Eastern Canada Superchargers

[Chrisizzle]

I worked in Niagara On The Lake in December. The Stratus Winery let me plug into their loading dock while I was working.

The Pillar and Post Hotel runs an extension cord from their office to a nearby spot upon special request. That was occupied on my visit but the bellboy said one of the light posts had an outlet. So, I parked there.

Both were just regular 110v outlets but, on a cold snowy day it is nice leaving with more than I arrived with. I was impressed that neither location hesitated.

Meanwhile, I stayed at Courtyard Marriot in Wausau, WI. The hotel has a Tesla 80a charger but they add $15 to your room for the service. They added another $5 when I asked them to leave it on for my return trip.

 

[Supercharged]

I worked in Niagara On The Lake in December. The Stratus Winery let me plug into their loading dock while I was working.

The Pillar and Post Hotel runs an extension cord from their office to a nearby spot upon special request. That was occupied on my visit but the bellboy said one of the light posts had an outlet. So, I parked there.

Both were just regular 110v outlets but, on a cold snowy day it is nice leaving with more than I arrived with. I was impressed that neither location hesitated.

Meanwhile, I stayed at Courtyard Marriot in Wausau, WI. The hotel has a Tesla 80a charger but they add $15 to your room for the service. They added another $5 when I asked them to leave it on for my return trip.

These guys are penny pinching. It doesn't cost anything like $15.00 for a charge. Who are they kidding?
Tesla should be made aware of outlets trying to capitalize on the EV trend.

 

[mknox]

I see the BW Butler in Niagara On the Lake has a Tesla HPWC now for guests.
It is, however, dialled down to only 15A. Why bother!
My guess is they don;t realize that it can be cranked up. Perhaps I'll call them now.

Not sure in this case, but they might not have the circuit capacity available. If they only have a 20 amp, 240 volt breaker and wire, they would have to have it dialed to 15 or 16 amp continuous current.

- - - Updated - - -

These guys are penny pinching. It doesn't cost anything like $15.00 for a charge. Who are they kidding?
Tesla should be made aware of outlets trying to capitalize on the EV trend.

It could be close. $15 for a full 85 kWh would work out to about 18 cents/kWh which isn't that much out of whack from the rates in certain areas. Most commercial accounts also pay a "demand" surcharge, and adding 15-20 kW of demand could result in extra utility charges as well. It's true that most would not be charging from zero to 100% but there are the costs of the electrical work (wire, breaker, labor etc.) to be recovered as well. On the other hand, it could be something that the hotel offers to EV drivers for free in order to raise their awareness in the community.

 

[mrElbe]

This season the real cost of Hydro One for service at my location is 18.316 cents/kWh. So, $ 15.00 is not out of line.

 

[Doug_G]

At 15A it would take a couple of days to use $15.

 

[Mayhemm]

These guys are penny pinching. It doesn't cost anything like $15.00 for a charge. Who are they kidding?
Tesla should be made aware of outlets trying to capitalize on the EV trend.

These EVSEs should be considered a value-added feature to draw Tesla owners to their hotel over the one across the street. I suppose they also charge for other services like bar fridges and WI-FI access?

It could be close. $15 for a full 85 kWh would work out to about 18 cents/kWh which isn't that much out of whack from the rates in certain areas. Most commercial accounts also pay a "demand" surcharge, and adding 15-20 kW of demand could result in extra utility charges as well. It's true that most would not be charging from zero to 100% but there are the costs of the electrical work (wire, breaker, labor etc.) to be recovered as well. On the other hand, it could be something that the hotel offers to EV drivers for free in order to raise their awareness in the community.

While we're on the subject of recouping costs, didn't Tesla donate this charger to the hotel?! I think offering drivers free charging for a year or two would be a reasonable exchange.

At 15A it would take a couple of days to use $15.

The hotel with the 15A charger is different from the one that chargers $15.

 

[mathur]

I am planning a trip to Ottawa this weekend from Toronto. I have my wife and two kids with me. I am staying at Chateu Laurier in Ottawa. Anyone know how much charge I can expect in these temperatures when I arrive in kingston to charge and then what are my options to charge in Ottawa as I will drive around town a bit on Saturday and Sunday and then return trip on Sunday evening.

Thanks...

