Free charging station form EV Soltutions

[fusiondynamics]

Holy smokes 300+ available this month.

 

[Dianne]

I applied for quite a few today (on behalf of buyers) ... once I am done, they'll be out! (LOL)

PS: Just kiddin'.....

Holy smokes 300+ available this month.

 

[cwerdna]

Just give them a call and usually they can give you a estimate of the permit. It's not that expensive. It's expensive when the contractor decides that he wants to pull the permit for you and charges you 3 hours of his time to do it. I would recommend telling the contractor that comes to do your install that you will pull the permit yourself as the homeowner. The guy that came wanted to charge me 3 extra hours @ $75 per hour to pull the permit plus the cost of the actual permit. That added a $225 charge for about 30mins of his time.

Contractor that AV uses has emailed me and spoken to me and for San Jose, they say it will be $360 for the permit ($310 to the city and $50 for the electrician to do the drawing, load calculations, etc.) She said that SJ is a really expensive city.

Trying to get an answer out of the city over the phone was a big waste of time. I finally got a human and she didn't even know but could lookup how much they'd be charging others: $309.66. I think she even admitted it's more than SF a whole bunch of other cities.

 

[rav4buyer]

Just give them a call and usually they can give you a estimate of the permit. It's not that expensive. It's expensive when the contractor decides that he wants to pull the permit for you and charges you 3 hours of his time to do it. I would recommend telling the contractor that comes to do your install that you will pull the permit yourself as the homeowner. The guy that came wanted to charge me 3 extra hours @ $75 per hour to pull the permit plus the cost of the actual permit. That added a $225 charge for about 30mins of his time.

Contractor that AV uses has emailed me and spoken to me and for San Jose, they say it will be $360 for the permit ($310 to the city and $50 for the electrician to do the drawing, load calculations, etc.) She said that SJ is a really expensive city.

Trying to get an answer out of the city over the phone was a big waste of time. I finally got a human and she didn't even know but could lookup how much they'd be charging others: $309.66. I think she even admitted it's more than SF a whole bunch of other cities.

At this point I'm wondering if it'd be better to pay the extra $800 and go with the Tesla UMC to get 40amps versus the "free" AV 30amp version. Is the faster charging really worth that money?

 

[Interpol]

Has anyone had any luck recently in upgrading the docking cable from the supplied 15 feet to 25 feet?

I got in on the CEC program last week and have a contractor coming to my house on Friday 9/19 for installation. When I made the appointment I was told that I needed to contact AeroVironment to have them supply a 25 foot cord, as they were just the installers and would install whatever AV sent them.

So today (just now, in fact) I called AV and told them about my upcoming install, and was told in no uncertain terms that I could ONLY get the 15 foot cord. There wasn't even a process by which I could pay out of pocket for the 25 foot upgrade, and the units apparently are not upgradable after the fact. This has me concerned because the 15 foot cord may not be sufficient for where we plan to park our RAV4 EV.

Additionally, I asked about whether AV offered 40A EVSEs, and was told that they only manufacture EVSEs with 30A max output.

Any advice/suggestions on what I can to do to get a 25 foot cable, or somehow extend the length of the supplied 15 foot cable? I'm willing to pay extra $ out of pocket, or even go with a third party solution.

 

[miimura]

Tucsonev.com has 45 amp rated 8m (26 ft) J-1772 cordsets available for $175. However, it has bare cable on the EVSE end. When they say it's not upgradable after the fact, they really mean that they don't have a part available to sell you to do that properly. In reality, it depends on how the connection is made to the existing cable. That will determine how difficult it is to properly terminate the new bare cable and connect to the EVSE.

You may be better off working with the installer to get the EVSE mounted in a position that will allow the 15 foot cord to reach in some possible parking orientation. For example, you may have to back your car in for it to reach, or move the installation location to a different wall - even though it will require more wire and conduit.

