Idea for apartment dwellers: 'host' charging through window

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Quothmar

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2019
Messages
8
I live in a condominium, and before I bought my Leaf I discussed charging options with management. As for on-demand installation of charging stations at apartment complexes, I'm not against it, but I proposed that for one EV driver it might be a bit extreme, and they agreed.

I am fortunate to be on the first floor directly facing the parking lot, and they approved of letting me charge through my window. With two window locks to keep the window slightly open and a bit of woodworking, I can now thread a 40-foot JLong along the sidewalk and through the grass, hook it into the normal EVSE plug which peeks out of the corner of the window, and charge every night. For an apartment dweller, this is all fine and well -- if you happen to be on the first floor facing the parking lot.

So I was thinking: just to get more apartment complexes on board with EVs, what would be wrong with allowing one first-floor resident to 'host' several electric vehicles at once through several windows? For example, the charge port I have now is in my master bedroom window. I could easily support, or 'host', two others through my small bedroom window and living room window, allowing two other residents for whom window charging through their own windows would not be feasible to charge through my windows. It could be for a small monthly fee or even at no cost. This idea, if implemented, could serve as a 'stepping stone' until the number of resident EVs grew to the point where the apartment complex would install a charging station.

To make the idea more neighbor-friendly, I was thinking that with some additional woodwork we could create poles to hook to our tires that would suspend the cable 7-8 feet above the ground until it reached the window.

Admittedly this might sound extreme, but it might just be a perfectly contrived way to make more apartment complexes EV-friendly.
 
The problem I see with you hosting 2 other EVSEs is that each one is almost at the maximum draw for the oulet. You'll have to have each on a separate circuit and remember not to use a space heater, hair dryer, iron, etc on the same circuit.
 
Triggerhappy007 said:
The problem I see with you hosting 2 other EVSEs is that each one is almost at the maximum draw for the oulet. You'll have to have each on a separate circuit and remember not to use a space heater, hair dryer, iron, etc on the same circuit.

Exactly. Most apartments don't have several free circuits - you're lucky to find one.
 
As an owner I would be installing a proper EVSE if there was a cord hanging out some window.
Although I might be the exception. Still waiting for the first request.
 
In addition to the issues others have raised, where do you live? Does it get cold or hot there? Assuming you pay your own utilities, have you included the heat/cooling loss of that open window in your cost calcs? I know of a couple of house renters locally who charge through a window - I'd love to see their winter heating bills (AC not really being an issue here) in our by no means cold climate. I don't consider it a viable year-round option for that reason. If you are doing this in the interest of reducing energy use, then what you gain in one way you lose in the other. Even if you come out ahead financially and energy-wise, do you really want to be deliberately wasting energy in that fashion?
 
Cable through the grass -- you might want to keep close tabs on landscaping activities, mowing, etc... Also what about tripping hazards?
 
According to National electric code anything used to charge an electric vehicle is supposed to be on its own dedicated circuit.
 
I have a barricade of five wooden dowels glued together underneath the open window, so it's just a square on the side that the EVSE plug peeks out of. The cord can slide in and out of a hole through a piece of shower curtain, so the room is almost completely sealed off from the outdoors. I've never had a problem with the cold weather. Just a few bugs on the window sill every now and then, but I've been able to minimize that.

The circuitry is a legitimate concern -- the last thing I'd want is to promise someone that they could have a Leaf and charge for free only to have the electricity snap off and force me to impose some kind of 'turn-taking' rule. My first thought is that if you keep two cars on separate circuits and only allow trickle-charging, it could be fine, but I will need to do some more investigation.

The main point is, I don't want apartment dwellers and management to be stalemated over how to make the transition over to EVs. Someone's got to make the first move, and any working solution -- no matter how contrived -- seems to me better than just permanently requiring every apartment resident to own a gas-powered car.

Edit: I also want to add that by suspending the cable 7-8 feet above the ground toward a wooden 'arm' poking out and up from under the window (with a pair of forked prongs at the top of the arm that the charging cable can rest between), any tripping hazard could be remedied.
 
I did what your doing from 2006-2013,

I only blew a breaker twice in that time and learned schedule.
 
Rmay, that sounds excellent.

Here's another idea: give other residents assigned days of the week that they can charge. One resident might be on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule and another on a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday. It might depend on their commutes and their charging needs, but with the right system it can all be worked out.
 
I'm not trying to be pessimistic,.... BUT.... The worst thing you can do is making something that will be visible, and second, trying to include other people.

Try to run your extension cord as camouflaged as much as possible. Find a way to carry your EVSE with you. I would try to cleverly bury the extension cord 2-4 inches below ground, not above. There will ALWAYS be an idiot walking by, and will be drawn to destroying crap... What

What I used to do was to put the EVSE INSIDE the car... lock the EVSE inside by the driver side, and leave the window only open 3/4 inch. Run the a/c extension cord into the car through the window, plug it into the EVSE, and run the charging cable through the window out of the car, and plug it in. This way, no one will be able to steal your EVSE.

Also, you cannot trust anyone, because they will do something wrong and mess it all up for everybody.... The best pot of gold is the one that only you know about....
 
powersurge said:
I'm not trying to be pessimistic,.... BUT.... The worst thing you can do is making something that will be visible, and second, trying to include other people.

Try to run your extension cord as camouflaged as much as possible. Find a way to carry your EVSE with you. I would try to cleverly bury the extension cord 2-4 inches below ground, not above. There will ALWAYS be an idiot walking by, and will be drawn to destroying crap... What

What I used to do was to put the EVSE INSIDE the car... lock the EVSE inside by the driver side, and leave the window only open 3/4 inch. Run the a/c extension cord into the car through the window, plug it into the EVSE, and run the charging cable through the window out of the car, and plug it in. This way, no one will be able to steal your EVSE.

