Official EV Project / Ecotality / free charger thread

[pchilds]

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.

+1

 

[jcesare]

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?

My unit was installed in April 2011 as part of the EV Project and I've had no problems whatsoever and had no out of pocket costs. The install was simple (the garage wall where it is installed is only a few feet from the service panel). I also have my house wired with a gigabit network backbone with the cable modem and switch in the garage so it was easy to do a hardwired network connection. This eliminated many of the early problems reported with wireless. I also used the car's timer exclusively. Recently they came out and did a free firmware upgrade. As I stated earlier, I have had no issues with my unit or any of the ones I've used in the field.

 

[LEAFfan]

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?

My unit was installed in April 2011 as part of the EV Project and I've had no problems whatsoever and had no out of pocket costs. The install was simple (the garage wall where it is installed is only a few feet from the service panel). I also have my house wired with a gigabit network backbone with the cable modem and switch in the garage so it was easy to do a hardwired network connection. This eliminated many of the early problems reported with wireless. I also used the car's timer exclusively. Recently they came out and did a free firmware upgrade. As I stated earlier, I have had no issues with my unit or any of the ones I've used in the field.

+1 Except I've used Wireless since the beginning and have had no problems whatsoever.

 

[wishboneash]

It's disgraceful, the SF Bay area supposedly with the most Leafs and EVs has so few public charging stations (38). It's getting to point when we start losing battery bars I may not be able to make it back and forth from home in the winter months.

 

[JPWhite]

It's disgraceful, the SF Bay area supposedly with the most Leafs and EVs has so few public charging stations (38). It's getting to point when we start losing battery bars I may not be able to make it back and forth from home in the winter months.

That is low. We have 213 Blinks in the greater Nashville Area and a lot fewer LEAF's or Volt's

 

[Randy]

I may be stating the obvious here, but one of the reasons why there's less public units in the SF Bay area is because they were not in the original batch of cities/areas announced in the EV Project, but were added later.

The announcement was made to add SF Bay to the EV Project in mid-February 2011. Not sure when Jason Smith, the Northern California Area Manager, was added...
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/02/13/ecotalitys-ev-project-expands-to-include-san-francisco-bay-area/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Area Managers for San Diego, Tenessee, and Oregon were named 11 months before in March 2010. So they had a head-start over the SF Bay area...

I've heard that the typical timeframe for successful business-to-business sales of this type is 18 months, so it does take time to contract with interested hosts and get deals signed...

Not sure how they can be successful in new cities being added now with the deadlines involved...

 

[rclams]

It's disgraceful, the SF Bay area supposedly with the most Leafs and EVs has so few public charging stations (38).

Sorry, "38 public Bay Area EVSEs" is low by at least a factor of 2.

Using the Plugshare app (which totals the number of EVSEs shown on its map up to a max of 100), I see 94 public EVSEs (Level 2 or 3; no home, 120 volt or Tesla chargers) displayed from San Jose to San Francisco, including 3 CHADeMo installations.

Obviously, there is room for improvement, and WRT Level 3 stations, announced "plans" are for nearly 100 installations in the next year or two via several different initiatives.

Gary

 

[waitingforaleaf]

It's disgraceful, the SF Bay area supposedly with the most Leafs and EVs has so few public charging stations (38).

Sorry, "38 public Bay Area EVSEs" is low by at least a factor of 2.

Using the Plugshare app (which totals the number of EVSEs shown on its map up to a max of 100), I see 94 public EVSEs (Level 2 or 3; no home, 120 volt or Tesla chargers) displayed from San Jose to San Francisco, including 3 CHADeMo installations.

Obviously, there is room for improvement, and WRT Level 3 stations, announced "plans" are for nearly 100 installations in the next year or two via several different initiatives.

