Effective use of charging time outside home

andrew_j said:
While I would not want to do this all the time I think the 20-30 mins you are sitting at a charger can be used effectively to shop, eat and also do painful things like a test drive ….

https://electrek.co/2023/03/17/cadi...-setting-up-test-drives-supercharger-station/
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This is what I do. It's rare that I need to charge when I'm out shopping, but there's a couple of stores I frequent out of town that have actual superchargers. The sad thing is in the 15-20mins it takes to charge from 20%-80% I can't do a full shopping run anyway. Its fine if I'm just picking up a few things.
 
JeffKeryk said:
I would get something to eat, or a coffee or whatever.

Maybe Cadillac should set up test drives at their own Supercharger stations?
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You can kindly decline whatever offered….good marketing plan

Specialized rep with trailer full of demos sold me a $3500 fat bike while I waited to pickup my daughter at local recreation park for skating. Works…
 
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LenZee said:
If I owned a electric car, I would like to nap while on road trips if I could have the heat/ac going while charging.
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You can have the climate " working" in most of them during fast charging.

The question is how well does it work and what are the compromises that occur when you do this.

There are BIG differences between brands in how they work in hot and cold.

This is an achilles heel of the Korean cars right now which are excellent aside a few things.
 
On our long trip a pattern started to develop for the people who were charging their Teslas. This was just before the summer break. In southern BC and Alberta the people were made up about as follows:

South east Asians and Chinese (40%)
Hipsters (20%)
Older Caucasian guys - like me (40%)

The first and second groups almost always sat in their cars, spoke to no-one and fiddled with their cellphones. The old guys wandered around and visited. As we were traveling on a main route, we saw the same people over and over. Some of us were down to sharing recommendations on our favourite Scotch after 2 or 3 visits. Time spent charging isn't all bad.
 
LenZee said:
If I owned an electric car, I would like to nap while on road trips if I could have the heat/ac going while charging.
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I assume you can run your AC and heat in all EVs
You may want to check if you have a medical device like a Pacemaker, you may have to be outside the car and especially
away from the plug of a super charger.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/c...arge-evs-safely-questions-linger/69505169007/

https://bcmj.org/articles/it-safe-p...e-electronic-devices-charge-electric-vehicles

Out of an abundance of caution this is something that should be taken into account if you have such a device.
Stated by the leading manufacturer to stay 12 inches from the charger/charging cable.
https://www.medtronic.com/content/d...ectromagnetic-compatibility-patient-guide.pdf

I saw someplace else (it might also be in a link above) about heightened EMI under intense acceleration.
 
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alarmguy said:
I assume you can run your AC and heat in all EVs
You may want to check if you have a medical device like a Pacemaker, you may have to be outside the car and especially
away from the plug of a super charger.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/c...arge-evs-safely-questions-linger/69505169007/

https://bcmj.org/articles/it-safe-p...e-electronic-devices-charge-electric-vehicles

Out of an abundance of caution this is something that should be taken into account if you have such a device.
Stated by the leading manufacturer to stay 12 inches from the charger/charging cable.
https://www.medtronic.com/content/d...ectromagnetic-compatibility-patient-guide.pdf

I saw someplace else (it might also be in a link above) about heightened EMI under intense acceleration.
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Yes, you can run heat or AC while charging. It may add a couple of minutes to charging, but if you want to stay in the car while charging it won't be a problem.

I don't know why it would cause a problem with a pacemaker. It does not create a magnetic field.
 
Torrid said:
Yes, you can run heat or AC while charging. It may add a couple of minutes to charging, but if you want to stay in the car while charging it won't be a problem.

I don't know why it would cause a problem with a pacemaker. It does not create a magnetic field.
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Yes they do emit EMI, it’s all in the links I posted but the most comes from the charging point most likely due to lack of or less shielding.
Just something for affected people to be aware of due to lack of testing In the super chargers. But that’s not me taking, that is the manufacturer of the devices posting to stay back 12 inches from all the chargers.
 
alarmguy said:
Yes they do emit EMI, it’s all in the links I posted but the most comes from the charging point most likely due to lack of or less shielding.
Just something for affected people to be aware of due to lack of testing In the super chargers. But that’s not me taking, that is the manufacturer of the devices posting to stay back 12 inches from all the chargers.
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I appreciate the info. I did not know that.
 
Bathroom break
Shopping
Reading
Work
Exercise
Sight seeing
Eat
Worship
Video Game
Talk on the phone
Text on the phone
Nap

You know what? It is basically anything you want to do as long as you don't have a car and have to stay in the same place.
 
The nearest free charging station to me is 1.5 miles away. It is within 200 feet of the local Walmart, a supermarket, the place where I get my hair cut, and the place we get Chinese takeout from once a month. The PA Wine and Spirits store is 400 yards away. I seldom waste any time while charging there.

My second most used free charging station is on a local community college campus. When stopping there I am able to connect to their WiFi to check and return emails. Seldom do I connect to a charging station with nothing else to do while I am there. Granted you do really need to give this some thought.
 
Astro_Guy said:
The nearest free charging station to me is 1.5 miles away. It is within 200 feet of the local Walmart, a supermarket, the place where I get my hair cut, and the place we get Chinese takeout from once a month. The PA Wine and Spirits store is 400 yards away. I seldom waste any time while charging there.

My second most used free charging station is on a local community college campus. When stopping there I am able to connect to their WiFi to check and return emails. Seldom do I connect to a charging station with nothing else to do while I am there.
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Curious... How fast it your free charging? There is, or used to be, free charging downtown Los Gatos be the library. But pretty slow and limited from what I hear.
 
JeffKeryk said:
Curious... How fast it your free charging? There is, or used to be, free charging downtown Los Gatos be the library. But pretty slow and limited from what I hear.
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The C-Max Energi has a relatively small 7.6 KWH battery with a charge acceptance rate of only 3.3 KW. It gains ten miles of range in an hour on any level 2 charging station. A brief stop there yields five miles of range without me having to do much in the way of killing time.

A pure EV would easily net 15 miles of added range in that same half hour. Battery acceptance rate was not something I had thought about prior to purchasing the car. I wanted a car that would allow me to drive in EV mode for 15-20 miles per day, but also allow for a 400 mile non-stop run when needed. A PHEV can do both.
 
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