San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner

[GRA]

The Hayward QC has now (as of yesterday) had the last protective post installed, but it's still cordoned off by sawhorses and tape for no obvious reason. Blink clearly feels no urgency to finish the job. Someone should try and use it, as you can move the sawhorses fairly easily (just as Jason Smith from Ecotality did when he charged there two weeks ago), although I don't know if the standard card will work. Maybe Jason has a special card that allowed him to before it's officially on-line.

I drove to this Tuesday thinking it would be open... wrong. They have a fortress of Sawhorses around it. I didn't try to breakthrough... thought about it though. Instead, I limped home on sparks. Sad. I really wonder what is taking them so long.

As of today, the sawhorses/tape are gone, and it shows on the Blink map. So give it a shot!

It's funny, sometime last week the geniuses doing the work apparently decided to move the inner green lane line on the right side charging space closer to the Charger unit, to match the inner line on the left side. So, they sandblasted the old line away and painted the new one. All well and good, and they realized that they also needed to move the outer line on the right side space left to keep the space the same width, and extend the diagonal striping to meet the new line.

Oops - apparently accurately measuring the distance was more than their pea-sized brains could manage prior to painting, and the new space is only 7 feet wide versus the 8 feet of the left space (and every other space in the garage), bordered by an extremely wide and, AFAICT, totally pointless green-striped diagonal space to its right. What is the latter for? It's not a handicapped zone, there are no signs indicating that EVs waiting to charge can park there, so it seems to just be taking up a parking space for no reason at all. Anyone have a clue?

 

[pboylan]

As of today, the sawhorses/tape are gone, and it shows on the Blink map. So give it a shot!

I was there November 7 and it was working fine and it was no longer condoned off.
Then I was there again on November 9 and while I was charging, someone drove up to the other parking space, hopped out, walked over, and knocked on my window.
It was someone from the City of Hayward (Denise) who had been involved in the process of getting the grant and installing the equipment. She was very nice and was quite happy to see someone using the charger and said welcome to our new charging station. I thanked her for her foresight.

She mentioned that they had opened the charger as soon as the final permit was approved and signed-off.
So it wasn't Blink who was slowing down the process.
In fact Blink had told me to go there when the San Ramon charger broke on October 30. So as far as they knew, it was already open. I did - it wasn't - I limped home.

Apparently they will be installing a number of new Level 2 chargers in the same garage. I believe they will be Blink units and will cost something. However the Level 3 charger is free until December.

By the way, the entrance to the garage is actually on Watkins Street, specifically:

22620 Watkins Street, Hayward, CA

 

[TEG]

FYI: Silver Spring Networks' Blink units in Redwood City are now only available during their business hours: 7AM - 6PM. Sorry, no weekends... even the lonely CHAdeMO.

That really sucks...

 

[Deleted member 3147]

However the Level 3 charger is free until December.

This is the first I've heard of a date for Blink starting to charge for L3 charging.

Does anyone know of an official announcement? Does this apply to all of the Blink DCFC? (I'd assume so.)

 

[Ingineer]

FYI: Silver Spring Networks' Blink units in Redwood City are now only available during their business hours: 7AM - 6PM. Sorry, no weekends... even the lonely CHAdeMO.

I found this out the hard way! I wonder if those have been installed with DOE money? Does anyone know people in management at SilverSpring?

-Phil

 

[TEG]

Seen here:
http://epoverviews.com/articles/visitor.php?action=search&page=8&start_date=1900-01-01&end_date=2012-04-11&search_newsletter=&keyword=EV%20Charging" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...Contact: Eric Dresselhuys, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Silver Spring,(650) 298-4200, [email protected]

 

[peter]

Yet another Redwood City DC charger popped up on the Blink map at Evernote. I stopped by today (Sunday) and it is fully functioning along with 10 Blink L2's all in a covered parking area, even though the Blink map still lists the DC as "unavailable." No idea if this will remain unrestricted, but it is an excellent location right across the street from a small shopping center and several restaurants.

Now can we please get some DC chargers that are further than 5 miles from my home?

 

[GRA]

Yet another Redwood City DC charger popped up on the Blink map at Evernote. I stopped by today (Sunday) and it is fully functioning along with 10 Blink L2's all in a covered parking area, even though the Blink map still lists the DC as "unavailable." No idea if this will remain unrestricted, but it is an excellent location right across the street from a small shopping center and several restaurants.

Now can we please get some DC chargers that are further than 5 miles from my home?

