Request for charging at workplace

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Johninmi

Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2014
Messages
8
Location
Michigan
I just sent off a letter to my employer to request to be able to plug in to existing 120V outlets that are open at work. The letter is below, but I'm posting it here to see if anyone else has gone through this process and what other questions will they be asking? Any other points I should bring up as to why they should allow it? Just looking for suggestions and what to expect. I should have asked before I sent the letter, but I really wanted to get it out there. (plus I thought it was pretty good for someone who doesn't write very well!)


The letter:
I am writing to request the authorization to allow Electric Vehicle plug in charging for employees at the blank blank. As you may know there has been a substantial increase in the amount of electric cars being sold. For example in the month of October Nissan has hit their 20th straight month of year over year increase in sales of the Nissan Leaf. The total sales of Nissan Leafs for 2014 hit 24,411 vehicles at the end of October which is greater than the amount sold for the entire year in 2013. Other manufacturers such as Ford (C-max and Fusion Energi plug in) and General Motors (Chevrolet Volt) have all seen similar growth. So as the prevalence of electric cars increase there is a greater need to have charging stations in the workplace.

I am requesting that employees be allowed to plug in their electric vehicles at outlets that already exist at the blank blank building. This allowance would show that the blank is forward thinking both for their employees and for the environment and at no additional cost of infrastructure. By allowing employees to plug in it shows a commitment to both them and the environment. This commitment is ideal for attracting and retaining highly skilled employees. It also can be used as proof of the school’s green image when applying for initiatives such as the blank Green Schools project. Other local schools (blanky blanky) already allow this and have provided 240V charging stations at their workplace for employees and the general public.

The chargers that plug into a standard 120V outlet only draw 11.5 amps at full power draw, once a car gets to 80% charge and above, the amperage drops to slow the charging of the battery. And then when the car gets to 100% charge it no longer “pulls” current from the outlet even though it is plugged in. At an electricity cost of $0.18 per kWh, which is the residential rate (and the school rate may be less), the total cost at 11.5 amps and 8 hours of charging is less than $2 a day. The cost of charging an EV would most likely be less than this because the car will reach full charge during the day and not “pull” any more current. This electricity usage is no different, if not less, than a standard coffee maker! So, as you can see the cost of this allowance is not much in comparison to what blank would receive in return.

As you can see there are many advantages to allowing employees to plug in their electric vehicles and very little cost involved. If you have any questions about the requested service, electricity usage or electric vehicles in general please call me at my personal cell phone. Also, if you agree to allow employees to charge their electric vehicles, please let me know how I may help with instituting a policy for this.

Thank you for your consideration,
 
It is difficult for many organizations to make the leap from no charging "yes you can plug in" and then a bigger leap to "yes you can plug in for free".

For best results, I think offering to pay a modest amount monthly for being able to plug in and charge would go a long ways towards getting acceptance...

The problem with free is that once they allow EV drivers to charge that way, then people stop charging at home and only want to charge at work (cuz it's free, of course!). As more people buy cars, then you have an overcrowding problem at the limited work charging stations (I've seen this happen). A modest fee will signal drivers to use it only when they need it and leave the stations open for people who need it...

Side question: With your range that you get by charging at home, do you need to charge at work to make your return commute?
 
Johninmi said:
"By allowing employees to plug in it shows a commitment to both them and the environment. This commitment is ideal for attracting and retaining highly skilled employees. It also can be used as proof of the school’s green image when applying for initiatives such as the blank Green Schools project. Other local schools (blanky blanky) already allow this and have provided 240V charging stations at their workplace for employees and the general public."

I think this statement is your main "selling point".
 
There is a lot of effort in 120V workplace charging. There is an EE professor at the US Naval Academy, Bob Bruninga, who is an expert in this area.

Check out http://www.aprs.org/EV-charging-everywhere.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The DOE has 120V charging as part of it's Workplace Charging Challenge also, in addition to dedicated 240V EVSEs: http://energy.gov/eere/vehicles/vehicle-technologies-office-ev-everywhere-workplace-charging-challenge" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Remember, your best argument for using 120V compared to 240V is it's cheap, cheap, cheap....... That's what the boss wants to hear.
 