 

[Duckjybe]

FYI: I had difficulty making a connection with the Kingston SC Unit B this afternoon. It had worked well on Friday afternoon.

After I plugged it in today, it started to charge but only for a few seconds and then it stopped. I tried three times and the same thing happened. I switched to Unit A and it worked fine. I was initially concerned that the whole station was malfunctioning.

I phoned the problem in to Tesla and they said that they were already aware of the problem and were working on it.

Its working now.

Custom Kingston supercharger equipment is huge. Two giant cabinets.

 

[iKhalid]

At 15A it would take a couple of days to use $15.

Tell me about it, sigh...

 

[Doug_G]

I am planning a trip to Ottawa this weekend from Toronto. I have my wife and two kids with me. I am staying at Chateu Laurier in Ottawa. Anyone know how much charge I can expect in these temperatures when I arrive in kingston to charge and then what are my options to charge in Ottawa as I will drive around town a bit on Saturday and Sunday and then return trip on Sunday evening.

Thanks...

Assuming you get off the 401 and drive to the Supercharger, then temperature shouldn't have much effect. Stop for lunch and you're good to go.

I don't think there's a charging station at the Chateau Laurier. If necessary you're welcome to use the CS-90 at my office.

 

[Ken_S]

I am planning a trip to Ottawa this weekend from Toronto. I have my wife and two kids with me. I am staying at Chateu Laurier in Ottawa. Anyone know how much charge I can expect in these temperatures when I arrive in kingston to charge and then what are my options to charge in Ottawa as I will drive around town a bit on Saturday and Sunday and then return trip on Sunday evening.

Thanks...

We just returned from Toronto to Ottawa on Tuesday. I did a full trip charge at Tesla Lawrence before leaving and arrived at the Kingston SC ( via 401) with 65 kms RR left. We charged up to 390 kms RR in Kingston and arrived ( via 401/416) in Ottawa with 127 kms. With milder weather forecast for this weekend, you should be able to get better energy use. For your return trip, if you need to save energy to get to Kingston SC, I would suggest taking Highways 7/15 which is the route we used to take before the Kingston SC opened.
There are Charge point stations in the downtown core but they will take a long time to charge up. You may want to consider staying at the Albert@Bay Suites or the Best Western which have charging stations which will enable you to park and charge up overnight or while you are walking around downtown. They are advertising free parking for EVs till Earth Day so there may be other EVs wanting to charge there also. I suggest that you contact them to find out details.
Have a good visit. :smile:

 

[Supercharged]

I am planning a trip to Ottawa this weekend from Toronto. I have my wife and two kids with me. I am staying at Chateu Laurier in Ottawa. Anyone know how much charge I can expect in these temperatures when I arrive in kingston to charge and then what are my options to charge in Ottawa as I will drive around town a bit on Saturday and Sunday and then return trip on Sunday evening.

Thanks...

i did the trip last week. Took the 401 to Kingston and charged to the max but you have to watch your speed in cold weather as I didn't have much range left and I went 108 km/hr.
I believe I had 54 km left.
Then took the 401 to the 416 and stayed at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata which has two Tesla HPWC indoors. Parking is free for the first 3 hours. You pay for parking after that but the charging is free.
Charged up in the morning and was good to go. If you drive around Ottawa for the day, I would suggest returning to the hotel to top off for an hour or so before heading down the 516 or the 7. ideally, a SC near Tweed or Smiths Falls would be great, then we can take 7 all the way to Toronto via Peterborough and not touch the 401 until the 115/35. Peterborough BW has a CS 90 you can use as well if you need to top off.

Strange thing about the Brookstreet Hotel is that it has a window in the washroom of the hotel room overlooking the bedroom. I guess they're trying to make it more like home.

 

[RichardC]

Its working now.

Custom Kingston supercharger equipment is huge. Two giant cabinets.

Thanks for the update.

Any news on Comber? The Tesla rep at the Barrie launch indicated that it should be up by now, but no guarantees ...

 

[sandpiper]

So I attempted the run between Sudbury and Barrie, as part of a longer trip over the last couple of days. The Google maps distance between my house and the SC is 298 km. I drove in the evening both directions. Temperature on the way down varied between -22 and -27. On the way back it started at -17 and dropped to -25.

