People Pulling Charger Out At Apartment Complex - How To Handle?

[MikeRTX]

God, I'm glad I have my own home, garage, and charger. I've lived in apartments in years past, and I think I'd go homeless before living in one again.

This whole business of hogging chargers and unplugging cars and blocking chargers and vandalizing EVs makes me wonder if I made a mistake getting my Tesla. At least you don't have these issues at gas stations!

 

[stopcrazypp]

why on earth would you include the part where the car is charging at full speed from 80-100%?

You would include that part if the only reason you are charging that much is to do a BMS calibration and not to actually use the charge.

If the car is charging, it’s charging. My car doesn’t start tapering down the amperage on a typical ~6kw level 2 commercial charger until ~99%.

I’ve never seen the post-100% “calculating” phase where it’s “balancing the cells” and what not to take longer than 30 minutes. I’ve put 200,000 miles on Teslas at this point so it’s not due to a lack of data.

Do you have an LFP? I presume the person is doing calibration because of the LFP battery and given it is more prone to drift, it may take longer (keep in mind Tesla is recommending a weekly calibration).

Shaming someone like a bad dog in all caps because they dared to charge their car to 100% on the only charging equipment available to them is just plain stupid.

 

[IndyToronto]

Tonight's cops told me that financially verified damages don't matter because I couldn't prove that the person outright intended to damage my car; it was probably more likely they're just a douche who was too impatient to wait their turn.

Sentry mode would capture their faces as they are pulling the entire thing out by force (assuming you did insert the J1772 locking ring). They'd have to pay for damages when you send the video to the police as the repairs will be substantial.

FWIW in my children condo units, we installed EV chargers in the private parking spot. It was J1772 instead of Nema 14-50 as that's what was offered and the separate billing are higher than our detached homes but it's a lot less headaches than shared chargers. There is an installation fee though. Ask your condo board - it might be cheaper if 10 people wanted it as the installation company installed 10 at a time in downtown toronto condos.

 

[father_of_6]

This whole business of hogging chargers and unplugging cars and blocking chargers and vandalizing EVs makes me wonder if I made a mistake getting my Tesla. At least you don't have these issues at gas stations!

That's a silly thing to say. Would you think that just because people are driving electric vehicles that human behavior would somehow change?

Here are just 2 of the many, many examples of human behavior at gas stations:

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[IndyToronto]

You would include that part if the only reason you are charging that much is to do a BMS calibration and not to actually use the charge.

Do you have an LFP? I presume the person is doing calibration because of the LFP battery and given it is more prone to drift, it may take longer (keep in mind Tesla is recommending a weekly calibration).

Kind of a tough etiquette problem to solve. Probably leave a note explaining that "this time" I have to charge to 100% because this is LFP battery etc etc, and not do it regularly. It is debatable if charging LFP to 100% every time is the right thing to do for battery life or if doing it once every 1-4 weeks is better to keep battery life long. The most peaceful option is to consider what if you were wearing their shoes - perhaps they have an emergency and must leave tomorrow at a certain time - perhaps they can't afford the 58c/kWH of a supercharger.

From what I understood, LFP battery discharges 3.1V vs 3.7V of NMC ones, and that's the main reason why the BMS needs to see a 100% charge once in a while. It might not be true that you should still charge to 100% every time because range degradation is still reported by LFP users.

 

[ucmndd]

You would include that part if the only reason you are charging that much is to do a BMS calibration and not to actually use the charge.

By all accounts this charger seems to be OP’s “home charger” and the primary place they charge. Does it make any difference at all if they charge from 0-100% once a week or 60-80% five times a week? Of course they “use the charge”, it’s not like it goes away…

Do you have an LFP? I presume the person is doing calibration because of the LFP battery and given it is more prone to drift, it may take longer (keep in mind Tesla is recommending a weekly calibration).

I do have an LFP, but that’s a recent development. Most of my driving was on a Model S. It could be because the LFP car is still very new but it doesn’t take any more than like 5 minutes after reaching 100% to completely stop as of now.

 

[pipp]

It’s just one data point but I have been going months at a time with lfp’s charging to just 55%. Then I spent some time running the lfp’s down to 0 and charging them to 100% to let the BMS re-calibrate. Same difference. The BMS never really got very far off track from the 55% charging…I certainly wouldn’t let a big conflict erupt over my desperate need to charge to 100% once every week religiously…

 

[zoomer0056]

By all accounts this charger seems to be OP’s “home charger” and the primary place they charge.

An apartment's free public charger is not typically classified as a home charger.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Kind of a tough etiquette problem to solve. Probably leave a note explaining that "this time" I have to charge to 100% because this is LFP battery etc etc, and not do it regularly. It is debatable if charging LFP to 100% every time is the right thing to do for battery life or if doing it once every 1-4 weeks is better to keep battery life long. The most peaceful option is to consider what if you were wearing their shoes - perhaps they have an emergency and must leave tomorrow at a certain time - perhaps they can't afford the 58c/kWH of a supercharger.

