Commercial Charging Units for a Hospital

[MichaelBornstein]

I have been assigned the task of preparing a paper for the Hospital CEO to discuss the options for chargers in the hospital lots.

Unfortunately, the CEO knows little or nothing about EV's and also doesn't know what Corporate had in mind when he was told to investigate chargers.

Basically I have a bunch of scenarios to look at:

1. Hospital owned units
2. Network units (Chargepoint, Blink, EVgo NRG)

He would prefer that the charging be free, but again is not sure what Corporate desires.

Also:

1. Chargers in public lots.
2. Chargers in employee lots.
3. Chargers in physician lots.

I am thinking that employee and possibly physician lots should have set of L1 chargers such as the L1Post type. Employees stay 8 hours or more. Physicians stay several hours, sometimes 8-9 depending on specialty.

Physicians may need L2 units as some stay only a few hours.

Public lots should have L2 units probably 30A/208V. We don't want the hospital to become an EV mecca (There is almost no public charging in this town), and the public lots are FULL all of the time anyway. The hospital may be looking at building a parking structure across the street.

I am not sure if L3 charging is appropriate as it would be the only L3 in town (other than the Nissan dealer), and people would have to stick near their cars for 30+ minutes.

I think this topic has come up before, but I can't find the link.

The physician owned cars include: RAV4 EV, Leaf, Honda Fit, Tesla S-85, Tesla Roadster, Volt, PIP, and possibly others that I haven't seen.

Anyone with suggestions or experience?

 

[gsleaf]

Oregon Health & Science University has EV charging stations that are open to the public. The editors note seems to indicate they are open to discussing them.

Editors note: Donor and electric car driver Robert Buys, M.D., is available to be interviewed and demonstrate the car charging station with his electric vehicle. Please contact Jim Newman in OHSU Strategic Communications to schedule interviews.

http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/news_events/news/2010/ohsu-opens-electric-car-chargi.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Dmchose]

Caromont regional medical center at Gastonia nc (Gaston memorial hospital ) has a CHAdeMo. It is listed in plugshare.
2525 Court drive Gastonia NC 28054
Write /call them I suspect they will be more than happy to share info.

 

[KeiJidosha]

I have been assigned the task of preparing a paper for the Hospital CEO to discuss the options for chargers in the hospital lots.

...Anyone with suggestions or experience?

1. Chargers in public lots. - Install Network units (Chargepoint, SemaConnect, EVgo NRG) in the new overflow lot.
2. Chargers in employee lots.- Install L1 or just 120 V outlets (assuming lot access is restricted)
3. Chargers in physician lots. - Install ClipperCreek CS100s for existing users and plumb for expansion. Again assuming lot access is restricted.

 

[flyonpa]

1. Chargers in public lots. - L2 ChargePoint Type chargers

2. Chargers in employee lots. Is there a J1772 L1 with just the Series of J1772 all connected to "one" Central unit?

3. Chargers in physician lots. Would Also J1772 L1 Series of Connections.

Maybe a few L2's That are ChargePoint connected, or Time/Space defined spaces Charger1 Space1 6-9a, Noon-3p Space2 9-noon 3p-6p Charger2 same timeing thing the J1772 would span 4 physical spaces. (Sort like coke's lot)

I would have a SetFee for L1 Chargers, they could get a mirror hanger to show they paid say $10? a month.
The Physician lot for the L2's, chargepoint 3hr $5/day with can they do auto turn off @ 3hours?

 

[smkettner]

Good luck expecting an ER physician to come out in three hours to unplug his Tesla. Or any physician for that matter. Or any general hospital staff either.
Besides it is disruptive to the workplace.

Although I could see a sign to suggest a three hour limit on free public charging.

 

[AlanSqB]

Whatever you do, don't put the charging spots in the front of the lots or any other prime real-estate. Our hospital EV spots are the most ICE'd spots I've ever seen. Pretty much all of us in healthcare think we are special and silly things like parking rules don't apply to us. Put the EV spots near the back or something like that. Nobody minds a few more steps when they get to charge up. Also, put up signs and paint EV logos on the spaces. That may help.

Having EV spaces at our main campus has been terrific for me. My weekly (sometimes more) 130 mile round trips are now possible without gas. Costs me about $2. There are two L2 per floor on the 6 story employee garage. Very generous and I haven't had trouble finding a space yet despite physicians parking their Mercs and non-PIPriuii in many of them constantly.

 

[AlanSqB]

These are the devices they installed:
http://www.eaton.com/ecm/idcplg?Idc...veAs=0&Rendition=Primary&dDocName=PA0EV00001E

Really nice. They have card readers installed and show a charge of $0.50/hr, but they are free for now.

 

[davidcary]

I wouldn't get complicated.

We just have free L2 in the free unrestricted parking garage. No one is coming here and hanging out to charge. Perk for employees and physicians. Maybe the occasional patient or family member. But again who cares about the money - it is a rounding error.

Our spots are iced at times but the signage isn't very good. I've never seen it iced by a physician. Why would a MD even be looking for spots in the public area? I'm the only MD leaf - several Teslas though and the only time one was parked there was because he hadn't installed 240 yet in his garage.

We need more spots and I need to get on the admin Monday. A full time CRNA just bought a Leaf and his wife works in Pacu full time also (nights).

Unfortunately - front spots are cheapest I suspect. Ours are the first past the handicapped spots.