 

[Interpol]

Tucsonev.com has 45 amp rated 8m (26 ft) J-1772 cordsets available for $175. However, it has bare cable on the EVSE end. When they say it's not upgradable after the fact, they really mean that they don't have a part available to sell you to do that properly. In reality, it depends on how the connection is made to the existing cable. That will determine how difficult it is to properly terminate the new bare cable and connect to the EVSE.

Hm, thanks very much for that link. It appears that Tucsonev also sells a J1772 extension cord, where you plug your existing J1772 connector directly into it and gives you an extra 20 feet of length:

http://www.tucsonev.com/J1772Extension.html

It's not cheap at $280, but this may be a viable solution.

 

[rav4buyer]

I'd go with the Tesla UMC connector in that case and have a NEMA 14-50 plug installed. It may be more expensive, but you will get 20ft of range, plus 40A charging. I think that's what I will do.

 

[Interpol]

I'd go with the Tesla UMC connector in that case and have a NEMA 14-50 plug installed. It may be more expensive, but you will get 20ft of range, plus 40A charging. I think that's what I will do.

Thanks, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of getting an EVSE for free in the first place.

 

[TonyWilliams]

When you get the "free one", pay an electrician to open it up and see if it is a standard wiring connection. If so, order the TucsonEV cable and plug and have the electrician install it.

If not (as extremely unlikely that is), then sell the free unit and buy one you like.

 

[miimura]

When you get the "free one", pay an electrician to open it up and see if it is a standard wiring connection. If so, order the TucsonEV cable and plug and have the electrician install it.

If not (as extremely unlikely that is), then sell the free unit and buy one you like.

The "free" charger has strings attached for a period of time. It appears to be at least 6 months of driving data (miles driven, gas used in PHEV, public charging usage) and of course they collect data from the EVSE also.

 

[TonyWilliams]

When you get the "free one", pay an electrician to open it up and see if it is a standard wiring connection. If so, order the TucsonEV cable and plug and have the electrician install it.

If not (as extremely unlikely that is), then sell the free unit and buy one you like.

The "free" charger has strings attached for a period of time. It appears to be at least 6 months of driving data (miles driven, gas used in PHEV, public charging usage) and of course they collect data from the EVSE also.

Again, I'm confident that you can put on a longer cord. If not, I guess you have to wait 6 months to replace the whole unit.

 

[knrav4ev]

I just got a call from a local electrician to install the free charging station. he is asking $300 to pull the permit (i think it includes the permit fee). can I avoid this? Can I have the permit pulled myself? Has anyone done that? appreciate your help..

thanks,
Ku

 

[miimura]

I just got a call from a local electrician to install the free charging station. he is asking $300 to pull the permit (i think it includes the permit fee). can I avoid this? Can I have the permit pulled myself? Has anyone done that? appreciate your help..

thanks,
Ku

As the homeowner, you can always pull the permit yourself. However, you will likely need documentation about the details of the work to be performed. Sometimes electricians would find you pulling the permit yourself helpful and will provide the documentation, sometimes they'd rather just collect the labor to do it, especially if they have an intern or something in the office to do it.

 

[cwerdna]

I just got a call from a local electrician to install the free charging station. he is asking $300 to pull the permit (i think it includes the permit fee). can I avoid this? Can I have the permit pulled myself? Has anyone done that? appreciate your help..

thanks,
Ku

What city are you in? You don't have to answer but what does your city charge? San Jose charges $310 :evil:. The contractor wants another $50 for the load calculations and few other things. I'll bite that bullet on that as I want it done right and don't want to go thru additional hassles.

Can you update your location info via User Control Panel (near top) > Profile (left side)? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

 

[knrav4ev]

I am in east bay.. my city San Ramon charges by the value of project and in this case, it is approx. ~100.

I just got a call from a local electrician to install the free charging station. he is asking $300 to pull the permit (i think it includes the permit fee). can I avoid this? Can I have the permit pulled myself? Has anyone done that? appreciate your help..

thanks,
Ku

What city are you in? You don't have to answer but what does your city charge? San Jose charges $310 :evil:. The contractor wants another $50 for the load calculations and few other things. I'll bite that bullet on that as I want it done right and don't want to go thru additional hassles.