Gary

Think that wishboneash was referring to the number of "public" BLINK (Ecotality/EV Project) chargers in the SF Bay Area. If you look at the Blink map now, it suggests that there are currently 51 public chargers in the SF Bay Area. This number is INCORRECT as perusing which charging locations are available suggest that a lot of them are chargers that local companies have installed for their employees and are not truly public chargers. In fact, some of them actually say PRIVATE in the title. From my count, it looks like there is really only 25 actual public Blink chargers in the SF Bay Area. Even though, the EV Project was added to the SF Bay Area much later than other locations, the number of public EV chargers they've managed to install seems minuscule relative to the proportion of EV owners present in the local area (though they seem to have done a better job with residential units).

The actual number of public chargers as seen from Plugshare is of course greater, as it includes public chargers installed by Chargepoint (who has been far more active in the SF Bay Area) and other companies (e.g. Clippercreek EVSEs, Voltec EVSEs, etc.).

 

[rclams]

It's disgraceful, the SF Bay area supposedly with the most Leafs and EVs has so few public charging stations (38).

Think that wishboneash was referring to the number of "public" BLINK (Ecotality/EV Project) chargers in the SF Bay Area.

Sure, but better IMO to put "BLINK" in the sentence and not publish a Google Searchable phrase that is incorrect.

E.g., "It's disgraceful, the SF Bay area supposedly with the most Leafs and EVs has so few (only 38) BLINK/EV Project public charging stations."


Just saying ... :ugeek:

Gary

 

[waitingforaleaf]

Think you swapped the quotes, as I certainly didn't type the original line you're referring to...

 

[rclams]

Think you swapped the quotes, as I certainly didn't type the original line you're referring to...

Oops, my bad.

Guess I need a GUI for just about everything now, thanks to Steve Jobs!

 

[PracticingHuman]

So here's a question: The assessor came out and checked out our space to see what they would need to install the Blink unit. Our garage is detached with exposed studs, no drywall. The wiring is a home run from the main service panel in the house on a single circuit running through buried 2 1/2" conduit so there is no subpanel in the garage.

The guy told us they would need to install a subpanel in the garage. Not sure why this would be necessary, when they could run an additional circuit straight from a 220 receptacle to our main. The conduit has more than enough room.

I wonder because Ecotality told me they would only cover $400 of the electrical installation expense. I'm sure installing a subpanel and the grounding to go with it will be way more than that. Granted, we do have that $1000 from the dealer but I'm predicting at least $800 alone for the additional subpanel. Hell, I could install it myself for probably around $250, including permit fees.

 

[davewill]

...The guy told us they would need to install a subpanel in the garage. Not sure why this would be necessary, when they could run an additional circuit straight from a 220 receptacle to our main. The conduit has more than enough room. ...

I think there are limits to the number of circuits they can run to underground to detached outbuildings. Besides, a subpanel will be more flexible for future changes. Are they moving the existing garage circuits onto the subpanel? Since you need such a large amount of work, I'd get an independent electrician to run the circuit, and just let the EV Project contractor do the final hookup of the EVSE.

 

[N952JL]

Think you swapped the quotes, as I certainly didn't type the original line you're referring to...

Oops, my bad.

Guess I need a GUI for just about everything now, thanks to Steve Jobs!

You should be thanking Xerox as they should Steve his first GUI.

 

[ljwobker]

So here's a question: The assessor came out and checked out our space to see what they would need to install the Blink unit. Our garage is detached with exposed studs, no drywall. The wiring is a home run from the main service panel in the house on a single circuit running through buried 2 1/2" conduit so there is no subpanel in the garage.

The guy told us they would need to install a subpanel in the garage. Not sure why this would be necessary, when they could run an additional circuit straight from a 220 receptacle to our main. The conduit has more than enough room.

I'm NOT an electrician, but I've been reading a lot on this stuff (and I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!)... anyway... if all you have in 2.5" conduit run between your home and a detached garage is a single circuit, I'm almost 100% sure that it's not going to be 'full' per code. You should get an electrician to confirm that - almost certainly something that could be done over the phone.

