EV charger at workplace

Prospectors

Hi,

Does anyone have ev chargers at their workplace?

If so, how does it work - does employer pay for the electricity, or do you need to pay yourself?

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058229517/ev-charger-at-workplace

Depends on the employer.

we have about 10. Shared. No right to use, first come first served.

no cost to employee

NIMAN

We have 4 x 2.

Again, no cost to employee.

the_amazing_raisin

We had 3 EC charging units where I worked, had to pay (14c/kWh) for them so never bothered using them

KCross

In an effort to apease the begrudgers (because there will always be those in every company) the employee pays a nominal amount in our place.

notAMember

Yes, have chargers at work. Plenty of them. No charge, and they are powered by wind turbines, which is satisfying…

ELM327

It's been over a year since I was last in the office but from memory at that point we had 5 * 2 * 22kW chargers at work (so 10 total plugin points).

Free to use.

There's also a few that are in the business park for all to use, these are pay to use.

Boscoirl

We have bout 50 chargers, mixture of 22kw AC and 25kw DC, currently free to use, but i am sure a nominal charge will come in soon, as they are getting busier. all the Managers have EVs now as their company cars.

i think some people only come to the office to charge the car

10-10-20

We have 6 for ~1,000 staff. All free but are 3.3kW.

Needless to say, they were causing some problems due to availability and low charge speed. Some users completely depended on the charge to get home (8hrs * 3.3 = 26.4kWh), others were happy to just take it when available and others never got a charge as they started later in the day. When we tried to mediate by splitting the charge-day in half we met resistance, mainly from the older vehicle/smaller capacity users who wanted to sit and charge all day.

If we were doing it again I'd have some 3.3kW chargers assigned to individual parking spots as "day-long" sessions and then a selection of 7kW chargers shared between two parking spots as "semi-day" sessions. That way the 7kW users don't need to physically move their vehicles, they can just release the charging cable at lunch-time and let the other user take up the charge.

DC would have been nice, but the local ESB transformer was already at it's limit.

slave1

Assuming office/shift hours then ERs should look to external 3pin sockets, EEs don't come to work for a free charge and should not be encouraging same. 2.2kW is plenty for your typical shift, ~15-16kWh into the battery.

Their install cost is a fraction of a charge point and they can then have many more charging spots

whippet

I've started with a new company this year and our office is a shared office space - quite small - was delighted to see to chargers out front on the first day. however it turns out the management company charge €1.50 per hour for the use - I'm assuming it is probably on 3.3kw as it is a single pole with two plugs .. but at that rate I didn't even bother to enquire.

PsychoPete

We have 4 chargers in the car park but nobody that works here has an EV

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118524387#Comment_118524387

All free but are 3.3kW.....

... the older vehicle/smaller capacity users who wanted to sit and charge all day.

Thats a ball ache for sure. Ours are setup on timeslots and the charge session auto stops and you are expected to move... "Its a charging space not a parking space."

A fair usage policy was also setup from the get go, so no hogging the charge points all day. If someone buys a car that necessitates they hog the charge point all day then thats their problem. Once you set a precendent or give people something its very hard to take it back.

You'll probably now have to wait until all the low range cars are gone before you can change the policy unless you can get some new 11kW charge points installed, which sounds unlikely given you also have transformer limitations.

Chris_5339762

Public service here, not one single charger in any staff carpark.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118524238#Comment_118524238

Wow, that's pretty impressive, must be a fairly forward thinking company

finbarrk

About 6 chargers here. Maybe 150 working staff. There is hardly 6 users at the moment anyway. Free too.

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118524387#Comment_118524387

Who needs 26kWh to get home? Even in my pig slightly inefficient EV, I'm fairly sure I could manage over 100km in winter with 26kWh. Is it more likely to were avoiding charging at home by doing all their charging in work?

slave1

The commuters obviously, mate of mine had long commute with Leaf24, had to fully charge in work to get home, last I was chatting to him pre all this COVID crap the car was on 240k, treated it as a workhorse, never serviced and was in PWO with 3 lost bars

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525233#Comment_118525233

He was coming in via the motorway all the way in an older Leaf24 so was eating the watts. I think he needed 20kWh, but wanted the extra few for comfort (or heating)! Talk about keeping it tight!!

CreadanLady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118524098#Comment_118524098

No they're not. They are powered by the grid, which in turn is supplied by a mixture of generator types, gas, wind, coal, and nuclear through subsea cables. The mix of generators on the grid varies continuously, and everybody gets the same power from the same mix of sources regardless of what their supplier tries to convince them of.

If your supplier is giving good rates for renewable only, that is just an exercise in billing and a healthy dose of greenwash nonsense.

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525315#Comment_118525315

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick somehow. This is about workplace facilities, not domestic.

I didn't name the place, so I'm not sure how you seem so very sure of yourself. Involved in the commissioning of the turbines? You receive the monthly generation reports and alerts?

At this workplace specifically, the plant is powered by private turbines on prem, and feeds back to the grid. The turbines typically generate more than 400% of the campus needs. Including all the support services, water processing, kitchens, IT systems, facilities (like the in-house car chargers).

Boscoirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118524799#Comment_118524799

I work for a car manufacturer. We also have roughly 30 more chargers in a workshop including a ~300kw DC charger(that’s not fully commissioned so only get 100kw at the moment so not sure what the max speed of it is) they are not for employee use though.

innrain

1 public DC 50 kW charger on the grounds. ~1300 parking spaces.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118524761#Comment_118524761

What part of the PS?

I'm PS and we have about 10, free to use.

Sam the Sham

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525315#Comment_118525315

While that is true, when you choose an electricity provider who advertises 100% renewable electricity you are encouraging others providers to compete on those same grounds.

What makes no sense to me is when you have a provider like Bord Gais that has some plans that are “green” and others that are not. I assume what that means is only that they divide their total contribution to the grid into renewable and non-renewable sources and sell proportionate amounts of the respective plans.

Grumpypants

We had two between 3 if us. One person in the leaf we let plug in all day and us two with phevs swapped at lunch so we all got a charge.

Hopefully when we go back they stick in a few more.

They were free but you had to go into security and then back out with a swipe card then back to security and then to your desk. Good for getting the steps up. Not when it's raining and you are late for a meeting.

Prospectors

OP here,

Thanks for the info.

My workplace don't have any yet, but it sounds like there are concerns by some with ICE cars that any free electricity should be considered BIK and therefore should not be free.

We will see what happens.

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118528079#Comment_118528079

That was confirmed in a government budget a few years ago (2018) and there is no BIK involved for electricity used in workplace charging. The ICE drivers are begrudgers... thats all that is.

Go to this doc. Page 7 says...

"Electricity used in the workplace for charging vehicles will also be exempt from benefit in kind."

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118528079#Comment_118528079

Christ, do they pay bik on their coffee machine use and parking space as well? Miserable gits.

MightyMunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118524700#Comment_118524700

I agree, we have 10 x 22kw and with a Model 3 the car is charged by 10am. With Covid it hasn't been full yet but only a matter of time. Would have been better to have more chargers with a lower output if there was a constraint. It's mostly PHEVs charging at 3 kw anyway!

Grumpypants

Is it a regulation now to have chargers. If not it should be.