#62762
Sir Humphrey
Flatchatter

    At the outset it is important to consider what most owners would want for EV charging both now & into the future & aim to set up accordingly…

    While that is a noble sentiment, most people might know what they want but don’t know what they really need for charging. They tend to err on the side of caution and think they need much faster charging that most people really do. They also tend to focus on the time it would take to charge from fully discharged to 100% charged, which is rarely ever relevant.

    I have been driving electric cars since 2009. I still don’t have a dedicated wall charging unit and doubt that I would bother to get one for a long time. For most of that time since 2009, I have used an ordinary 10A three pin wall socket for charging. An ordinary wall socket can add almost 200km of range overnight, which is far more than most people drive most days.

    As car battery capacities get larger, the need for faster charging goes down, not up. If my car is only charged to 50%, I still have well over 200km of local driving range. In fact I limit charging to 80% except when about to do a longer trip out of town. I also rarely discharge below 40% around town. Operating in the 40-80% range is good for the battery and ample for local driving.

    The supply capacity of a building is a resource of the owners corporation that should be shared equitably among residents. Therefore, it is important to resist expectations that fast charging rates are needed and understand that slow trickle charging is ample where people live and park their cars for many hours at a time.

    Fast charging is for long trips out of town charging en route.