Commercial Charging Units for a Hospital

[Michael Bornstein]

I have been assigned the task of preparing a paper for the Hospital CEO to discuss the options for chargers in the hospital lots.

Unfortunately, the CEO knows little or nothing about EV's and also doesn't know what Corporate had in mind when he was told to investigate chargers.

Basically I have a bunch of scenarios to look at:

1. Hospital owned units
2. Network units (Chargepoint, Blink, EVgo NRG)

He would prefer that the charging be free, but again is not sure what Corporate desires.

Also:

1. Chargers in public lots.
2. Chargers in employee lots.
3. Chargers in physician lots.

I am thinking that employee and possibly physician lots should have set of L1 chargers such as the L1Post type. Employees stay 8 hours or more. Physicians stay several hours, sometimes 8-9 depending on specialty.

Physicians may need L2 units as some stay only a few hours.

Public lots should have L2 units probably 30A/208V. We don't want the hospital to become an EV mecca (There is almost no public charging in this town), and the public lots are FULL all of the time anyway. The hospital may be looking at building a parking structure across the street.

I am not sure if L3 charging is appropriate as it would be the only L3 in town (other than the Nissan dealer), and people would have to stick near their cars for 30+ minutes.

I think this topic has come up before, but I can't find the link.

The physician owned cars include: RAV4 EV, Leaf, Honda Fit, Tesla S-85, Tesla Roadster, Volt, PIP, and possibly others that I haven't seen.

Anyone with suggestions or experience?

 

[jimbo69ny]

Whatever you do dont do what they did at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, NY. They installed 2 level 2 j1772 charging stations and put them in the handicapped spaces very close to the hospital. I can just see some 90 year old woman keying my car if I ever used them.

 

[Weekdayskier]

I think the only viable way to have charging in a public setting is to have a rotation/reservation system or have it controlled by valet parking/security.

I have used airport parking where it is done by the valets. Very convenient and everyone that needs a charge gets one. The SFO/Oak private lots do this. The government airport lots are a free for all. Frequently occupied, ICE'd or used by a Volt/Prius. I will not use my EV unless I can be sure that I'll make it home. Others will not buy an EV unless it can be charged.

At a hospital, no matter how many EVSE's are in place, they will be occupied if free. I'd suggest that it costs money if it isn't controlled another way.

 

[miimura]

If the intention is for the charging to be free, you have to find out if accounting needs to know how much they're being used. Many times in corporate situations, the company needs to know how much energy is being provided to employees as a fringe benefit. A networked station like a ChargePoint unit can do this reporting and limit usage to employees by having a white list of access cards that are allowed to use it. If you don't need those features, then a station from Clipper Creek (or similar) will be much cheaper to purchase and will not have ongoing monthly fees attached to it. Usage data can also be provided by an energy monitoring system or private sub-meter. Also, just because a station is a "Network Unit" doesn't mean that you wouldn't have to pay for it up front.

You should also talk to somebody in facilities to find out where the nearest electrical facilities are for the parking lots of interest. If you need to provide accurate costs in your report, then you will have to fully bid the project with cooperation from the facilities department. Just providing costs of hardware without installation is nearly pointless in this situation due to the scope of work required to get power to the stations.

 

[smkettner]

I would try to make the initial install fairly simple with ClipperCreek HCS40 that provides 30 amps.
Put eight in each of the three areas. At least one more in one of the public handicap spaces, position so sharing is possible.
Place toward the side or rear of the lot to reduce parking issues.
You can do a lot of signage, enforcement, towing..... or have security put marked cones in front of the spaces that can be moved for charging.
Just my random thoughts.

I would stay away from L3 QC.