From what I understood, LFP battery discharges 3.1V vs 3.7V of NMC ones, and that's the main reason why the BMS needs to see a 100% charge once in a while. It might not be true that you should still charge to 100% every time because range degradation is still reported by LFP users.

This was mentioned in different threads, but the calibration is largely unnecessary if you don't drive below 10%. Tesla is only recommending it because there's been cases where the car unexpectedly shut down due to inaccurate BMS capacity estimate, and given the 16V battery the LFP cars also have is tiny in capacity, once the HV battery is off, that battery will also quickly run out of charge, leaving the car as a brick. That is one of the major disadvantages of the 16V battery vs the old 12V lead acid.

 

[stopcrazypp]

By all accounts this charger seems to be OP’s “home charger” and the primary place they charge. Does it make any difference at all if they charge from 0-100% once a week or 60-80% five times a week? Of course they “use the charge”, it’s not like it goes away…

Yes it does, because the top end is slower and is thus a poor use of the resource. It also limits the regen so you get less miles out of it (I have experienced this myself), which means you need to charge more.

I do have an LFP, but that’s a recent development. Most of my driving was on a Model S. It could be because the LFP car is still very new but it doesn’t take any more than like 5 minutes after reaching 100% to completely stop as of now.

The people in the linked thread says it can take up to an hour. I guess it depends on how often you do it.

 

[ucmndd]

Yes it does, because the top end is slower and is thus a poor use of the resource.

This is just simply not true on a typical level 2 charger. You’ll be charging at full speed all the way to ~99%. We’re talking a matter of minutes difference.

It also limits the regen so you get less miles out of it (I have experienced this myself), which means you need to charge more.

This is getting into consumption minutae that just makes no sense. Are we also going to ask people to drive slower to use less energy and avoid “unnecessary” charging?

What if leaving at 100% with a warm battery is a better overall decision for me than charging up to 70% the night before and having it sit all night to cold soak?

Bottom line, Tesla now recommends charging to 100% for certain models with regularity. So any blanket admonishment shaming people for doing so is nothing but preachy BS.

The people in the linked thread says it can take up to an hour. I guess it depends on how often you do it.

People are just parroting forum lore. It rarely if ever takes an hour. Usually less than 25% of that.

 

[ucmndd]

An apartment's free public charger is not typically classified as a home charger.

If that's where you live it certainly is.

 

[zoomer0056]

If that's where you live it certainly is.

Well, that's like saying the community BBQ in your apartment complex is your home BBQ.

 

[ucmndd]

Well, that's like saying the community BBQ in your apartment complex is your home BBQ.

If that's where you live, and you have nowhere else to cook your burgers... then.... yeah.

 

[zoomer0056]

If that's where you live, and you have nowhere else to cook your burgers... then.... yeah.

No ... its a community BBQ.

 

[ucmndd]

No ... its a community BBQ.

Difference without a distinction. You've also changed your wording from "public" to "community" and those aren't the same.

If you're a member of a community because you live there and are using community resources in a generally accepted way, then that's what those resources are for. Nobody is going to convince me that using a community resource as it's intended for 20 extra minutes to charge to 100% is an abuse of that resource.

 

[Big Earl]

,,,and only two, Since they are free, and there is no registration and time out limit, someone can stay connected all the day with no issue.
And with the increasing number of EVs, it will be more and more difficult to be able to use them unless you are lucky or charge during the day.
I hope that the OP has other public L2 or Superchargers nearby.

I park in a garage, but I was able to install a plug connected to my electrical meter. But this could not be extended to every unit, because
the garage has already a lot of different types of conduits, between electrical, gas, water, sewage, phone, Internet, TV, security video...

The recommended approach if there will be a lot of request will be to have a company like Greenlots installing a pool of chargers,
with their own electric line coming from the street, and having their own registration and payment system.

Not that it’s any of my business, but I’m curious. If you have charging in your garage, why are you charging at the storage unit across the street? You even mention that some of your neighbors can’t get home charging, meaning they rely on the limited public network.

 

[IndyToronto]

This was mentioned in different threads, but the calibration is largely unnecessary if you don't drive below 10%. Tesla is only recommending it because there's been cases where the car unexpectedly shut down due to inaccurate BMS capacity estimate, and given the 16V battery the LFP cars also have is tiny in capacity, once the HV battery is off, that battery will also quickly run out of charge, leaving the car as a brick. That is one of the major disadvantages of the 16V battery vs the old 12V lead acid.

Good to know. Some people believe that LFP should always be charged to 100% without consequences, and some updates from users is that they've seen 10%+ reduced range from always charging to 100% within a year, which should be a warning to minimize the number of times you really need 100% even for LFP. Of course, it's possible that after the 10%, the LFP battery might stabilize and not lose much range for next 200k miles, but we don't really know yet.

 

[SpicyPaneer]

Look on your live set y mode and see who’s doing this to your car, then enable the horn as they approach your vehicle .

 

[CaptUAL]

Move. Save up your bread and buy a house with a garage.