Charging just makes so little sense. What can you get $1000 a year per spot? And mostly you are charging your own people. The only reason to do it is so that mean gassers aren't jealous. But that is silly and will go away soon enough. Providing free parking from a real estate and infrastructure standpoint costs so much more than just a few electrons. I don't understand charging for L2 - only people would use it are desperate because it costs more than being home. No one lets themselves get desperate on purpose since you can't reserve the space. Just for emergencies? Or true believers who risk getting stranded or hunting out another spot?

L1 is a joke. Don't make people carry around their own EVSEs just to get a few miles (unless they make L1 J1772s?)
L3 doesn't make sense either. Provide 10 L2s for the same price.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

You don't give a location. There are grants available in some areas for workplace EVSE. On the west coast especially, the market is moving fast and there's high demand for stations.

If they're considering a new parking structure . . .you could have the first total EVSE parking facility!

Always cheaper to prewire new construction than retro-fit. You'd want a mix of L1 and L2. PHEVs only need L1 anyway. BEVs will soon have higher range batteries and will need L2 even for 8 hour shifts. With 200+ mile range cars coming, a couple L3s for visitors wouldn't be bad. You might want to consider prewiring for inductive charging pads.

Not every space would have to have a station initially, you could add them as needed, and EVSE offerings will improve over time.

Lower levels for public access, perhaps entry gained with a charging network card would control Icing.

Upper levels accessed with a hospital badge.

 

[cgaydos]

So a few thoughts.

1) Get a unit that is supported by a good network because there will be failures from time-to-time and you want the network to arrange the repairs, not have the hospital administration bugged to do it. ChargePoint seems to do nicely.

2) A cost-per-charge makes sense otherwise people will leave the car parked in the spot all day, blocking others. Not mentioning names, but the examples of the initials of people who do this are P.I.P. and V.O.L.T. One place I saw gives you 4 hours at L2 for just the cost of electricity, then charges an additional fee per hour (I'd suggest $5) after that. I like this as it encourages people to move the car afterward.

3) Best not to be too convenient *if possible* - otherwise they will get ICE'd. You can have your security staff patrol and arrange towing of ICEing cars, of course. And that may not be much of a hassle if they already do this for handicapped spots.

4) Find shade if at all possible. One of the motivations for people parking in the EV spot all day is to have the A/C kick in at the end of the day to pre-cool - a shaded spot reduces this need somewhat. It also may reduce wear-and-tear on the EVSE itself.

5) The idea physical setup is one where a single port can be accessed by multiple spots. The best I've seen is where a single stand hosted 4 EVSE cords, positioned right in the middle of 4 parking spots. So if a spot is ICEed or one of the cords isn't functioning you can still make it work for the other three. Ideally two or three such setups covering 8 or 12 spots.

 

[ericsf]

- Go with the most reliable equipment. Based on my anecdotal experience ChargePoint seem to be the best. As the equipment owner, you don't want to have to deal with frustrated EV drivers.
- Don't mix and match. Network chargers such as ChargePoint can be configured to be public or private, free or not. You can cover staff and public needs with the same. Keep it simple.
- Don't make it free, even for the staff. A small symbolic fee will make sure that people don't stay plugged in all day.
- Make the best use of the infrastructure setup cost. Digging, wiring is the most expensive part of the project so try to reach as many parking spots as possible with each head. The ideal setup are quad station installed in the center of a four spaces square (Assuming your parking layout isn't just rows in which case 2x is the best). Just do not go with 1 charger per spot (unless what you do are just 110 outlets).
- Plan for growth. If you build it, they will come.
- Although I agree with locating EV spaces in the least convenient spots to avoid ICEing, you may not have a choice: ADA requires access and it must be located close to the building entrance.

 

[GRA]

1. Pay L2 for the public lots (Chargepoint has been the most reliable, easiest to use, and their dual chargers can serve any of four spaces on either side of a median strip). Their max. rate of 30 amps will be a bit low as battery packs get bigger, but depending on where you are, most people shouldn't be coming from that far away. Bill by kWh if available in your area (but with a floor fee per time as long as connected, e.g. $0.20/kWh until rate falls below say 1 kWh/hour, then say $0.50/15 minutes), otherwise by time with fairly short increments, no more than 15 minutes. Consider variable rates based on Time of Use, i.e. peak electricity hours should cost more. However, assuming that lots of people aren't using the hospital parking lot and going elsewhere, members of the public who have to go to the hospital probably shouldn't be worrying about the cost of parking going up while they're visiting someone.

2. Pay L1 (weekly/monthly/quarterly what-have-you hang tags or stickers is easiest, with security monitoring them) for most of the employee lots, plus some L2 as in para. 1 above for those with longer commutes. Latter should bill as L2s in public area do. Seriously consider ToU rates for employee L2s, as long as they're much closer than the public L2 spots if those _aren't_ ToU.

Put EV charging spots as far away from desirable parking spaces as possible, but you'll have to compromise with the cost of running conduit and pouring concrete to them. If you have to put them right up front, say next to handicapped spots, you must have these regularly patrolled and issue tickets/tow if they're not to be ICE'd. Make sure that all public and private EV parking spaces are marked "No Parking except for EV Charging, violators will be towed" (or ticketed, as appropriate) and enforce it!

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

Signature Healthcare, Brockton, MA? You might want to connect with http://www.greenparkingcouncil.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They may have some ideas.