Charging infrastructure within condo buildings + HOA affects?

[Lloyd]

@Lloyd

How would they know what to charge you if you are on the building meter? The EV owner would have to keep tabs on electric used in the parking space and self report/pay for use. The law says the cost must be "reasonable" and leaves it up to the HOA and the EV owner to come to terms. Do you have any other legal info?

http://luskin.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/EV%20Charging%20in%20LA%20MUDs.pdf

"In summary, S.B. 209 mandated that CCRs that effectively prohibit or “unreasonably” restrict installation or use of EVSE are “void and unenforceable”.51 “Reasonable restrictions” are those that do not “significantly increase the cost or decrease its efficiency...”52 Approval or denial of a request to install or charge, if approval is neces- sary, must be provided within 60 days.53"

You know how many miles you drive, and how may Kwh's you use per mile. I'd say if you can come to terms with what you actually use to within 25% that's a deal. It is a problem when you are dealing with a common meter. The people paying the bill for the common don't want to be on the short side of subsidizing your driving. That's going to be their fear. You have to assure your HOA that you're not going to use more than you are paying for. This will be new for them so you will have to educate them.

If you do 90% or more of your charging at home like I do, why not allow the HOA access to your odometer, and pay them for use on 100% of your miles driven. The small penalty for charging away from home is a small fee to pay to make them feel comfortable with EV's charging on the common meter. Just a thought.

Another idea is to install a metering device in line with your EVSE or plug. If you do most of your charging off peak rates, negotiate a rate closer to the discounted rate. Someone posted earlier that these meters were available for ~$200 I believe.

Run a separate service and your own bill. Lots of fees and monthly meter fees as well.

 

[dsmith2189]

Iv'e been trying to get my charger installed for the last 6 months with no end in sight...
In Hawaii the law states that the HOA can not deny me the right to install a EV charging station, as long as I follow the HOA rules... (I heard that CA has/will have a similar law)
I got approval from the HOA to do the installation (I am the gunea pig for the new rules they approved)
Solar City did an estimate for a NIMA 14-50 plug (with a commerical grade meter). the price was somewhat reasonable given the 150' distance from the electical room.
the City has rejected the plans at least 3 times that I know of.
Enter a new player....
the building will be installing 3 public chargers for the commerical tenants. the rep who did the site survey for them also looked at my "Personal" charger as part of his installaton plan.
He found that even though this is a new building they did not plan to have EVs in the parking area and it does not have sufficient power to install EV chargers without installing a new line and transformer.
I guess that is why Solar City is having such a problem with my charger install.
If I wait for Solar City I may have to wait a long time. If I go with the same installer as the Building commerical units I will have to wait for the HOA to approve the installation of a new line and transformer ($$$$$).
A no win situation. Luckily the City has a charger accross the street I can use, it's just not very convenient.

 

[PhilBa]

This is one of the unfortunate realities of EVs. Apartment/condo/co-op dwellers are at a big disadvantage. I think it will be many years before apartments have charging stations. Condos and co-ops will be farther ahead but the lack of load capacity in the parking area will slow things down significantly. Right now, I suspect that the vast majority of EV owners live in their own houses.

I'm a home owner and basically am building a new garage with 100 Amp service to accommodate my Tesla. I had to switch an electrical water heater to gas (a good idea anyway)and consolidate several circuits to free up enough current capacity for my charger. So, even home owners have challenges.

 

[RandyS]

Just saw this thread...OP, SDG&E is sponsoring a MultiUnit Dwelling Electric Vehicle Charging workshop on Tuesday 5/14, at 9am at the Energy Innovation Center on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. All of these topics that you are asking about will be covered. You can sign up for the workshop at seminars.sdge.com and go to the May 14 event to sign up...I work for the utility and will be there. Just took delivery of my Model S a couple of weeks ago, so we can swap stories after the workshop...

I hope to see you and anyone else who is interested in this topic at the workshop.....

Randy

 

[TI Sailor]

As I replied in another thread...

A number of years ago several owners in my condo building, including yours truly, wanted to have electric available at their boat docks. Since non-boat owners did not want to help fund our monthly use, we had an electrician run lines from our individual post-meter panels in the main utilities/electrical room, located in the ground floor garage area. We did the same for our individual storage rooms. I plan to soon have a conduit and cable run to my undercover assigned parking space. If at all possible, I recommend it.

 

[T-Rati]

I'm happy to have found this thread, but at the same time sad to see other condo owners struggling with the HOA issues that I've been faced with.

I too am a frustrated condo-owner within a multi-unit building in Los Angeles who's been looking to get a 14-50 outlet installed in my personal parking spot for the last 3.5 months. After months of letter writing, phone calls, emails and pitching the HOA board, my HOA has verbally agreed to allow me to install a 14-50 outlet in my parking spot HOWEVER with very unattractive contingencies that I question is even legal.


Our HOA will only allow work to be done if I use their electrician however the quote from their electrician is more than double the cost of any other quote that I've been receiving. The HOA also insists that I pay all of their lawyer fees that are associated with them having to review California SB880.

Would love to hear from any of the lawyers on this board on whether this is even within the HOAs legal realm. Until then, my Model S has to wait until I get all of this straightened out