Condo EV Charging Solution??

[RayK18]

Ray, I have worked on these projects for the local utility where I work...Here are a few tips that I would suggest...

* I'm generalizing, and this might not apply to you, but many high rises have the meters in a lower floor in an electrical room, and then they run cables up to the living units where the breaker panels are installed. Because of this, you may not be able to easily add an additional circuit to your existing electric panel without a lot of work and/or a long run.

* In many cases, this leads to a separate meter solution in the electric room for your EV charging. So there needs to be electrical capacity in the gear that feeds your building to do that and physical space to do that (one EV charger may be able to be squeezed in, but the more you try to install the harder it gets). In our locale, the contractor would work with a utility Planner to get the new service (meter) installed (assuming that capacity and space are not an issue). Loads have to be verified within the switchgear that feeds the building to ensure that adding this new load will not exceed the nameplace ratings of the existing equipment, and the utility feed for the building will also be studied for similar effects.

* Once the okay is given, the utility will write a "Service order" and the contractor can start work. First they work out the solution in the meter room to install the new meter. Then they would run conduit and wire from the meter / breaker panel to where your car is. Sometimes they have to core drill through floors (which can be messy), and sometimes you get lucky and the car charging location is nearby. One of my customers was able to swap deeded parking places with another resident to get closer to the electric room.

* For this much trouble and expense, I would suggest pursuing a Level 2 charging solution. Level 1 is painfully slow, and some of that power goes to the battery cooling system when charging, so it's a higher percentage of loss at Level 1...

Check out this writeup for multi-unit dwelling charging at the Plugin Electric Vehicle Collaborative. There is a case study for CityFront Terrace that may be applicable to your situation. They put in 20 separate EV meters, and are charging residents $4,000 for their share of the meter (Service) installation, and that includes the conduit run and wire all the way to your parking space...Your situation may be smaller and more economical, but I just wanted to point out that example...

I hope that info helps....

Charging Infrastructure at Multi-unit Dwellings | PEV Collaborative (General page)

http://www.pevcollaborative.org/sites/all/themes/pev/files/cityfront copy.pdf (CityFront Terrace example)

That is a treasure trove of good information. In my enthusiasm to succeed I had not realized that the garage outlet wiring would have to come from my 4th-floor electrical panel, or, as you suggest, a separate meter and breaker need to be installed. A limitation for sure.

The links are helpful as well.

Thanks

 

[Vic_F]

Check local and state laws. In CA there are laws to push property owners and HOA to accept EV charging capability.

 

[mknox]

Here is a little story of how a family in Ontario, Canada dealt with the issue. I thought it was genius.

 

[KJD]

Here is a little story of how a family in Ontario, Canada dealt with the issue. I thought it was genius.

That was an interesting page, thanks for the link. Do you know if they were installing NEMA-1450 outlets in the parking stalls or did they go with something like a 30 amp EVSE and a J1772 connection.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Here is a little story of how a family in Ontario, Canada dealt with the issue. I thought it was genius.

I think that it's a _great_ story that shows for residents of MDUs:
- The challenging economics
- The potential for deferred rapid growth of PEV ownership
- A practical measure (seed funding repaid by joining) that governments could take to help

 

[rypalmer]

Here is a little story of how a family in Ontario, Canada dealt with the issue. I thought it was genius.

Wow! That's an ambitious project. I can see the attraction vs individual owners going it alone, though. Who can we expect to scale this type of solution to other buildings though?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

That was an interesting page, thanks for the link. Do you know if they were installing NEMA-1450 outlets in the parking stalls or did they go with something like a 30 amp EVSE and a J1772 connection.

there was enough surplus electricity in 144 Park’s electrical system to have up to 20% of the parking (roughly 8 allocations/floor x 4 floors of parking garage = 32 allocations) to have concurrent EVC @ 32kw/hr.
...
The up-front cost for the EVC retrofit project to install 4 -200Amp 3-phase subpanels and 4 sub-metering modules to service 32 allocations would be approximately $50,000 excluding legal fees.
...
Purchasers would subsequently supply their own EV charger and pay to have it hooked up and inspected when they were ready to charge their EV.[/b]

So, they have to supply their own EVSE and have it installed. Each allocation effectively gets 208V x 25A so can have 20A charging at 4.16kW.

 

[mknox]

That was an interesting page, thanks for the link. Do you know if they were installing NEMA-1450 outlets in the parking stalls or did they go with something like a 30 amp EVSE and a J1772 connection.

So, they have to supply their own EVSE and have it installed. Each allocation effectively gets 208V x 25A so can have 20A charging at 4.16kW.

That is how I understand it except I'm not clear on the circuit size. I think the author was a little fuzzy on the technical details (mixing up kW and kWh for example). My assumption was that they were 30 amp circuits (24 amps delivered). Actually, that's plenty. I ran my Model S on a 20 amp / 240 volt circuit (16 amps delivered) for the first two years I owned the car, and at the time I was driving about 20,000 miles/year.