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[Richard230]

My daughter just got 16 roof-top solar panels, an Enphase 10 KWh backup battery, a new 200 amp service and a new solar-ready electrical panel at a cost of $50K USD. Not a price that most homeowners can afford and an improvement that you are never going to see an apartment owner make.

If the power goes out at my daughter's home the battery will only power appliances in the house for just a few hours, but not an electrical stove, dryer or furnace. Fortunately, they still have their laundry dryer and furnace powered by natural gas. I know California wants everyone to switch from gas to electric power, but the cost/benefit of doing so is rarely mentioned. I really feel sorry for all of the apartment dwellers in the state. Switching from ICE to EVs is really going to be tough on them when they find that they can not charge their vehicles overnight and have to go to a commercial charging station to "refuel" their cars, along with all of the other apartment dwellers in their neighborhood.

[DonTom]

Doesn't CA have the law that all new apartments must have so many EV charge stations? Or in CA, perhaps the problem is all the buildings are old, all the land was built on years ago in areas such as the SF Bay Area.


Even in Reno, NV all the newer apartments have J-1772 charge stations, and they work for all makes of EVs. Tesla needs a cheap adapter that used to come with the Teslas. Mine came with all types of adapters but I hear the newer ones don't.


The older apartments can be an issue with EVs.


-Don-  Tucson, AZ

[Richard230]

You may be right about that, but any new apartment buildings being built now will only be a fraction of the number of old buildings that are currently the most (relatively) affordable places to live. And those apartment owners are not about to spend thousands of dollars installing charging stations for their residents, as well as reducing the number of parking spaces available for them, to be set aside for EV charging.

[Specter]

From my apartment living days, NO the landlord is NOT going to throw thousands of dollars away to make YOU feel smug with an EV.
Parking always was at a premium too and I remember more than one kerfluffle over the years on who gets what parking space

What you might can do is make, or buy an extension cord with the same plug as say your  dryer has on it, and just run it out the window to charge your car or something and hope you don't live in a high theft neighborhood.  I know in my hood, you'll get shot real fast messing with someones car or stealing stuff, but commiefornia, not so sure.

What would be interesting is, an older building, all those cars charging, for hours on end, hmm not going to be nice on its wiring.

Aaron

[Richard230]

Which is why Alice's Restaurant does not allow EV charging from their old 100-amp service that powers both the restaurant and the adjacent gas station. They also are not about to pay for an L2 charging station or two as that would be too much of an expense, as well as taking away some of their parking spaces, which are solely needed during the summer.

[HoodRichOG]

Which is why Alice's Restaurant does not allow EV charging from their old 100-amp service that powers both the restaurant and the adjacent gas station. They also are not about to pay for an L2 charging station or two as that would be too much of an expense, as well as taking away some of their parking spaces, which are solely needed during the summer.

I'm not sure how you deduce that. They could probably make money off a few L2 stations if they used Chargepoint since it's such a high traffic area.

100A to 200A service upgrade is going to be 6-7K, it's not that much in the grand scheme of things.

[Richard230]

Which is why Alice's Restaurant does not allow EV charging from their old 100-amp service that powers both the restaurant and the adjacent gas station. They also are not about to pay for an L2 charging station or two as that would be too much of an expense, as well as taking away some of their parking spaces, which are solely needed during the summer.

I'm not sure how you deduce that. They could probably make money off a few L2 stations if they used Chargepoint since it's such a high traffic area.

100A to 200A service upgrade is going to be 6-7K, it's not that much in the grand scheme of things.

The owner told me so when I asked him if they were going to install some L2 chargers a few years ago. Before that a group of Zero owners visited the restaurant, plugged into the 220V plug at the side of the gas station, shown in the attached photo, and blew out the restaurant's entire (and very old) electric system. It took several days and lots of money to repair the system. The owners were not happy. Then they put up a notice saying that EV charging is not permitted.

[Specter]

100A to 200A service upgrade is going to be 6-7K, it's not that much in the grand scheme of things.

IF.. the feed to their panel is big enough.  If it's say only like 4 ga wire, and not 1/0 - 4/0 or whatever CURRENT CODE... which is what they will INSIST they comply with for that upgrade says it needs to be, then it's a major deal.  THe power company will probably want a piece of that as well, oh you  need a bigger transformer, that's another 4500 dollars, plus labor.   Then their power is out for the day, lost wages, food getting warm etc etc.

Aaron