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Nice: Bergen County Community College

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Having finally got around to ordering a J1772 adapter we had to wonder if we'd ever use it. It hasn't arrived yet but I like to do my research ahead of time... So on Saturday I looked at openchargemap, found the only "public" charging within a reasonable distance from our place and took a little joyride over there, honestly expecting to find something resembling a Parisian public toilet.

But what a pleasant surprise! I pulled up next to a Campus Cop, asked for directions and he said "follow me!" so I got a police escort to the garage with the EV spots. Some notes:

  • This was the weekend, so the place was empty. The guy said that during the week it's a "zoo".
  • The J1772 points are in the middle of the ground level of the main garage. There are no gates or barriers.
  • Although openchargemap says there are 4 charge points, it's really 2 Coulomb charging stations each with one J1772s and one 110v, and it's either/or, not both, by the look of it.
  • The 110v socket is a 20A household type but cannot be used with the default Spare Mobile Connector (the yellow one) because of the shape. You'd have to modify your cable to fit in this socket.
  • There are two EV parking spaces, and they're roped off so that they don't get ICE'd
  • I swiped my card just to see the real life J1772 plug, but when I replaced it without drawing any current the station reported a "#2: Fault: Relay Locked" error.
  • I called the number on the charging station to see if I'd broken it, got a quick answer, and the guy said the problem was not caused by my "messing with the system", and that they'd send someone to fix it Real Soon.

Here's a picture of what could probably be anyone's dark coloured Roadster in front of just about any charging point anywhere (taken with just about anyone's rubbishy phone). But look at the way they roped off those spots! And they even painted the pillar and the lines in green. That's how green they are:

IMAGE_189.jpg


Here's the OCM data. I cannot see how to edit this or update it with any notes but I'll look into that (or just wait for TEG to post a link :biggrin: ... thanks in advance).

Bergen Community College
Odabash Way, Paramus, New Jersey
Address is approximate
Location:Odabash Way
Paramus
07652
Phone: 888-758-4389
Access: 24 hours daily
Number Of Points: 4 <-- Not strictly correct
Usage: Public
Operator: ChargePoint Network
Type: Level 1 & 2
Status: Unknown
Last Updated: 47 days ago)
OpenChargeMap Ref: OCM-5047


Now, I know, for all you West Coasters this is no big deal, finding a public charging station that actually seems to work, but it was nice to feel welcome and was the first public J1772 I've seen out here. I'll go back and buy some electricity on principle as often as is practical, although I couldn't tell how much it would cost me. I assume those details appear when you plug in? Hopefully before you get the credit card bill, anyway.
 
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And with all those empty spots to choose from, they chose the EV spot. Looks like they were making a statement. :(

I wondered about that. One notable thing about that parking garage is that there are emergency telephones on every pillar except the EV spots, and the emergency phones look somewhat like the ChargePoint stations, so maybe people just don't notice the EV signs. Couple that with the fact that (statistically speaking) there are no EVs in the North East anyway, I wonder if people would even understand the signs if you did ask them to read them.

But yeah, in a lot with 500 or so spaces and maybe a dozen cars, maybe I'm being too kind. Probably making a statement.