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Charging Etiquette?
- Thread starter XxCyberHackerxX
- Start date
arcus
Active Member
Are you talking about one-off event or on a a regular basis? If it is an isolated even you can always offer to pay some small change for their increase in the electricity bill and inconvenience. It won'r really run their bill that high for a single event and will give you a great opportunity to educate folks on EVs. If permanent, that should be part of planning around owning an EV in my opinion.
Whenever I visit relatives for Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc., I use 14-50 or 6-50 outlets at their houses. My brother has a smart meter so he can see exactly how much I use. At my father's, I just tell him how many kWh I used and then pay him the going rate. Usually it it less than $10 but I go ahead and give them and entire $10. Honestly, both my brother and father would probably let me charge for free but I don't mind paying them for the electricity that my car uses.
If I put myself in the position of a friend/relative I'd want them to plug in to charge if it made sense for them.
After all I am the one that invited them over. It's no worse than a few beers or eating a few snacks.
After all I am the one that invited them over. It's no worse than a few beers or eating a few snacks.
I think that depends on how often they come over to visit.
As it is now, I only charge a couple of times per year at my brother's house. I'm sure that if I moved to his town and showed up to charge my car daily, he and his wife would probably not be too pleased.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Ask ahead of time. Bring a gift to offset the cost of electricity and extend your thanks. Don't overthink it.
I think it's fine to ask, but that you should also offer to drop a few bucks to cover the kWh. If you had an ICE, would you ask to have some of their gas from a gas tank they have? If you really need it, sure...but again it seems like you should be offering to pay for it and not just take it and run.
TexLaw
Member
I agree that there's no problem at all with asking and that offering to pay is quite appropriate. Even if you are talking all of $5 or less, many do not realize that, so it's better to be polite than assume. Do ask well in advance, though (i.e., when you are planning your trip). Asking once you arrive and have your charging cord out isn't the way to do it.
Try to depend as little as possible on their charging, too, and show up with the gear you need. That's just being a good guest. Of course, all this depends on what your host offers and what sort of relationship you have.
We actually had something of a situation like this over Thanksgiving, driving to Saint Louis and back. We were staying with my wife's great-aunt. She's a very gracious hostess, and she offered to let us charge at her home. She only has a 120V outlet, but that was more than enough over the few days we spent with her. I could tell, though, that she was concerned about what she was getting into. We assured her that it probably would cost on the order of $5 and that we were bringing our own extension cord. She was totally cool with it and even engaged in some good-natured bragging about it all (despite being a lifelong GM employee).
Grace begets grace.
Try to depend as little as possible on their charging, too, and show up with the gear you need. That's just being a good guest. Of course, all this depends on what your host offers and what sort of relationship you have.
We actually had something of a situation like this over Thanksgiving, driving to Saint Louis and back. We were staying with my wife's great-aunt. She's a very gracious hostess, and she offered to let us charge at her home. She only has a 120V outlet, but that was more than enough over the few days we spent with her. I could tell, though, that she was concerned about what she was getting into. We assured her that it probably would cost on the order of $5 and that we were bringing our own extension cord. She was totally cool with it and even engaged in some good-natured bragging about it all (despite being a lifelong GM employee).
Grace begets grace.
But, I got my brother a Roomba for Christmas so I think I'm set for awhile.
Interesting points. Most of my relatives absolutely dont mind me plugging in. For the most part our line of thinking we are family and this what families do help each other out. Usally I dont ask my friends unless I am sleeping over.
rhumbliner
Member
I visit my brother ~6 times a year and he mentioned once that he wished he had an outlet in his garage for his planer. So I installed a new circuit with a 6-50 receptacle and paid for all the materials. In exchange I now get free charging at his house. Quid pro quo.
Graffi
Member
IMO most non-EV operators do not realize how much cheaper it is to operate an EV. Therefore use those moments to educate your family/friends that you visit. Before our Tesla when we would drive our Leaf out of R/T range and needed to plug in just to have enough to get back home we either found a Nissan dealer we could stop at to plug in for the addition of what was needed. However, on a very few occasions we did ask to plug in. Knowing how much time and the rating of the 120v outlet we could let our host know how much the electricity would cost (usually on $1 or $2).
With a Tesla there is usually very little need to plug in on a visit. But it could happen. In those cases I recommend getting advanced permission to plug in to get what is needed (lets say $3 or $5 if staying plugged in for overnight or even longer).
Last summer on our cross country trip we stayed for almost a week with my brother. He lived in a small town that was about 60 miles away from a Supercharger, both east and west. He offered to let us plug in but it was only 120v outlet. It really was not worth the effort to pull out the charging cables. Instead I called the local Nissan dealer asking if I could use there 240v Charging station. They were excited that we were using an EV for our long trip and even offered to make sure the spot was open for us. We ended up waiting until the night before leaving to drive over, plug in, then picking up the car the next morning. We were down to about 10% by the time we got to the Nissan dealer, so charging up to 100% really helped when we left.
Several years ago on the Leaf forum someone asked for suggestions on how to approach their boss to ask for permission to plug in during the work day. In his case the value of the daily electricity was so low that I suggested that he let the boss know how much the cost of electricity would be and offer to work an extra 5 minutes each day of free overtime to pay for it.
With a Tesla there is usually very little need to plug in on a visit. But it could happen. In those cases I recommend getting advanced permission to plug in to get what is needed (lets say $3 or $5 if staying plugged in for overnight or even longer).
Last summer on our cross country trip we stayed for almost a week with my brother. He lived in a small town that was about 60 miles away from a Supercharger, both east and west. He offered to let us plug in but it was only 120v outlet. It really was not worth the effort to pull out the charging cables. Instead I called the local Nissan dealer asking if I could use there 240v Charging station. They were excited that we were using an EV for our long trip and even offered to make sure the spot was open for us. We ended up waiting until the night before leaving to drive over, plug in, then picking up the car the next morning. We were down to about 10% by the time we got to the Nissan dealer, so charging up to 100% really helped when we left.
Several years ago on the Leaf forum someone asked for suggestions on how to approach their boss to ask for permission to plug in during the work day. In his case the value of the daily electricity was so low that I suggested that he let the boss know how much the cost of electricity would be and offer to work an extra 5 minutes each day of free overtime to pay for it.
Lasttoy
Active Member
I take them for a hell of a ride. The answer is always YES, anytime. Let them drive it, you get juice for life. They love the green no gas idea.
I don’t understand this way of thinking. You’re there for almost a week— you could have charged the car from 10% to 90% twice over in that amount of time plugged into a 120V outlet.
Graffi
Member
We were using the Tesla daily, so overnight would have been the only practical time to charge. Yes, we could have, and my brother offered, but with the range we had left we knew we could go the full week without the recharge. However, since we knew the Nissan dealer was happy to let us use there EVSE we decided to just wait until our last night there to drop it off for recharge. The dealership was less than 2 miles from my brother's home and office so he picked me up after work. He also took me back to the dealer the next morning while his wife was cooking breakfast.