Can you update your location info via User Control Panel (near top) > Profile (left side)? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

 

[Ampster]

I just got a call from a local electrician to install the free charging station. he is asking $300 to pull the permit (i think it includes the permit fee). can I avoid this? Can I have the permit pulled myself? Has anyone done that? appreciate your help..

thanks,
Ku

As the homeowner, you can always pull the permit yourself. However, you will likely need documentation about the details of the work to be performed. Sometimes electricians would find you pulling the permit yourself helpful and will provide the documentation, sometimes they'd rather just collect the labor to do it, especially if they have an intern or something in the office to do it.

In Hermosa Beach an EVSE permit is free, but you have to get clearance from SCE that they have the right infrastructure. Basically that means they look at the transformer on the pole in the street and other loads in the neighborhood.

 

[cwerdna]

Just give them a call and usually they can give you a estimate of the permit. It's not that expensive. It's expensive when the contractor decides that he wants to pull the permit for you and charges you 3 hours of his time to do it. I would recommend telling the contractor that comes to do your install that you will pull the permit yourself as the homeowner. The guy that came wanted to charge me 3 extra hours @ $75 per hour to pull the permit plus the cost of the actual permit. That added a $225 charge for about 30mins of his time.

Contractor that AV uses has emailed me and spoken to me and for San Jose, they say it will be $360 for the permit ($310 to the city and $50 for the electrician to do the drawing, load calculations, etc.) She said that SJ is a really expensive city.

Trying to get an answer out of the city over the phone was a big waste of time. I finally got a human and she didn't even know but could lookup how much they'd be charging others: $309.66. I think she even admitted it's more than SF a whole bunch of other cities.

City never got back to me w/a definitive answer. :roll:

The electrical contractor who had been very slow in giving me an answer as to whether I answered their questions sufficiently, whether my pictures were adequate and whether there'd be any non-covered special/extra work needed FINALLY got back to me today. I would've had to get a permission form filled out by the owner of the house (my parents) signed notarized (not free). Appointment was supposed to be Saturday 9/21.

Anyhow, they basically said that my load center was insufficient, that they'd have to dig to run another cable and it'd end up being ~$5K. Since they knew about my cost concerns, they knew it was going to be a no go... Oh well.

 

[rav4buyer]

Got my "free" EVSE installed today:
http://dmsan.tumblr.com

30A Aerovironment, 15ft cord. I will have to back into my garage to charge as the 15ft is not long enough but that's okay given I have a backup camera, and my mirrors fold at a touch of a button. I am lucky that my breaker box was conveniently located inches from where my EVSE needed to be.

Cost was $300 for permit fees ($110 from Cupertino, $190 for Electrician to get the permit for me)
I was going to pull the permit myself, but since there was no charge for the unit itself nor the labor for installation, I'll let them deal with the paperwork, load calculations, etc since it can't be applied for online in Cupertino.

After the lease deal and a "free" charger I am a happy camper

 

[knrav4ev]

Hi Rav4buyer:
Good job

I am still waiting for mine.. Ordered (at the time of lease) on 09/09. How long did it take for yours to get installed?

thanks.

Got my "free" EVSE installed today:
http://dmsan.tumblr.com

30A Aerovironment, 15ft cord. I will have to back into my garage to charge as the 15ft is not long enough but that's okay given I have a backup camera, and my mirrors fold at a touch of a button. I am lucky that my breaker box was conveniently located inches from where my EVSE needed to be.

Cost was $300 for permit fees ($110 from Cupertino, $190 for Electrician to get the permit for me)
I was going to pull the permit myself, but since there was no charge for the unit itself nor the labor for installation, I'll let them deal with the paperwork, load calculations, etc since it can't be applied for online in Cupertino.

After the lease deal and a "free" charger I am a happy camper