Indeed. While I'm glad that they're covering the ends of Bay Area bridges, we really want them to allow expanded day trip range by single QCs en route. If the one in Fairfax ever comes online that will be helpful for trips to western Marin and points north on HWY 1, although having one in Point Reyes Station would be even better. Then we need them in HMB, Santa Cruz, Gilroy, Salinas, Monterey and/or Carmel, Vacaville, Sacramento, Livermore (580 @ Vasco Road), Manteca (99 @ 120 East). That will pretty much cover the single en route QC radius for the Bay Area Northwest, North, Northeast, East, South and Southeast, and they can expand out to two QC radii from that base.

 

[GRA]

I see they've also added a Blink QC at a winery in Calistoga to the map, so they've got both 101N and 29/128N covered.

 

[Christopher]

Yet another Redwood City DC charger popped up on the Blink map at Evernote. I stopped by today (Sunday) and it is fully functioning along with 10 Blink L2's all in a covered parking area, even though the Blink map still lists the DC as "unavailable." No idea if this will remain unrestricted, but it is an excellent location right across the street from a small shopping center and several restaurants.

Now can we please get some DC chargers that are further than 5 miles from my home?

Indeed. While I'm glad that they're covering the ends of Bay Area bridges, we really want them to allow expanded day trip range by single QCs en route. If the one in Fairfax ever comes online that will be helpful for trips to western Marin and points north on HWY 1, although having one in Point Reyes Station would be even better. Then we need them in HMB, Santa Cruz, Gilroy, Salinas, Monterey and/or Carmel, Vacaville, Sacramento, Livermore (580 @ Vasco Road), Manteca (99 @ 120 East). That will pretty much cover the single en route QC radius for the Bay Area Northwest, North, Northeast, East, South and Southeast, and they can expand out to two QC radii from that base.

My one personal DC charging location wish is Los Gatos (if not scattered around the south bay). As in, please let me recharge at the bottom of the hill (aka, highway 17 going over Los Gatos Mtns) — for all of us returning home to anywhere in Santa Cruz county. It would be really great to travel further afield in the Bay Area knowing that I can do a quick charge to get back up over the hill on highway 17. At least there are several level 2 stations there now if I'm willing to hang out for a while.

 

[EVDrive]

I see they've also added a Blink QC at a winery in Calistoga to the map, so they've got both 101N and 29/128N covered.

That sounds awesome. What winery?

 

[peter]

Blink map say:

Chateau Montelena Winery
1429 Tubbs Lane
Calistoga, CA 94515

Currently says "offline" but who knows. Can anyone check this one out? Would be a nice location for one...

 

[TEG]

Yet another Redwood City DC charger popped up on the Blink map at Evernote. I stopped by today (Sunday) and it is fully functioning along with 10 Blink L2's all in a covered parking area, even though the Blink map still lists the DC as "unavailable."

I stopped by there last night. 10 Blink L2s is a lot. It is impressive how many spaces they have.
One side of the QC wouldn't activate from my card. The other side activated, but when I selected the charge %, and clicked the "start" it just immediately said charging is done and shut down. I tried this a few times and gave up. Maybe it isn't on the map yet because it isn't fully tested / working yet?

(The DC/QC is down at the end of this row of AC/L2s)

 

[peter]

Left side worked for me two days ago - but I only did a two min test charge.

 

[kevini]

Ecotality really need to do something about the touch screens on these DCFC's the left side on the unit @Intuit was not working when I tried it on Saturday.

The maintenance on them will kill them alone.

 

[TEG]

Yeah, thank goodness they at least have two pads. So your chances of at least one side working are better than if it was just a single...

 

[Solarchargedleaf]

I completed the final inspection today for the Blink Fast charger located at the Good Earth Grocery store in Fairfax, Ca. It should be online for use pretty soon. They were just waiting to see if the owners want to have a ribbon cutting ceremony. I also just issued them a permit for a 230kW solar array.

 

[oakwcj]

I completed the final inspection today for the Blink Fast charger located at the Good Earth Grocery store in Fairfax, Ca. It should be online for use pretty soon. They were just waiting to see if the owners want to have a ribbon cutting ceremony. I also just issued them a permit for a 230kW solar array.

Thanks for the update. Here's hoping that it will be online within two weeks, so I don't have to take my ICE to Point Reyes for my wife's birthday.

 

[oakwcj]

The Fairfax charger is on the Blink map today.

 

[hill]

Given that these solar-powered supercharger installations are quite obviously expensive, they are being subsidized by the premium model-S customers who will use them. (you pay a premium for the Model-S, and then a extra premium to have one that's supercharge-capable)

I know if I plunked down $80k+ and found an iMiEV charging at a supercharge station (with an adapter) when I needed to use it, I'd be quite irritated! =)

-Phil

Chances are he'd be done in less than 10 minutes. :lol: