Has anyone ever looked into the possibility of adding a way of connecting an rv to those electric car charging stations? My town has a bunch of free ones all over.
Would there be any benefit to having a port connected to the coach's electrical system that would accept the universal plug on the stations that are popping up all over the country? Perhaps if it were tied into an inverter that would direct the current, just like plugging into a 240 tower at an rv camp site?
Just thinking out loud, but I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts.
I may be wrong as I have not looked into it as of yet but I believe those chargers would be much different then the ones for bus house batteries. They are exceptionally high voltage batteries in electric/hybrid cars and they attempt to have a rapid charge feature. Likely not compatible with most RV's 12 V or 24 V systems. Interesting thought though, I would like to look further into it!
I asked about it once, and the ones in my town are "fast chargers" and use around 500 volts DC. Not useful to an RV at all. Residential chargers are often 240 volt and use an on-board charger, which the fast chargers bypass.
Brian
How could you even fit your bus into one of those slots? They usually are normal car parking spaces aren't they?
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I believe the ones in my town (and the ones that are popping up everywhere) are not the rapid charge DC, but the type 2 kind, which are 240 volt, and charge a car from dead to full in about 6 hours.
As far as parking, some of ours are regular spots, but there are also some just in lots, with plenty of space around them.
Obviously, they would have to be wired into a device that would insure that the current matches something the coach could use. :)
Reminds me of an old black-and-white movie I once saw where the hero/villain main character would craftily refuel his car (gas converted due to wartime petrol rationing) by plugging it into the street lamps!
Jeremy
According to this, ours are Level 2 charging:
https://pluginamerica.org/understanding-electric-vehicle-charging/ (https://pluginamerica.org/understanding-electric-vehicle-charging/)
Now if we could just add a plug to the front or back of the coach, we could tap into that free electricity :)
Here's the connector needed to connect to most public charging stations. Now just need to be able to use the current it supplies :)
http://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=35&products_id=433 (http://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=35&products_id=433)
I doubt it would work since these charge stations don't start running until they have sensed the hook up, and the draw from the batteries. Nice thought though. Good Luck, TomC
And, who is paying for all this "free" electricity?
I had a friend "a few years ago" that went to Florida every winter.
He had a map of every Walmart or store parking lot that had plug in in the light poles.
He even had which pole to use.
And I thought I was cheap.
uncle ned
Nobody is paying for it. That is the point...it is free. Just like "Freeways". ;D
on sunday my wife and I went through walmart and there is a sticks and staples rv plugged into a light pole right in front of the front doors ?
this was at 9:00 am ? and you wonder why people do not like rvs camping in walmart
we have stayed over night at walmart but never set up camp , just slept
dave
Once at the Walmart in Butte MT, it was around 0*F. I asked the manager if there was a outlet we could use overnight. He said sure use one at the back near the loading docks. That was nice because the furnace ran all night, and the block heater had the engine nice and toasty for starting in the morning.
Making an adapter to plug into a Tesla or municipal charging station would be stealing in my view. Unless arrangements or permission was obtained ahead of time.
JC
Its only free to those who bought the electric cars. Tesla in California sells you a car for 100,000.00 that probably is worth a whole lot less and then tells you that go ahead and plug in to our charging stations for free. The Local and federal Governments give the car owners as well as the manufactures money off their taxes for making and buying these cars. Being they have no money of their own except for your tax dollar, guess who is paying for it... You get two chances to guess!..... LOL
Dave
I do understand the politics involved, but the money used to be the tax payer's, and it is now Tesla's, and it is meant for charging their cars, as a benefit of ownership, not for an RV to mooch. That is why they have proprietary plugs, that would be difficult to duplicate.
JC
These twits that abuse the good will of Walmart and a few other's just make it hard on all of us .I remember a few years back there was a Goober from Florida that spent the whole summer at our Walmart in Asheville This was a motor home not a bus,but to make a long story short ,it wasn't but a little while until "No Overnight Parking" signs appeared.I mean if you can't afford a place to stay ,keep your butt at home .I mean this was not a "junker"motor home! It was a late model well kept motor home!!
Many people have the idea that everything should either be free or someone else should pay for it. Obviously the former isn't possible without the later.
Everybody knows electricity is free and it comes from those little holes in the wall. Right?
I mean if you want cotton, all you have to do is open up a pill bottle and credit cards are free money so why worry huh?
The electric car chargers that you see everywhere aren't really chargers at all. They are fancy electric switches. The chargers are actually in the cars themselves and do a lot of fancy voltage conversions and battery monitoring. The charge units you see at businesses are usually level 2 units which operate off of 240 v ac, They have a small computer in them that talks to the car charger/computer when hooked up. The car computer tells them is can accept up to xx amps of electricity. They shake hands and the "charge unit" computer operates a solenoid that completes the circuit to the car and passes the 240 ac to the car. When the car charge is complete, it tells the "charge unit" that it is finished and to turn off. Level 3 charging, sometimes called hi speed charging is very high DC voltage. Seems like it is around 5 or 6 hundred volts.
Anyway, just for clarification, is the question related to plugging in to one of those chargers and camping there or just a way to save a little generator time when charging?
Quote from: Lin on August 28, 2016, 04:52:25 PM
Anyway, just for clarification, is the question related to plugging in to one of those chargers and camping there or just a way to save a little generator time when charging?
I was thinking of just using it to save a little generator time. Most of the charging stations I've seen aren't in the most scenic of locales. :P
Quote from: arutkow on August 29, 2016, 03:50:10 AMI was thinking of just using it to save a little generator time. Most of the charging stations I've seen aren't in the most scenic of locales. :P
The info above tells me that it's not a feasible proposition, based on the power management and software involved in the stations. Maybe some electronics guy could come up with a way to tell the charger to deliver two 50-Amp legs of 240V (or whatever maximum your charging needs might be) but it certainly isn't "plug and play" as things are now.
I am struggling with the concept of how people who do not want to pay to be in a campground or RV park somehow feel entitled to plug into somebody's power outlet and take electric. It is not free. Someone is paying for it.
Quote from: Jon on August 29, 2016, 07:02:10 AMI am struggling with the concept of how people who do not want to pay to be in a campground or RV park somehow feel entitled to plug into somebody's power outlet and take electric. It is not free. Someone is paying for it.
Yes, there is that, too. (My note above was purely about the technical properties that appear to make it not practical -- even if one had the facility to pay for it.)