Installation of EVSE at work

I am lobbying to have an EVSE installed at my work building.

What do you recommend for equipment? Clipper Creek? They need requirements for the circuit amperage / voltage and for the layout. What would be best? It will be outside. Do you recommend going to a commercial EVSE distributor like chargepoint or whatever Blink becomes?

how much power would a typical EVSE use?

thanks!

First I would see if you can get buy in.

Second I would see what the budget is.

Third I would see how many potential users you have now (and in a year).

If you have more than one user and you dont have a huge budget I would consider simple 110v plugs. I'd rather have 3 plugs going to 3 cars instead of 1 charger that you have to trade off between cars during the day. Remember you will have a lot of time to charge and your car will not need a full charge when you plug in. 8 hours should get you to a full charge in most scenarios and for most cars.

Mike

There's a big thread about this in the Leaf forum that you might want to review.

As far as power, most off-the-shelf EVSEs deliver 30amps, and most commercial buildings would have 208v service, so that's a max power draw of 6.2kw. It's important to remember that's a maximum value, though, as many EVs, like older/cheaper Leafs and Volts and Plug-in Priuses will only draw about half of that.

As far as which EVSE to go with, that really depends on a number of things. The first question would be whether it'll be free or paid. As much as I'd like to charge for free at work, I'd recommend you go with paid ($.50-$1/hr is reasonable I think), and charge for time plugged in, not just time charging. That way you keep out the people who'll plug in their plug-in-priuses all day and reserve the spots for people who actually need to charge. Plus you won't get resentment from all those drivers of gas-guzzlers at your work because you're "fueling up" for free.

If you do go with a paid EVSE, I think Chargepoint is probably the best bet. I'd avoid Blink or whatever it becomes at all cost. For a non-paid "dumb" EVSE, CC is always a good choice.

I'd also second Mike's suggestion that a bunch of 120v outlets and a "BYO EVSE" policy could be a great solution, although if going that route you could possibly try for 240v outlets instead (or in addition.) A bank of L6-20s would require the exact same wire/labor as a bank of 120v outlets, just with different breakers and receptacles. A bunch of RV-style 50 amp 14-50s would be even better, of course.

Frankly, you are more likely to be effective by petitioning your city council or county supervisors to pass a statue that REQUIRES all commercial properties to provide at least some minimum level of charging infrastructure for EV commuters. A few - very few - cities are already doing this with respect to new construction sites and electrical permitting. I think CA and several other states recently agree to support the latter to help promote "clean air" and renewable energy proliferation. Unfortunately, it will take many more YEARS for this to catch on and become a widespread legal mandate to all businesses/corporations. In the meantime just a few well placed outdoor outlets in the parking lot for plugging in your own 120Vac EVSE L1 would be a good start, but I'm not holding my breath.

thanks for the input good advice. I broached the subject internally here at the company. Initially it looked like a go for a few 110 plugs outside, but as it worked its way upwards something bad happened http://myrav4ev.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=7&t=834# and I got a rather curt email saying it would not be done at this time. I will probe further and let you know what I discover.