The trip could simply not be done without a short charging stop at a 70A charger in Parry sound. In both cases I would have run dry with about 20 km left. That's despite.... range mode on, heating at 17.5 and front defrost on (req'd or the windows frosted over) and I drove on cruise at 90 km/hr. I tried following trucks running at a higher speed, but that made it worse, not better.

Conclusions...

1. The range on this car in deep cold of winter is horrible.
2. If Toronto is to have access to the T/C hwy, there has to be another station in Parry Sound or the French river. Putting one in Sudbury might be fine in summer, but not winter.
3. I'm sick of -20s. If we have to have global warming, I want my piece.

 

[RiverBrick]

... I'm sick of -20s. If we have to have global warming, I want my piece.

There have been an absurd number of -20C days, despite Winters being warmer almost everywhere else in the World. One theory is that overall warming has changed air currents and pressure systems so that arctic is more likely to invade Eastern Canada. I hope that's wrong.

 

[iKhalid]

So I attempted the run between Sudbury and Barrie, as part of a longer trip over the last couple of days. The Google maps distance between my house and the SC is 298 km. I drove in the evening both directions. Temperature on the way down varied between -22 and -27. On the way back it started at -17 and dropped to -25.

The trip could simply not be done without a short charging stop at a 70A charger in Parry sound. In both cases I would have run dry with about 20 km left. That's despite.... range mode on, heating at 17.5 and front defrost on (req'd or the windows frosted over) and I drove on cruise at 90 km/hr. I tried following trucks running at a higher speed, but that made it worse, not better.

Conclusions...

1. The range on this car in deep cold of winter is horrible.
2. If Toronto is to have access to the T/C hwy, there has to be another station in Parry Sound or the French river. Putting one in Sudbury might be fine in summer, but not winter.
3. I'm sick of -20s. If we have to have global warming, I want my piece.

I think the defroster bypasses the range mode.

 

[Doug_G]

I've done 300 km at -20C but I had to stick to 80 kph.

 

[sandpiper]

I think the defroster bypasses the range mode.

I think that the big killer in regular mode is the battery heating. I don't thing that the defrost re-enables high level battery heating because when it got very cold, I had a power & regen limit on display. Battery heating should have eliminated that.

As to the defrost... it was either that or sit beside the road. Without defrost on low, I would have been reduced to scraping holes in the frost with a credit card.

- - - Updated - - -

I've done 300 km at -20C but I had to stick to 80 kph.

I tried 80 for a bit, but didn't notice an appreciable reduction in consumption. Maybe I didn't try for long enough.

- - - Updated - - -

There have been an absurd number of -20C days, despite Winters being warmer almost everywhere else in the World. One theory is that overall warming has changed air currents and pressure systems so that arctic is more likely to invade Eastern Canada. I hope that's wrong.

If that happens, I'm moving to the southern US. This is just nuts. It's -25 again this morning!

 

[RichardC]

3. I'm sick of -20s. If we have to have global warming, I want my piece.

There is no doubt about global warming, and good reasons to blame it for the current weird weather.

I you want relief, you may want to consider moving to Alaska! See:

http://www.redorbit.com/news/scienc...ce-moving-for-lack-of-snow-021315/?print=true

http://ecowatch.com/2015/02/17/idit...ail&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-9ad5ab94e8-85924237

On a more practical note you may want to:

1. Increase your tire pressure, as the pressure drops with the temperature.
2. Use anti-condensation coating on the inside of your windows, to minimize condensation and frost
3. Don't use the defrost button - instead use the defroster vent air direction setting on the heater control panel (this seems to use less power)
4. Minimize the use of the defrost vent setting (leave the temp at 17.5 and directed to your feet, turning on the defroster vent only to the extent required)
5. Preheat using shore power to the max

If all else fails, we will simply have to stop breathing for the duration!

Humour aside, I am averaging 203 WHr/km since putting on the winter tires (well into the worst of the winter), much of it in the minus low teens and minus 20's and on the highway.

I for one would like to see a 120KWHr battery pack upgrade option, as well as more Superchargers.

 

[Doug_G]

I tried 80 for a bit, but didn't notice an appreciable reduction in consumption. Maybe I didn't try for long enough.

Local conditions, especially changes in elevation, make it hard to tell how you're doing. You need to drive a fair distance before the difference becomes obvious.