I recently moved into a new building, chosen in some part due to the two J1772 stations and spaces in their private parking garage. My friend already lived there and told me no one ever uses the station, and I can say now he was correct. So I am the only car charging here, with an extra space to boot. The only cars that are ever parked there besides me are ICE'ing (not a huge issue so far). So I basically come home from work, plug in, and unplug the next day when I leave for work. Charging completes at some point while I'm sleeping. All is going well for the first month, but then earlier this week I got a big orange tow warning on my windshield. It said the spaces are for actively charging, and that if I'm found again I will be towed.
So I called the management office and asked why they were patrolling this situation in the middle of the night when no other electric cars are in the building. They said it's the policy. I let them know I changed the settings on my car to take the entire night to charge (I made it start charging at 5A). The office was very surprised to hear that was possible, but said ok, just make sure you move it when done. I realize that this strategy isn't going to work however for a few reasons. I don't drive much on the weekends for one, and truth be told I don't actually have an assigned spot in the garage. My wife and I "share" a spot (since I never need it). The other factor should be that charging for that long could get expensive, but the charger isn't configured to charge me at all. The rate is $0.00 per hour on my account for some reason.
Why did this become an issue all of a sudden? I think it might be because it's the prime spot in the building to park, with others having to drive down multiple floors. I just thought it was kind of petty considering the lack of others competing for the chargers. If there were three cars, sure I would be happy to move my car promptly, just as I did for the last couple months at my prior apartment.
Final Thoughts:
I might have to get a second assigned spot. There's no way I can make my car charge for ~36 hours if I don't drive at all on Sunday (my car is a "40")
I could call the office again and ask them to change their policy until another plug-in moves into the building.
I should call the charging station owner and ask them if they meant to make the rate free.
So I called the management office and asked why they were patrolling this situation in the middle of the night when no other electric cars are in the building. They said it's the policy. I let them know I changed the settings on my car to take the entire night to charge (I made it start charging at 5A). The office was very surprised to hear that was possible, but said ok, just make sure you move it when done. I realize that this strategy isn't going to work however for a few reasons. I don't drive much on the weekends for one, and truth be told I don't actually have an assigned spot in the garage. My wife and I "share" a spot (since I never need it). The other factor should be that charging for that long could get expensive, but the charger isn't configured to charge me at all. The rate is $0.00 per hour on my account for some reason.
Why did this become an issue all of a sudden? I think it might be because it's the prime spot in the building to park, with others having to drive down multiple floors. I just thought it was kind of petty considering the lack of others competing for the chargers. If there were three cars, sure I would be happy to move my car promptly, just as I did for the last couple months at my prior apartment.
Final Thoughts:
I might have to get a second assigned spot. There's no way I can make my car charge for ~36 hours if I don't drive at all on Sunday (my car is a "40")
I could call the office again and ask them to change their policy until another plug-in moves into the building.
I should call the charging station owner and ask them if they meant to make the rate free.
