Electric car charging stations

[arutkow]

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.

[jav9956]

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!

[bevans6]

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

[Scott & Heather]

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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[arutkow]

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.

[Jeremy]

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

[arutkow]

According to this, ours are Level 2 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

[TomC]

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

[usbusin]

And, who is paying for all this "free" electricity?

[uncle ned]

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

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

Nobody is paying for it. That is the point...it is free.  Just like "Freeways".  

[sledhead]

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

[lostagain]

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

[Dave5Cs]

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

[lostagain]

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