Hotel to charge in Santa Rosa?

[derekt75]

I'll be traveling to Santa Rosa next week.
It looks like 241 miles round trip.

If I were to drive 65 mph, I might be able make it, but I don't drive 65, and my usage averages around 395 Wh/mile.
That means my car (with 10k miles) is really only good for about 195 miles.
A Best Western in Santa Rosa says they'll give me a 120V connection, but over 10 hours, that only buys me about 30 rated miles, so I'd still be short.

The Fremont supercharger would save me 18 miles, so I'd only need 223 miles to get back there. I suppose 10 minutes there would be enough to get me home, but even getting to that supercharger would be dicey.

Anyone know of a hotel in Santa Rosa where I can charge faster than 3 miles per hour?

Otherwise, I think I'll take the ICE so I won't need to stress out about running out of juice.

 

[JPP]

FWIW, the Courtyard does not have 240V. Same with Hilton across the street. When I stayed @ the Courtyard in September I cheated and ran an extension cord to an outdoor 120V outlet on their patio (off of dining area) about 70 feet to a parking area and trickle charged for 24 hours.

Note that there are several public chargers in Santa Rosa (check Recargo & PlugShare). I found a free SemaConnect charger at the Walgreens in Santa Rosa (17 miles range per hour of charge).

 

[SFOTurtle]

You can stop at either the San Rafael or Burlingame service centers for a quick charge on the way up or back. Both are within very easy distance of Highway 101. If you have dual chargers, you could make a short stop up or back and combined with your 120V charger at your hotel, you should have plenty of buffer.

 

[derekt75]

Thanks JPP,

I've been looking at options to charge overnight at public parking. It's hard to see which ones would be cool with a car plugged in overnight and which ones wouldn't. Generally, it seems like I could charge a mile away from my friend's house while I hang out with my friend. I could jog the mile to the station. It would probably be less awkward for me to jog a mile from a charging station to a hotel, but that's still not ideal. I just ordered myself a Chargepoint card, but I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to use it.

 

[brianstorms]

IMHO the Chargepoints are useless in Marin County. 16-19 miles per hour of charge. If you have twin chargers in your car you can't beat the San Rafael service center's HPWC.

 

[cschock]

There is a free level 2 charging station at Coddington Mall in Santa Rosa. It's in a wide open parking lot, and I can't see why they would have a problem with you parking there overnight. Not many hotels nearby though.

If you would not mind coming as far north as Healdsburg there is a level 2 charging station (paid) at city hall within easy walking distance of many excellent places to stay (and eat!) I think it may have a four hour parking limit however.

 

[swisscottg]

Is there no SC on 101 north of San Francisco? I'm planning (our first) family road trip from the peninsula to santa rosa this weekend for the half marathon. Google maps says it's 85 miles each way and we have an overnight stay in one of the local hotels. picking up P85 later this week, would love some suggestions and recommendations on how to eliminate the inevitable new owner family range anxiety.

 

[ecarfan]

If you have twin chargers in your car you can't beat the San Rafael service center's HPWC.

I think that is a good solution.

 

[SFOTurtle]

Is there no SC on 101 north of San Francisco? I'm planning (our first) family road trip from the peninsula to santa rosa this weekend for the half marathon. Google maps says it's 85 miles each way and we have an overnight stay in one of the local hotels. picking up P85 later this week, would love some suggestions and recommendations on how to eliminate the inevitable new owner family range anxiety.

To answer your question, no, there is no Supercharger on the 101 north of SF. With a full charge to start, you should be able to do your drive without getting another charge overnight, but as with any road trip, always have a plan B before you head out on the road. As myself and others have pointed out in this thread and elsewhere (search is your friend on TMC), if you have dual/twin chargers, you can take advantage of the HPWC at the San Rafael service center 24/7. Next best thing to a Supercharger -- you'd be looking at 50+ mph of charge on this HPWC. Also, if your hotel has a 120V outlet, take advantage of that overnight. You'll pick up 30 miles of charge. And finally, make sure you learn how to enable sleep mode. Ask the delivery specialist at the factory (I assume you're picking it up at the factory) how to set that up. You don't want to lose charge unnecessarily overnight.

