Have you put your home charging station on plugshare?

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JohnKelly

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 7, 2017
Messages
128
Interesting times. I read a lot about range anxiety, charging station infrastructure weaknesses etc. One way to actually do something about this is make your home station available to the public. If you are concerned about people showing up at all hours making noise etc, you could make it clear that it is by appointment only, for day use only, or for emergencies only. The more remote your location, the more important it will be in helping others drive EVs. We have done this, and it is very rewarding. We have given people rides to local eateries while their car is charging... talked EVs, and meeting some really nice people this way. Just a thought. It is but a small thing that WE can do without government or businesses taking the lead.
 
I've thought about it, but there's no demand for it in my area as I'm a block away from a free L2 and in a small-ish city that has very few EV's so far. Plus mine is mounted in the garage and thus too much hassle to have people access.

But you're right, if one's situation works for sharing, please do it!
 
If mine were readily accessible from the street, sure. But you have to pull quite a ways in my driveway, and block our other vehicle, and block whoever is driving OUR i3 from parking.

Eventually, we'll build a garage - and pave our driveway. When we get around to that, I'll try to arrange so that the charger is accessible without blocking our own use, then I'll list it.
 
We were on Plugshare for a year. Even installed a special box to house plug. Nobody came to charge. So we deleted our location. People appear very reluctant to charge at a private residence. Probably because there is nothing to do while charging.
 
TOEd said:
We were on Plugshare for a year. Even installed a special box to house plug. Nobody came to charge. So we deleted our location. People appear very reluctant to charge at a private residence. Probably because there is nothing to do while charging.

If my charging would be reasonably available/visible from the road, it wouldn't be too big a deal, there's a nice park one block one way, and a coffee shop one block the other. (Which I'm surprised doesn't have a charger - the owner has an i3!)
 
TOEd said:
People appear very reluctant to charge at a private residence. Probably because there is nothing to do while charging.
When we had an i-MiEV with no ability to charge where we parked overnight, I depended on public charging stations. On a couple of occasions, the charge level got too low for comfort, so I contacted a person ~1 mile away who had made her home EVSE available on PlugShare. Her conditions were that I charge only during her working hours when she was away from home which I did twice. Like you said, there was really nothing to do in her residential neighborhood, so I loaded my foldable bike into the back of our i-MiEV and rode home while our i-MiEV was charging. I was very happy to have this opportunity.

I would offer our home EVSE on PlugShare but we live in a gated condo association which would make access to our EVSE very difficult.
 
Back
Top