenants. So far, I have seen maybe 2 other electric vehicles using the charging station and it's maybe 1 per week.

For obvious reasons, it is very convenient for me to just charge my car while I'm working. Even going from almost zero to full is only 6 hrs or so.

So... I am undecided about what, if anything, to do at home. I think my boyfriend (who actually owns our home) wants to get a home charging system but the cheapo in me thinks "why?... I should just charge at work and we can get that if/when it is ever actually needed!" (like if I change jobs.) However... it would be nice to be able to top off quickly on the weekend, especially if I want to go on a longer trip.

OK, the work building provided an L2 Charger, free for tenants. Somewhat like a subdivision offering a tennis court, free for residents. It is an incentive for people to choose that location over another location. Fairly basic economics. Maybe it is a wise decision, or maybe not, but apparently the building owner has at least a few tenants that enjoy this benefit, and it could be the difference between having the building entirely rented or two or three spaces empty. In this specific instance we don't know.

So why would somebody be criticized, and accused of "feel(ing) sufficiently entitled to free charging to not even have her own charge station" because she is using this provided benefit? If there are suddenly hundreds of EVs lined up to use the charger, the building owner can raise the rent to more than cover the added demand, similar to a building with A/C charging higher rent than the building next door without A/C as an extreme example. So why should she put an L2 charger in at her home if she doesn't need to, her workplace is gaining a certain amount of benefit from her additional loyalty and satisfaction with the job. In my opinion, it seems like she, her employer, and the building owner are doing everything correctly, she is respecting this privilege by only charging while she is working, and in my opinion it seems others may be upset because they don't have such benefits.

 

[Inara220]

Thanks sub3marathonman.

 

[sub3marathonman]

Thanks sub3marathonman.

You're welcome! I commend you for your efforts and wish you continued good luck.

 

[ty1]

I just upgraded to a level 2 this past weekend. We ran a level 1 charger for nearly a year. What made us finally bite the bullet was the various times we would make two longer trips in a same day. It is reassuring to be able to add 15-20 miles of range within an hour.

 

[Reddy]

There are lots of good reasons to get L2 charging at home as others have said (fast recharge for more miles of driving, pre-heating, off-peak charging prices, etc.). However, remember the OP only has a 10 mi RT commute. The L1 cord that comes with the car can replace about 4-5 mi per hour of charging, or about 40-50 mi overnight. This is irregardless to whether a "free" charging station is available or whether said station provides "free" electricity, gasoline, diesel, hydrogen or fairy dust. So being argumentative about "somebody not getting free gasoline" is just sour grapes. Perhaps we should start protesting all of the times one of the local gas station really does give away free gasoline (yup, I've seen it many times for "advertising" or some other loss leader business reason).

 

[Inara220]

I just upgraded to a level 2 this past weekend. We ran a level 1 charger for nearly a year. What made us finally bite the bullet was the various times we would make two longer trips in a same day. It is reassuring to be able to add 15-20 miles of range within an hour.

Yes.. I think this is exactly what is going to make me bite the bullet, eventually. Weekends when there is extra running around or what have you... my employer is probably getting more work out of me sometimes because I occasionally come in on the weekends, plug in, and get a couple of hours of work done.