 

[ecarfan]

I'll be traveling to Santa Rosa next week.
It looks like 241 miles round trip.
The Fremont supercharger would save me 18 miles, so I'd only need 223 miles to get back there. I suppose 10 minutes there would be enough to get me home

Where are you starting from?

Don't forget about the HPWC's at the SC's. Available 24/7.

 

[SFOTurtle]

Where are you starting from?

Don't forget about the HPWC's at the SC's. Available 24/7.

I'm guessing the OP does not have dual chargers since the San Rafael and Milbrae service center options have been mentioned repeatedly in this same thread and he hasn't commented on them. Without dual chargers, pulling off the highway to charge at a service center isn't as appealing as you're only going to be getting 27 or 28 miles of charge per hour.

 

[mrbry]

I was just there for a bike event last month. I drove up from Los Angeles and charged at Harris Ranch and Gilroy on the way up. Fremont was crowded with a queue of people waiting to charge so I skipped it. I hit traffic for the last 30mi or so on the way in. I kept track of the energy graph + avg wh/mi rate while driving to always be sure I had enough breathing room on range. The only snag I hit was not having any cash at the toll both for the 580 bridge...

So the only charging I did was at the free Chargepoint station in a lot near some Sonoma County public buildings.
38.464809, -122.723481 - Google Maps

Basically there's a couple public Chargepoints around Administration Dr. However, the Chargepoint down the road on Administration Dr somehow had a defective J1772 port that wouldn't detatch. I did about a 4hr charge and that was enough with what I had left to get back to Fremont after being in Santa Rosa from Thursday to Sunday. There is a 4hr parking limit on these public spots, however, the sign only says 4hrs between 8am and 8pm or something like that. So presumably you could park there overnight and walk to a hotel nearby. I stayed at the Hilton Sonoma just off of Mendocino and Fountaingrove, about a 15 min walk from the loction I've pointed out above.

- - - Updated - - -

One more thing. There's a lot of left turn arrows at the intersections. I had the strangest occurrence with my Model S not setting the car sensor off at Steele Ln turning left (north) onto Mendocino. I knew something was up after 3 light cycles and a line of cars about a block back waiting on the left turn lane. I basically just ignored the arrow on the next cycle and we all went based on the general green light. First time I've ever been in such a situation. What was strange was the cars before me triggered it fine and other left arrows in other intersections were fine too...

 

[hiroshiy]

Just looked up Recargo, and I easily found Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel and Spa has three J1772s.

 

[mrbry]

Just looked up Recargo, and I easily found Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel and Spa has three J1772s.

I saw that and the hotel was booked when I was there, and was going to suggest it to the OP. However, looking at the Recargo comments, it seems these are actually non-existent as of Oct, so I didn't bother mentioning it. If anyone can confirm or deny the existence of the chargers at the Hyatt that'd be great.

 

[hiroshiy]

Oh I didn't notice that! Sorry about that.

EV Charging Location - Public Parking - Garage 12 - Santa Rosa, CA
How about here? It seems there are one near railroad parking but it was unavailable once and no updates since. The location above is a bit far from Hyatt 10 min walk but with successful records.

 

[Klaus]

The single ChargePoint unit in the railroad parking lot underneath 101 was broken when I tried it 4 Oct. I called ChargePoint and they said it would take a while to fix it. It was still broken 27 Oct. The address is wrong btw, it's in the northern-most lot on the west side.

I went to the parking garage on 1st street early October and there are two on the ground floor, one with a disabled sign, but clearly marked for charging only. That one was taken by a disabled plate ICE whose owner interpreted the signs in his favor. I got the other spot. Low $ parking fees. I think charging was free.

Update - Never mind, charging is $1/hr, $2 min.

 

[derekt75]

I would have been fine paying $1/hr overnight. It's a lot less than the $40 in gasoline I just burned. I was less okay with paying an extra $100 or whatever to stay in a Hyatt rather than a Best Western. In the end, the gasoline car was easier. We could easily get there and back without refueling. I didn't need to work with a hotel to get my car plugged in. I didn't need to leave my car a 10 minute walk from my hotel in a public lot and hope that it was okay to charge there overnight. I could stay in any hotel I wanted.

Oh well, I imagine that some day there will be many hotels with chargepoint stations. Charging $1/hr, I wonder how long it would take for a hotel to recoup its investment in a chargepoint station.

I still haven't used my chargepoint card.