How do you primarily charge your Empulse?

[protomech]

Just what the title says. Curious to see how people are charging their Empulses "in the wild".

If your primary means of charging is a 120V socket - would you have rather purchased the bike with a smaller onboard charger? Let's say a 1 kW charger similar to the Zero's OBC would have saved 10 pounds and $500.

Alternatively: would you have been willing to add another 15 pounds and $1000 to double charging power, to 6 kW?

[kingcharles]

I live in 240 volt part of the world. So I have 3kW charging always, and I would never want anything less!

[Chocula]

At home, I have a 240 volt charger installed for my car however, the Empulse almost always gets charged with the 110 volt set on a timer restricted to "super off peak" rates.  I will use the 240 at home when I have already been out for a ride and expect to need the additional range.

On weekend outings, I frequently plan my routes based on available public charging stations.  I absolutely would pay $1000 more to have a 15 lbs heavier 6 kw charger.   

[katacrak]

In Spain there are not many stations midle fast load , but in the future if there will be , and obviously one of the improvements would be implemented, but just to maximize 7.7 kW with the SAE J1772 connector.
EV Portable It is the product to connect at any point by choosing the load to 7.7 kW. choosing 6-32 A equal to 1.4kw-22kw

[Shinysideup]

As a commuter, 99% of my charges are overnight in my garage with 120V. However, I would not want to give up any capabilities of the onboard charger, as I have used the 240V of public charges on several occasions where the time it takes to charge was important to my schedule.

I also plan to install 240V in my garage for an E-car and to have that speed as a backup would be good.

[Consultec]

My charger at home for the Empulse.




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[cybergodzilla]

I would absolutely pay more for faster charging. On my long trips it would be a huge difference to getting me home before dark. I attempted a trip from Corona to San Diego then came back the next day (totaled over 200miles). The amount of time I spent charging can be more important than range. I bought a 2nd gas bike and have now taken a 500 mile trip in a day. But I'd rather ride on my Empulse =)

[Virtually Yours]

Well I was charging at work on a 120v even though I have a dedicated L2 at home that I use for the '13 Leaf as well. However, the director of facilities decided that wasn't going to happen any more. My usual routine was to ride to work all week on one charge, plug in on Friday and get a full charge for the weekend. If I didn't ride over the weekend, on Monday I would top off my charge at home for the work week and repeat. One day I tripped the breaker for the plug I was using so I notified the director of facilities and he went off on me. "I can't drive my car to work and fill up with free gas so why should you be able to charge your bike?" "This is costing me money" he says... Below I included a picture of a sign in the garage that contradicts his b.s. This goes on and on... Just so happens he owns a Harley... So he changed my plug and put a plate over it so I couldn't use it. When I asked about the solar canopy on top of the garage he said "that is for the casino not the garage." So my response, I now drive the Leaf to work and charge 3x's a week (24 kWh instead of 8 kwh)
This isn't over yet. I'm going to get this changed but my problem is I'm looking to make a transfer to the Tampa property and don't want to make a stink with upper management that could screw that up...

[protomech]

"I can't drive my car to work and fill up with free gas so why should you be able to charge your bike?" "This is costing me money"

I offered to cut my boss a check for $20 to cover my charging costs for the year. Shut it down pretty quickly.

Different situation, etc.

[Virtually Yours]

"I can't drive my car to work and fill up with free gas so why should you be able to charge your bike?" "This is costing me money"

I offered to cut my boss a check for $20 to cover my charging costs for the year. Shut it down pretty quickly.

Different situation, etc.

Well the funny thing about this is, I'm a dealer in a casino. I primarily deal in the high limit room on a daily basis. It's not out of the ordinary for me to drop (take) any where between $10k to $100k+ in a day. On this particular day, all the drama happened on one break (I get a 20min break every hour), and by the time I went on my next break I put $10k cash in my drop box. And this jerk is sweating me for a $1 worth of electricity once a week that 1. Don't come out of his pocket, and 2. It's F.cking solar power...!

[benswing]

If he is bugging you for $5 a month in electricity, he's got his priorities screwed up. 

However, it's his sandbox and he can let you play in it or not.  Bummer.


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[Shinysideup]

Apart from this dickhead, the "Generating Energy" sign reveals an organization that is trying very hard to do the right thing. Maybe a local news organization would like to explore the dissonance between what's in that sign and the message signified by the picture of the plate over the outlet. In the process of investigating, they might just happen to interview you. Surely, this PR hit would get the attention of upper management!

[protomech]

Apart from this dickhead, the "Generating Energy" sign reveals an organization that is trying very hard to do the right thing. Maybe a local news organization would like to explore the dissonance between what's in that sign and the message signified by the picture of the plate over the outlet. In the process of investigating, they might just happen to interview you. Surely, this PR hit would get the attention of upper management!

That might go over poorly, but you could probably spin it in a slightly different way. Maybe find who championed the solar install, and meet with them to discuss organizing a news story to cover various ways the casino is supporting green initiatives. Mention your bike's L2 charger, and discuss various ways the casino campus could improve access to charging for patrons and employees.

[Virtually Yours]

Apart from this dickhead, the "Generating Energy" sign reveals an organization that is trying very hard to do the right thing. Maybe a local news organization would like to explore the dissonance between what's in that sign and the message signified by the picture of the plate over the outlet. In the process of investigating, they might just happen to interview you. Surely, this PR hit would get the attention of upper management!

Unfortunately talking to the media is grounds for termination. Posting this is in this forum is a grey area...

Well there is hope and all is not lost. The HR manager is pushing the director of facilities for dedicated employee L2 parking spaces. Recently, I was able to talk to the HR manager briefly in the hall when he told me this and he asked me to fill out the annual employee survey when it comes up soon. However there was a communication breakdown because I was trying to talk about my specific issue without going over my table games director's head and get my plug re-installed in employee motorcycle parking. When I fill out the survey I will hand it directly to the HR manager with some not so friendly HR buzz words about the director of facilities' words and actions towards me like, "creating a hostile work environment", "I feel like he was bullying", and "complete disregard if I could make it home". You see what I left out of the story was they reset the breaker and plugged my bike in, the following break when I checked on the bike they unplugged it and put the cover over it with total disregard whether I could make it home or not. Of course I would like to keep my job so my disposition needs to be one of calm. I'm also going to print and include this PDF I found on work place charging in the survey.
Whether the director of facilities realizes or not that solar powered parking garage is a glimpse of what the future holds. He is just one of those petrol heads that hates EVs for whatever reason... You know the type, we all ran into that guy at one point...
http://www.calstart.org/Libraries/Publications/Best_Practices_for_Workplace_Charging.sflb.ashx

[vtbrammorider]

I'd really prefer "its complicated" to other :-).  At home i use a 120V socket however at the track, which is really where my bike is set up for now i generally bring a 240 capable generator and a mix of adapters in the hope that the track has a halfway decent grid.