Besides posting the newswires, I do other EV-cause things. One of which
is monitor my local EVSE on a routine basis. I queue these up when my
monthly expenditures have been satisfied, and I can spend some money to
venture out and play outside that day (its nice to be get away from
being at home with the keyboard all day).
BTW: When an EVSE company lists their EVSE on their own website, they
also routinely fed that to the Fed Gov site [afdc.energy.gov] that has
all U.S. EVSE listings. However, the Fed Gov site is woefully out of
date and fraught with errors that are difficult to get them to correct.
These bogus listings are then fed to the EV Charging Finder app/sites
(like recargo, carstations, plugshare, Google, etc.) that then make the
errors available for the public to be confused by (the problem has just
been amplified, and getting the Fed Gov site corrected can take an act
of God to accomplish. Believe me, I have tried).
The last time I was at the Facebook Menlo Park east campus, they were
still dumping money into retrofitting that site from what Sun/Oracle had
sold them to what they wanted. Their onsite security vendor made it
quite clear that they, like many Hi-tech companies around Silicon
Valley, are hyper security conscious: they do not want non-employees
using their EVSE nor tooling-about their site. I dropped by their front
lobby and let them know that their EVSE is incorrectly listed as public
and if they want, who to contact to resolve that.
[History: ~about a year ago when I saw that AMD (of PC processor and
other chip fame) had their EVSE listed as public, I made a extended
effort to make contact with them (it was not easy and took some time to
complete the connection). After I had told them what needs to be done,
they got their EVSE taken of that EVSE's web site, and off the Fed Gov.
site. Most Hi-tech firms do not want just anyone (the public) coming in
and using their facilities, as it can cause them problems. I always
check with them as there are a few open-minded firms that allow the
public to come in, plugin, and mooch a charge on their property.
Prediction: there is a percentage of noob drivers that bought their
plugin just for the advantages and not to save the world. Whether it is
to get a cheap pih so they can park in an EV spot all-day thus blocking
access to the EVSE because their plugin's small pack finished recharging
quickly, or to live off all the free level-3 charging in the area and
not have to pay anything to get about.
]
Next location, there was a level-2 j1772 Blink EVSE listed at nearby
Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley
2050 University Avenue
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
(650) 566-1200
fourseasons.com
When I arrived onsite, I went to talk with the front desk to gain their
permission to see the EVSE and learn their usage requirements and
limitations. Generally, a Hotel/Motel businesses, only want staying
guests or drivers that are dining at their restaurant to plugin, and the
drivers have-to check-in at the front desk to secure plugin permission.
In this case, I had assumed what was on recargo was fed by Blink, and
thus it just needed verifying and their local details added. This is a
high-end Hotel, and after a wait to have a short stand-up conversation
with the upper Hotel manager in their lobby, I sadly found that he was
livid that his Hotel was listed on a site somewhere as having EVSE
without their permission or them requesting it.
He said in the past when a Tesla driver had stayed with them, they had
their valet park it in a space that had a nearby level-1 outlet and
plugged it in overnight in their secure parking garage (its a
rough/crime-ridden area, so secure parking is worth the added cost of
parking in their garage).
He let me know that they do not have an EV Charger, nor plan to in the
near future (they are quite conservative), he said "We will wait until
there are these types of vehicles actually on the road before
considering a charger". Wow, are these people behind the curve. They
have no idea that Silicon Valley has the most plugins of the whole bay
area, and that having a listing offering charging is good for business =
free PR. Yet, they are not hurting for business, so I suppose they
really do not care how the world is changing around them.
With a smile and thank you, I bid my goodbyes. On my way out, I chatted
up a couple of the valets. So even though the upper manager would not
even let me in the garage to confirm what they had, the valets I talked
to confirmed it was just an outlet that happened to be there. You know,
the kind you hunt and find that is connected to a long run of small
gauge wiring, that would be lucky to get 12A out of.
Next, I went and checked out several other nearby public EVSE locations,
and checked on the ones on the Stanford U. campus to update their
listings. Stanford U. was a leader in installing public EVSE way back in
the late 1990s. The sites I found that the old GM-inductive and Avcon
conductive EVSE, have been yanked and today's j1772 EVSE installed.
This was the happier part of my trip. I felt good that established known
EVSE sites have been upgraded and are now more useful to both the host
and plugin drivers. After I got home and got behind a keyboard again, it
looks like both Blink and Chargepoint websites do not list Facebook's
EVSE correctly (what is there, is not what is on the EVSE websites which
gets fed to the Fed Gov site.). Is it any wonder that EV Charging Finder
app/sites can get so screwed up if EVSE vendors do not do their job
correctly?
Facebook had a large amount of new Chargepoint EVSE installed on the
east of their campus. About half of a row of double car parking was
changed to EV-only spots. In the center of four spaces was a square
cement pad (about the size of what you see when businesses put trees in
the parking lot in-between the spaces). Each pad had two Coulomb dual
level1&2 j1772 & 5-20 stations, with each of those having a separate
5-20 duplex box in a weather tight enclosure at the base of the EVSE
post.
You might wonder why a whole lot of unmeasured level-1 charging was
going-on/put-in when there is level-2 6kW to be used. I can only think
the at some point if and when Facebook sets the Chargepoint EVSE to have
a use-fee, some employee may want to opt for using the free level-1
instead. This new EVSE increases Facebook's amount of employee plugin
charging. They are beginning to encroach on Google's EVSE empire
standing.
I am glad that Facebook had installed so many EVSE. Not only does it
show their commitment to satisfy their employee's needs, but the new
Blink EVSE installed on the west side of the campus was unused by the
employees. It was unused because, as I have said before, Blink EVSE
hardware is junk. These new EVSE were powered on but unusable: the
whiz-band touch screens were way out of alignment so you could not enter
your codes after using your card to enable the charger = what a waste of
money. The Chargepoint/Coulomb EVSE hardware was powered on, and ready
to use.
I have submitted my Facebook EVSE findings to recargo, and they said
they will confer with powers that be and work to get the listings
corrected. I updated the other listings manually, so that drivers will
have accurate information.
While all this effort may sound like a few hours, it actual is much more
than that. I now have to wait and wait for the next up date of the Blink
and Chargepoint sites, and see if those updates have been passed on to
the various EV Charging Finder app/sites (recargo , carstations,
plugshare, etc.). This could take several months. So what I found I have
to archive as notes, and then remember to come back to it to verify what
has been completed properly. Will the major EVSE companies finally get
their act together and list these EVSE correctly. Only time will tell.
Good thing there is a n EVangel on the job to look out for the newbie
plugin drivers that are obvious to all my efforts.
{brucedp.150m.com}
--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Same, same, but different...
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