View Single Post
Old 03-24-2011, 10:13 AM   #6 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
bennelson's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
90 day: 129.81 mpg (US)

The Wife's Car - Plug-in Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
90 day: 78.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 17
Thanked 663 Times in 388 Posts
I agree with vpoppv,

Most vehicles out there right now can't use J1772 anyways. There may be a couple of vehicles in the Midwest that use the ol' inductive paddle chargers (not that anyone is going to provide support for those!) and I'm sure a fair number of cars are using 240V for home charging, but a 15 or 20 amp 120V outlet is the STANDARD WAY we use electricity in this country.

No, it's not high power or "fast-charge", but it's also inexpensive, and doesn't have any odd new electrical code issues, etc.

Block heaters can get plugged into it, and since it's at a gas station, maybe even a shop vac to clean the inside of your car after you run it through the car wash.

Think of it like public drinking fountains. In public buildings, and in some places even out on the street, or in parks, we have public drinking fountains. We don't charge people to use them. They are just for a quick sip or two for our pleasure and convenience. We don't complain that drinking fountains "Aren't Good Enough" because we can't fill our 55-gallon drums or swimming pools from them. We still get most of our water at home.

Drinking fountains also compete with people buying bottled water. Neither has caused the end of the other.

Likewise, I think that access to electricity is also a public good. We still get most of our power from our own wall outlets, but when out and about we still have access to it. 120V is still useful energy. For the newer breeds of cars, higher voltage would be better, but 120V is still far better than none.

I really am shocked at how much disagreement and negativity I have heard from cyberspace lately on 120V EV charging and on the Chevy Volt. Much of it is from UNMODERATED places, such as YouTube. The sad truth is that I'm sure all those comments are from people who have never even ridden in an EV, let alone OWN one.

I don't care if you drive a Hybrid, hyper-mile your stock car, rideshare, carpool, or always bike or walk. These are ALL good things that make our society just a little better than what it would be otherwise, so BRAVO to you, and Bravo to Kwik-Trip for their efforts in electric outlets! Is it perfect? No. Is it a good thing? It sure is.

And that's something I think we can all agree on.
__________________


300mpg.org Learn how to BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR CHEAP
My YouTube Videos
  Reply With Quote
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to bennelson For This Useful Post:
Boreas (03-26-2011), fjasper (03-26-2011), Nevyn (05-10-2011)