Experience with charging in the street, Arlington, VA?

[ZM’s Dad]

Hi...I live in Arlington, VA in a private single family home on a corner lot and I’m interested in getting a Tesla but concerned about my ability to charge it at home. We do not have a garage nor carport so we must park our cars on the street. My back/side yard has no sidewalk adjoining my property and I was planning to park the car on the curb and either install a Tesla charger or construct an outlet on my fence where I can run a charger from the fence to the car. Arlington Zoning said this would be illegal and could not grant a permit for it. However, zoning is a separate division from the electrical permitting division. I believe I’d need to apply for a permit from the electrical permitting division to get approval for the outlet.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of situation and could provide some advice? I’m assuming if I can get the electrical permit then how I use that permit would be up to me. There is no neighborhood association so I’d only be dealing with the county.

Thanks!

 

[MGMDaware]

Hmmm, it's hard for me to visualize what exactly you want to do. It would be easier if I saw the layout to give advice. I live in Va square. I understand if you prefer not to give your address. Check out this thread regarding a homemade curbside post with the charger built in. The guy responsible for this masterpiece is a very active user in the forums by the name of artsci. I believe he is also local (somewhere in Maryland). If we ever get a second tesla, I will most likely need to do something similar, since we can only fit one car in our driveway.

 

[ZM’s Dad]

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll try to reach out to that person. In the meantime, here are a few pictures:

 

[mociaf9]

Part of the reviews they do prior to approving new building permits is checking for planning/zoning issues. So, they likely won't issue you a permit for the electrical work if you can't get a variance. At least, not if it's clear what you are trying to do. If all you're applying to get approved is a NEMA 14-50 outlet on a new post inside your fence line, that might not be a problem. Of course, then the issue is that if someone sees how you're using it and complains you could then have some trouble.

 

[WATTS-UP]

Can you instal a driveway, so that you can drive up onto your property. Nema 14-50 against the wall of the house.

 

[flipb]

A friend of mine has a Model 3 in Arlington with a NEMA14-50 on the outside of his house. He runs an appropriately heavy extension cord to charge while street-parked. Very similar situation to yours. I don't think he's had any trouble.

 

[MGMDaware]

View attachment 390069 View attachment 390070 Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll try to reach out to that person. In the meantime, here are a few pictures:

Honestly, that looks fine. You can have an electrician mount a Nema 14-50r outlet in an all weather electrical box either on the wall where your BBQ is or on a post, just on the inside of your fence. I'm not sure what the distance is from the bbq to the street, but it might be long enough (definitely would work with a Tesla approved extension cord). If you mounted the nema 14-50 on a post at the fence line (within the fence), is looks like it will reach without an extension cord. There doesn't seem to be a sidewalk there, so it wouldn't impede foot traffic.

Another option, as @WATTS-UP mentioned, is to build a driveway. It looks like you have an awesome corner lot with some room to spare. I appreciate that it is an expense, but not only will it be more functional and make it easier to charge, it makes it safer for your new baby (the tesla, that is) and it will increase the value of your home (driveways are definitely in demand).

 

[Reddy Kilowatt]

When I was up at the Finger Lakes in NY. A Tesla owner had the same issue. He ran a circuit up to parking area. Mounted the outlet to a pole in a WP box. He hunted me down and told me where it was at if I needed to charge. Similar set up with the outlet just behind the fence.

I had done the long extension cord trick from the dryer outlet at the unit I was staying at. You could do this initialy. I would agree with mgmdaware and mount an outlet next to your BBQ and run the cord over. You will have the SC location there in town to use also.

 

[EdisonFire]

I would as above commenters stated run a weatherproof box near the tree for keeping it hidden. One of your pics also shows a flexible hose for sending gutter rain water away from the house. Run a 2nd flexible hose not connected to rainwater, and hide the NEMA outlet/power line in it so its out of sight, out of mind and no one, thief or otherwise would be the wiser. Also you could hit the separate circuit breaker to power up the connection once inside should you want. I have a summer place with a NEMA 14-50 connection outside. Since I'm not there roughly 8 months a year, I just kill the circuit breaker inside the house to ensure no one is using power all winter

 

[ZM’s Dad]

Thanks for everyone’s advice. Attaching photos of how I ended up. I’m expecting final inspection this week but preliminary inspection didn’t raise an issue. Wondering whether I really need to keep the car plugged in all the time or if I can top it off and leave it unplugged after charging. I’m still a little uncomfortable with it being curbside and having the cord exposed.

 

[ZM’s Dad]

Thanks for everyone’s advice. Attaching photos of how I ended up. I’m expecting final inspection this week but preliminary inspection didn’t raise an issue. Wondering whether I really need to keep the car plugged in all the time or if I can top it off and leave it unplugged after charging. I’m still a little uncomfortable with it being curbside and having the cord exposed.

 

[MGMDaware]

Thanks for everyone’s advice. Attaching photos of how I ended up. I’m expecting final inspection this week but preliminary inspection didn’t raise an issue. Wondering whether I really need to keep the car plugged in all the time or if I can top it off and leave it unplugged after charging. I’m still a little uncomfortable with it being curbside and having the cord exposed.

That looks great! Good job! As far as whether or not to keep the car plugged in . . . . "A happy Tesla is a plugged in Tesla". In other words, the car should always be plugged in when possible (remember to limit charge to 90% or less max charge). I wouldn't worry so much about the cord being exposed. It's really no different then the cord exposed on a driveway, as MANY MANY Arlington residents have (including myself). The cord is locked, as long as the car is locked, so it's not as if some passer-by can unlawfully unplug your car. For piece of mind, set the app to give you a notification if there is a charge interruption (this should only go off when the car is updating or if there is a power outage).