Silicon Valley Leaf Friendly Apartments

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gatsby2010

New member
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
Messages
3
Hi
Apologies if this has been covered, but I'm looking for feedback on apartments complexes/ rental accommodations with a fairly reliable charging option. Especially interested in San Jose... I've looked around on Plugshare and this forum, but any more specific feedback appreciated!

Thanks
 
These might be out of your targeted area... but accessible to SV within a 30min commute:

Township Luxury Apts (2 Chargepoints J1772)
333 Main Street, Redwood City

Franklin Street Apts (GE Wattstation j1772)
1553 El Camino Real, Redwood City

Shelter Creek Condos
4231 Shelter Creek Ln, San Bruno (2 Chargepoints j1772)
 
My son just moved into the Madera Apartments ( 455 W Evelyn Ave, Mountain View, CA 94041) and I noticed they had several empty L2 charging stations in the parking garage. I don't know the payment arrangements. I think they were ChargePoint and probably pay-as-you-use. It's a beautiful complex with all the possible amenities you could imagine (meditation room, reservable movie theater, reservable banquet facility, pet washing station, of course a gym, meditation room, pool, bocce ball court, conference room, multiple pro-quality gas barbecues at roof level or ground level.) It's directly across from the CalTrain station. It's also ridiculously expensive (almost $4000 for a one bedroom).
 
I have lived in an apartment in Santa Clara and have also looked at other apartments as well, with the requirement that I could string an extension cord from an outdoor outlet on the apartment to the assigned parking space.
I got lucky at the Village Green apartments near Cabrillo and Calabasas, the manager initially heard me ask to plug in and started to
reject my request, until I clarified that I would be happy to run and extension cord from the apartment to the parking (located under the building) so that my charging would not jack up the common meter reading from the parking area, but be accounted at my own apartment.
I got an end unit that had an outlet on the balcony and also a parking space at the same side, the last slot next to a retaining wall with the garden next to it, so I ran a 12 Gauge extension cord from the balcony down, hugging the retaining wall in the garden and any time I wanted to
charge (overnight) I pulled the end of the cord out from behind the retaining wall and plugged in, typically overnight.
Initially I had the cord laying in my parking spot, but the manager expressed concern that residents might trip over the cord since a stairwell
was near my parking spot as well, so I moved it behind the retaining wall.
I also made sure that at my balcony I had strain relief (rope tied around the cord attached to a screw in the balcony) to avoid someone pulling the cord down and disappearing with it.
I had zero trouble and overnight Level 1 charging was usually sufficient to fill up the pack and I had no contest for charging, whereas public charging has become a nightmare of hit and miss. This morning I visited a local hospital that had the foresight to install not only 4 Level 2 chargers but in addition 8 "Level 1" standard outlets. Every single one was taken, in fact there were more than 12 EVs and plugins parked around the EV charging spots, probably hoping to get a charge once one of the other EVs left.
So, I strongly recommend to talk to the manager of the complex and explain what you like to do - overnight Level 1 charging is often all you need, so a good quality extension cord and an outdoor outlet and a strategically positioned/selected parking spot should be all you need.
 
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