Also, you cannot trust anyone, because they will do something wrong and mess it all up for everybody.... The best pot of gold is the one that only you know about....

So true.
Remember no good deeds go unpunished.

I see a lot of evse units on ebay, sold by random junk sellers who don't know what they are selling. I assume some of these are stolen off cars while they are charging.
I have seen on the leaf FB page someone ranting about having their charger stolen at least a couple of times last year.
 
powersurge said:
I'm not trying to be pessimistic,.... BUT.... The worst thing you can do is making something that will be visible, and second, trying to include other people.

Try to run your extension cord as camouflaged as much as possible. Find a way to carry your EVSE with you. I would try to cleverly bury the extension cord 2-4 inches below ground, not above. There will ALWAYS be an idiot walking by, and will be drawn to destroying crap... What

What I used to do was to put the EVSE INSIDE the car... lock the EVSE inside by the driver side, and leave the window only open 3/4 inch. Run the a/c extension cord into the car through the window, plug it into the EVSE, and run the charging cable through the window out of the car, and plug it in. This way, no one will be able to steal your EVSE.

Also, you cannot trust anyone, because they will do something wrong and mess it all up for everybody.... The best pot of gold is the one that only you know about....

Where I live, there are security cameras that monitor all outside activity. Anyone who willfully damages my JLong will be caught on tape and potentially arrested. So, until the idiots are all 'educated away' (I do not believe mean-spirited people will always exist), every apartment complex could, in theory, install security cameras. Again, it may sound extreme, but it's less costly than charging infrastructure, and the alternative would be to let every urban residential section reek of gas fumes.

Now, that's for destroying the plug -- stealing is easier to prevent. As I mentioned, I leave my house window cracked open with my EVSE peeking out of the corner, so that I can take my JLong out of my hatchback and charge through the window. To prevent anyone's stealing either the EVSE or the JLong, I use two padlocks. One padlock keeps the JLong hooked to the metal piece in the car's charging lid (shaped like a 'U'). The other padlock keeps the EVSE hooked to a leg of a bed inside my house.

More on the circuitry problem: I did some testing and found that trickle-charging uses 1300 watts. It doesn't seem like much, but I'm contemplating doing some testing with other household appliances to see if pushing it above 2600 watts will snap the circuit breaker. If that turns out to be a problem, here's another idea: keep each window charging port on a separate timed outlet. You can buy plug outlet timers at a home improvement store (I haven't seen the ones with a three-prong outlet, but they ought to exist), and make one outlet work from 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM, another work from 11:00 PM - 3:00 AM, and another work from 3:00 AM - 7:00 AM. If everyone charges their car as soon as they get home, they should each get a decent four hour charge overnight without causing circuit breaker issues.
 
Quothmar said:
More on the circuitry problem: I did some testing and found that trickle-charging uses 1300 watts. It doesn't seem like much, but I'm contemplating doing some testing with other household appliances to see if pushing it above 2600 watts will snap the circuit breaker. If that turns out to be a problem, here's another idea: keep each window charging port on a separate timed outlet. You can buy plug outlet timers at a home improvement store (I haven't seen the ones with a three-prong outlet, but they ought to exist), and make one outlet work from 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM, another work from 11:00 PM - 3:00 AM, and another work from 3:00 AM - 7:00 AM. If everyone charges their car as soon as they get home, they should each get a decent four hour charge overnight without causing circuit breaker issues.
If your thought is using a simple lamp timer, check for the amperage rating of the timer. I ran into a similar situation with Diesel engine block heaters. Those heaters are 120v. @ 1500 watts (similar to an evse), and designed for a dedicated 20 amp line with at least #12 wiring incl. the extension cord. We ended up installing a bank of relays, then using the lamp timers to trip the relays. The relays were rated to handle the sustained 15 amp load. There was a dedicated circuit for each line. The lamp timers were only rated for the roughly 200-300 watts that a typical table lamp would draw but ok for controlling the relay.
 
More on the circuitry problem: I did some testing and found that trickle-charging uses 1300 watts. It doesn't seem like much, but I'm contemplating doing some testing with other household appliances to see if pushing it above 2600 watts will snap the circuit breaker.

If that doesn't trip the breaker then you have a defective breaker, and are risking a fire by badly overloading the circuit.
 
A 20 amp breaker doesn't immediately trip at 20 amps or else every time anything with a vaccum cleaner sized motor is turned on the breaker would trip. Breakers have a trip curve.
Typically modern thermal magnetic breakers could run at 120% of rated load for up to 3 hours depending on ambient temperature.
Or run at 150% of rated amps for 30 to 150 seconds
Then at 200% they can take 8 to 40 seconds to trip.
To get trip times under 1 second you have to go all the way up to about 9 times it's rated current.
Anything more than about 10x rated amps it's a magnetic trip and fault clear times drop way down to more like a single or half a 60Hz cycle, so 1/60 to 1/120 of a second.
So just because you can draw more than rated amps through a breaker for some amount of time doesn't mean it's bad.

A good test would be if you can draw more than 150% amps over a breaker for more than 3 minutes it's probably bad, unless it's some old obsolete style of breaker, that may be normal for them and likely the reason they're obsolete.
 
Charing loads are potentially far more dangerous than startup surges.

That's probably why NEC added a section to where electric vehicle chargers are supposed to be on their own dedicated circuit.
 
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