Since this is a school (unless its a private school) your ultimately asking the tax payers to foot the bill - regardless of how much / little the added cost is to the school. With School Boards under pressure from all angles to account for the funds spent, not sure you will get the result you desire.
 
Definitely offer to pay a reasonable flat rate for access to the electricity. It demonstrates good faith on your part. As long as no circuit gets overloaded, this is a great plan.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies. I guess I wished for too much! The superintendent stopped by today and spoke with me. He stated that they couldn't approve of a policy to allow charging. I asked if a flat rate would be more appropriate to offset the cost and I am not sure that he had thought that I would come forward and offer that. He said he would talk with their energy person and see what he thinks. I did mention that the Community College next door has 240V chargers for free, but they are not in location now because of some infrastructure changes and the chargers had to move. They haven't found a new location for them yet (helps to know maintenance guys) It makes total sense on his part on why he has to say no to me though.

I actually put myself in a bad position by thinking it was better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission to begin with. On the first week of owning the car I thought, I can make it to and from work twice before I need to charge it again. Well that is true, but what I forgot to take into consideration on the Tuesday night I didn't plug in was that on Wednesday night I had to run my daughter to gymnastics which would have drained the car. So I thought, well I'll just plug in at work on the 120V outlet on Wednesday and see what happens. On Thursday morning the principle spoke to me about it and said that he saw the car plugged in (which he never never never goes to that side of the building) and I told him what was up and that I needed to charge to get home and run a couple errands. He said ok but I need to write a letter to the Superintendent for approval and that I shouldn't do it again until I ask. Hence the letter I wrote and sent on.

So overall I know I was asking for something for free that isn't free, but thought I should try to bargain (which may not have been a good idea with hindsight - which is what Randy had said) and be willing to give on the position and pay rather than just request it for free. But now that he has the thought of me paying a flat rate, we'll see if his position changes, but I doubt it because it's much much easier and a safer choice to just say no. And I do understand that (even though I would wish for something different).

Thanks dsinned for your picking out the main point - you are correct, but there is no real benefit for them on that. - as unfortunate as that may be.

DNAinaGoodWay - I think there is a garage door opener on the same circuit, but there's an office area behind it, so it never gets used.

Recmob - you are exactly right on the cost although we are ok financially.

Abasile and Randy - I did offer to pay a flat rate in my conversation with him. Thanks for pointing that out.

And Randy, as you can see from above I can definitely make it to and from work - and probably twice, but just can't do anything much else. Currently we have the 120V charger for home, the 240V charger should be installed within 2 weeks and the charge time will become much less of an issue then. I don't really need it, but it would be nice to have the "ok" for the occasions when I misplan or have used too much or it's wicked cold out and need to keep the battery warm (I am in Michigan and this last winter would not have been too kind on the battery).

Overall I'm a little disappointed, but I can see where they are coming from. And not really that disappointed to be honest with you because I was trying to get something for nothing.
 
I'd be willing to bet you that within 10 years, where all of us work, will change their policies and allow employees to plug-in to recharge. There will be solar panels on the roof and electricity will be essentially free. It's just a matter of time before our society fully adopts EVs and they become common place. Even if I'm wrong, ten years from now BEV will be far more affordable and have electric ranges well over 200 miles, making it less important for there to be places that allow charging while at work. Nevertheless, it really is too bad this change will take so long. Our planet is already on "death row" with respect to GHG. On this Veteran's day it should be mentioned that our military has already sacrificed far too much just to keep Middle Eastern oil flowing. It's not only a fight against terrorism taking the lives of so many of our Sons and Daughters. If we were totally energy independent, I'm sure the world would become more peaceful and there would far less need to bring our troops abroad home in body bags.
 
I asked for permission at my city ( City of Long Beach, CA). I emailed my supervisor. Instead of turning me down outright he forwarded my email. Eventually I received permission from the Office of Sustainability. They requested and paid for a TED so they could get green stars. I was happy and they were happy so everything worked out.
 
I told myself that I'll have a story to tell my grandchildren of how an electric car was socially unacceptable at one point in time!
 
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