Streetlamps become charging stations.

[ElecFan]

Anyone heard of this initiative?
These London Streetlamps Can Charge Electric Cars Now

 

[swaltner]

Fully Charged had an episode on Ubitricity back in June. It looks like a nice solution.

 

[arcus]

Makes perfect sense!

 

[kort677]

putting in outlets like this is conceivable but as we all know that governments can be way behind the curve on technological innovations.
a side note, in many places homeless and others have been tapping into the street lamps for power.
http://nypost.com/2017/08/02/this-homeless-guy-has-found-the-ultimate-power-hack/

 

[bhzmark]

It already exists in many places with 110v. Just look around and often newer lamppost installs have plug on some if not all of the posts.

 

[timk225]

What's to stop some jackhole from coming along and unplugging the cord from the street light?

 

[bhzmark]

Nothing. But I've done it a number of times and never had a problem

 

[bonnie]

What's to stop some jackhole from coming along and unplugging the cord from the street light?

And if that happened, you would be notified that charging had stopped.

I've used plenty of outlets in the wild when an EVSE was unavailable. I've never had a problem with being unplugged. Well, except once. But that was when someone was going to jack my Roadster. A whole 'nother situation which had nothing to do with it being an EV.

 

[TaoJones]

It already exists in many places with 110v. Just look around and often newer lamppost installs have plug on some if not all of the posts.

View attachment 271575

A small town adjacent to my home town (The latter being too poor to have street lights, and yes, we did walk to school in the snow. Uphill. Both ways.) has 110V outlets at the base of each street light. Helps with the Christmas lights each year.

Anyway, before they built SCs relatively nearby, those street light 110V outlets were my fallback option about 3 years ago in case all other options (ChaDeMo, L2) fell through.

Loved getting the question, "How long's it gonna take to charge when you're plugged in across from the Grange Hall?"

"Oh, about 3 days if the circuit doesn't blow and take the town down with it." Sometimes I could even manage that answer with a straight face - hey, it was half accurate.

Then I got a visit from a concerned-looking town manager. Yep, can't make this stuff up.

Never did have to use those 110V outlets, but I did elsewhere (in the rain in the middle of the night, not that I remember it vividly or anything) when an SC was completely down (and not marked as such in Nav).

 

[S'toon]

And if that happened, you would be notified that charging had stopped.

I've used plenty of outlets in the wild when an EVSE was unavailable. I've never had a problem with being unplugged. Well, except once. But that was when someone was going to jack my Roadster. A whole 'nother situation which had nothing to do with it being an EV.

Now there's a story that needs to be told.

 

[bonnie]

Now there's a story that needs to be told.

Everything is on this forum.

Charging Lessons

 

[suwaneedad]

I live near Georgia Tech. Its on campus parking decks have a plethora of Level 2 chargers, pay per use.
But lately, GT has also been exposing 110 outlets for EV use at no incremental charge.
This is a no-brainer, obviously, and a solution that I've suggested for airports during the past five years around here...
Just expose the existing 110 so travelers gone several days can gently charge while gone.
No new infrastructure required.

The marginal cost of power is so small, exposing street light power to EVs, to homeless people, etc. is a no-brainer and almost entirely without cost to the local government.

 

[david_42]

Some of the street lights near my house had 110v outlets, but they were all removed when the lights were upgraded to LEDs.

 

[EfficientWatts]

can someone tell me in NA how common are the different voltages are for streelights? google says they can be 120V, 208V, 240V, 277V, 480V (in effect they can be virtually any voltage).

one advantage that Tesla has is that it can support 277V charging via their connector. (277V is single phase off a 3P 480V circuit). J1772 does not support that voltage level. would be funny to see special 277V lamp chargers for Teslas only.

the streetlamp thing is easier to do in europe in that they don't have to worry about the wide range of values; the plug will work. in the US, possible not so much (though maybe 208/240 might be common enough that it could work, but i don't know the breakdown). europe also has it easier in that the plug from the lamp is standard, so you don't have to worry about dragging around multiple adapters. it also looks cleaner than having cables permanently attached to the post