San Francisco Off Street Charging

[Sunnyside]

Greetings, I am a new Tesla owner, February 2024 MYLR. I am unable to use my driveway in my 1907 cottage to charge. I must park on the street in front of my driveway. I installed a 50amp waterproof receptacle outside my garage and would like to run a cable to my car for overnight, low PG&E rate charging. Unfortunately the 50amp, 14-50 cable must cross the sidewalk to get to my car. I could try to fly the cable from house to my tree at the curb, but the cable is super heavy and I'm worried about the legality of this. I'm thinking I could install a pair of ADA cable ramps on the sidewalk and perhaps mounting a weatherproof / lockable enclosure to mount my Tesla mobile adapter 14-50 kit or even mount and Tesla charger. I emailed city and have not received any response. Perhaps I should contact my Supervisor?
Does anyone have experience with this challenge?

 

[LoudMusic]

I very strongly recommend against running the cable in the tree. Otherwise I have no input on the matter.

 

[stopcrazypp]

There were threads about this many years ago, it seems not much has changed:

Model 3 without garage at home/work

Hi! I've been considering buying a Tesla for a while and it seems the Model 3 will be the perfect car for my need. Hence I put a deposit for the Model 3 the day the car was presented. The Model 3 will replace my 2014 BMW M235i. Now comes the charging question. I live in San Francisco (Noe...

teslamotorsclub.com

I can't find the thread right now, but for other cities/areas, there is a grass section nearer the curb which the owner still maintains. Some people have run electrical there and a landscaping cover (in ground type like used for landscaping lights or power tools). That's probably the cleanest solution, but I doubt SF allows it (maybe smaller towns/residential places do).

Another one I saw was running the cable through a PVC drain pipe under the sidewalk, like used for landscape draining, and the hole drains out the curb into the road. I don't think however SF homes are allowed to have that (the East Bay has cities that do). SF homes tend to have sewer vents that drain to the city sewer, not into the street. As per the linked thread comment, some people have attempted to use that sewer vent for running a charging cable through, but that cable will either be running through a raw sewage pipe or if you are luckier to have a dedicated rain pipe at least it's a rain one. These latter solutions obviously are not code compliant however as you are not supposed to share electrical and sewer/water through the same pipe.

As for the tree, putting aside the liability, AFAIK, the city is now responsible for maintaining street trees, so I doubt they will let you run a cable over it.

 

[Sunnyside]

Flying the cable seems dangerous.
No green space at the curb in my neighborhood. I’d have to trench a pathway under the sidewalk cement. Sewer drain is very deep and doesn’t seem like a viable solution.
Hoping to heat from others who run a cable on the sidewalk.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Flying the cable seems dangerous.
No green space at the curb in my neighborhood. I’d have to trench a pathway under the sidewalk cement. Sewer drain is very deep and doesn’t seem like a viable solution.
Hoping to heat from others who run a cable on the sidewalk.

Instead of waiting, you can find examples just doing a search using the search box above, like "cable sidewalk".
Here's some examples:
Extension Cord Sidewalk Push Back
Issues With Installing a Charger in NJ with no offstreet parking

As per those threads, there are apparently cities that allow running a 110V cord for EV charging, presuming an appropriate cable cover is used.

The only thing I can find for SF is that for the parklets (the seating spaces for businesses that take up a parking space) they are allowed to run one 110V cable that flies over the sidewalk. They are not allowed to use cable ramps because it affects accessibility.
https://www.sf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/Shared Spaces Manual.pdf

The flyover isn't as practical in your case because you don't have anything other than a tree for it to hang on. Street tree lighting is not allowed for more than 90 days a year, so you can't exactly piggy back on that.
https://www.hvsafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Tree-Lighting-Guidelines-2021.pdf

 

[israndy]

I have mentioned this in many other threads, I have an RV that has a thick cable to plug it into the house, and I simply took an angle grinder to expand the seam in the sidewalk a little bit, and the cable lies completely flat in that groove. No longer a tripping hazard. I also mounted the outlet on the front of the house using flexible conduit from the breaker panel. Easy

 

[Sunnyside]

I have mentioned this in many other threads, I have an RV that has a thick cable to plug it into the house, and I simply took an angle grinder to expand the seam in the sidewalk a little bit, and the cable lies completely flat in that groove. No longer a tripping hazard. I also mounted the outlet on the front of the house using flexible conduit from the breaker panel. Easy

Angle grinder, what a great idea!
Thanks

 

[Sunnyside]

Instead of waiting, you can find examples just doing a search using the search box above, like "cable sidewalk".
Here's some examples:
Extension Cord Sidewalk Push Back
Issues With Installing a Charger in NJ with no offstreet parking

As per those threads, there are apparently cities that allow running a 110V cord for EV charging, presuming an appropriate cable cover is used.

The only thing I can find for SF is that for the parklets (the seating spaces for businesses that take up a parking space) they are allowed to run one 110V cable that flies over the sidewalk. They are not allowed to use cable ramps because it affects accessibility.
https://www.sf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/Shared Spaces Manual.pdf

The flyover isn't as practical in your case because you don't have anything other than a tree for it to hang on. Street tree lighting is not allowed for more than 90 days a year, so you can't exactly piggy back on that.
https://www.hvsafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Tree-Lighting-Guidelines-2021.pdf

Thank you, your links are a great resource. I am considering ADA cable ramps, not the type identified. In one section of the shared spaces manual. I’ll continue to search through theses documents carefully.