What does the wiring do once it leaves the conduit and enters the garage proper? Or is it conduit all the way to a single outlet/receptable? If the cable is non-metallic it violates code to have it just run against exposed studs (you can't have "exposed" wiring)...

And a subpanel MIGHT be the best way to do this, but I think it's possible bordering on likely that you could either pull another romex cable within the conduit and terminate that in the garage, or *IF* romex of the gauge required would violate the fill of the conduit, you could probably run just the un-jacketed conductors through the conduit to a junction box, then splice over to romex once in the garage (you'll have to solve the "exposed" problem though....)

Anyway, my suggestion is to pick up the phone and start calling electricians and/or the town electrical inspector. In my case, the local inspector actually picked up his phone and was really helpful answering my questions, as was a local electrician. Your mileage may vary of course, but that's where I'd start...

 

[PracticingHuman]

My local inspector called me back yesterday actually. He explained that the subpanel has to be installed because WA state code requires a single shutoff switch for power running into a detached garage. As I cannot put a 20A and a 40A on the same shutoff switch I need to put in a subpanel which would provide just that.

He agreed to come out and walk me through the specs I need to add in the subpanel, plus he's leaving the permit open from when I wired the garage so I won't have to pay the permit fee again! He said judging by my caliber of work he says I could easily install it myself and save myself some $$$. He's sure McKinstry will charge well above the $400 allowance.

 

[Deleted member 3147]

My local inspector called me back yesterday actually. He explained that the subpanel has to be installed because WA state code requires a single shutoff switch for power running into a detached garage. As I cannot put a 20A and a 40A on the same shutoff switch I need to put in a subpanel which would provide just that.

He agreed to come out and walk me through the specs I need to add in the subpanel, plus he's leaving the permit open from when I wired the garage so I won't have to pay the permit fee again! He said judging by my caliber of work he says I could easily install it myself and save myself some $$$. He's sure McKinstry will charge well above the $400 allowance.

Actually, AFAIK, the NEC (National Electrical Code), on which WA State code is based, requires that a detached garage (or other out building?) be fed with a single electrical feed.

The good news, as you already seem to know, is that the 2.5" conduit is plenty big for the larger wires required. 2.5" for the original 20A circuit was definite overkill.

 

[PracticingHuman]

The good news, as you already seem to know, is that the 2.5" conduit is plenty big for the larger wires required. 2.5" for the original 20A circuit was definite overkill.

It did seem like overkill when you see a 12ga wire coming out of that big ol' conduit. However, when I had the garage built I asked them to put in an ample sized conduit as I hoped to one day have an EV and wanted a big enough conduit to accommodate the wiring needs. Little did I expect I would have the LEAF less than a year later...

 

[mazdaboi]

Attended National Plug In Day 2012 in Manassas Va.
Local Leaf Owner explained the ECOtality program. Emailed the program that night, Called that following morning (Monday) . Opened a case and saw there were only 1 Leaf owner in the D.C. Metro area within the program and they need more so I was approved. Electrician arrived 3 days later. Quote was received the following saturday. I accepted the quote and they will be installing Tomorrow. Probabbly a total of 3 weeks from first phone call to install. I had to push the install 3 days due to my schedule at work.

Keep in mind (if this has not been previously said):
Charger is Free
Installation is a $400 Credit
(not openly explained however there is an additonal $250 you can squeeze for installation $-650 total off install)

My Installation quote was $1016 (including the $650 off) with my run from Electrical Panel to opposite side of the house where the driveway is (75ft).

For some owners with the panel closer you may be able to score the entire thing for free (if installation bid is under $400) I was not that lucky, but its still an great program

Ill post pictures of the install and final product tomorrow.

 

[davissc44]

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?

For reference in Atlanta, we had a very simple install right next to the main panel. Total was $950. This seems steep compared to other but there wasn't any negotiating, just take it or leave it.