Street Light EV charging

[DonTom]

Not a bad idea. I hope they can do such things in small towns out in the middle of nowhere for my electric motorcycle trips.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[bigbAZ]

Interesting. Much of the street light wiring I've seen though is small, not sure how much current it could support. With most streetlights now LED it does free up some current on existing wiring but new LED streetlights are likely wired with even smaller wire.

When the street light wiring was dug up on our street is was direct bury, and looked to be no bigger than #8.

 

[DonTom]

Interesting. Much of the street light wiring I've seen though is small, not sure how much current it could support. With most streetlights now LED it does free up some current on existing wiring but new LED streetlights are likely wired with even smaller wire.

When the street light wiring was dug up on our street is was direct bury, and looked to be no bigger than #8.

Yeah, I was thinking the same, that a lot of wiring will need to be changed, but this idea will work well for where they install new street lamps. Around 4AWG wires will be needed if they want to do the full 48-amps @ 240 VAC for the many EVs that have 12KW AC input chargers in them, such as either of my EV cars.

But less is no big issue. The pilot signal will prevent overloads, so it is perfectly okay to plug a 12 KW EV charger into a J-1772 / NACS charge station that can only do 3 KW or whatever. Just then charge at the 3KW.

Anyway, this will be a great idea for some cities, such as San Francisco, where the norm is to need to park several blocks away from home. Only around 7 KW should be needed per EV for a full overnight charge when starting near empty. Usually, a lot less if one can plug in every night.


-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Lou Schneider]

Yeah, I was thinking the same, that a lot of wiring will need to be changed, but this idea will work well for where they install new street lamps. Around 4AWG wires will be needed if they want to do the full 48-amps @ 240 VAC for the many EVs that have 12KW AC input chargers in them, such as either of my EV cars.

But less is no big issue. The pilot signal will prevent overloads, so it is perfectly okay to plug a 12 KW EV charger into a J-1772 / NACS charge station that can only do 3 KW or whatever. Just then charge at the 3KW.

Anyway, this will be a great idea for some cities, such as San Francisco, where the norm is to need to park several blocks away from home. Only around 7 KW should be needed per EV for a full overnight charge when starting near empty. Usually, a lot less if one can plug in every night.


-Don- Reno, NV

Again, you're missing the scale of what you're requesting. Assuming the new LEDs draw zero current and the wiring was designed for the full incandescent current draw, you're talking about being able to add (1) 3 Kw charging station for every 20 streetlights. At 7 Kw you're talking about one charging station for every 46 streetlights. If you're upgrading the wires the only savings versus a new installation would be in having to install new conduit, assuming you can pull the larger wire through existing conduits.

 

[DonTom]

Assuming the new LEDs draw zero current

And many of those are solar-powered with a battery. No external wires to anywhere.

I realize it will be a big, expensive job in many areas. It will not happen overnight. But it will probably start to be more common when we have close to 100% EVs.

I expect very few to be used anyway. Those that are will be mostly for "opportunity charging" except in a few places, such as my San Francisco example, where there are several times the number of cars compared to the number of garages.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Mr Lars]

So municipalities will be putting the card machine and all that on street light poles? If you have ever noticed, in some cities, the street lights are activated by ‘darkness’, that triggers a sensor to turn the street light on. Some are in ‘block wiring’ meaning 1 single sensor will control numerous street lights, some multiple city blocks long.

 

[DonTom]

So municipalities will be putting the card machine and all that on street light poles? If you have ever noticed, in some cities, the street lights are activated by ‘darkness’, that triggers a sensor to turn the street light on. Some are in ‘block wiring’ meaning 1 single sensor will control numerous street lights, some multiple city blocks long.

Yeah, I realize there are many different configurations for street lighting.

It says the 23 they installed in Kansas City is "an experiment." And they will collect data for a year. I assume what they will find is less usage than they expect.

While CA has more EV charge stations than gas stations, the need for EV charge stations is MUCH less, considering the large percentage of people who only charge up at home, (like me with my EV cars, but I charge up my electric motorcycles very often on the road).

Kansas City probably won't be much different.

The one great idea for DC fast chargers out in the middle of nowhere didn't last long. Freewire DC Fast Chargers-- since they don't get much use, they got by charging a large battery via solar between charges. I have not seen one that worked for years, but I hear the company is still around with serious financial problems.

There are still many out there, but none of them work. I think the internal batteries probably all went dead over the years. There are a few of them in the Nevada Desert--all broken for years.

Hard to say where the streetlight chargers in KC will lead to for other areas.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Brad Buchanan]

The freewire system sounds like a great idea. However unless there is a way as you say to take a card as payment...probably just as expensive if not more they would have to be free.

You sound like a fine fellow however personally I would rather not pay to charge your electric hog.

 

[DonTom]

You sound like a fine fellow however personally I would rather not pay to charge your electric hog.

If you cannot beat them, join them! Buy your own "electric hog"!-- Problem solved!

-Don- Turlock, CA

 

[Brad Buchanan]

Respectfully, there are few places that are suitable for electric cars and even more for electric bikes.

Cold weather climates make them much less practical. The only thing that would make an electric bike attractive is that you could probably charge it with your existing wiring in your house.

BTW I just gave my son my 6 cylinder Valkyrie.

 

[DonTom]

Cold weather climates make them much less practical.

I notice it on my motorcycles, but they do not get ridden much when it is cold. However, my 2023 Zero DSR/X should do a lot better as it has a battery heater. But I have not tried my 100 miles between my houses on that bike when it's very cold.

In my cars, I do not even notice the difference because they have ways to control the temperature a lot better than motorcycles. I assume there is still some difference, but I will only notice it if I am looking for it. I have driven it in the snow many times. In fact, it probably gets BETTER range in snow because of the much slower driving. Speed makes a a very large difference. But that means it is extra good for the city and slow driving.

The upper straight brown line for my Tesla Model 3 AWD LR is the claimed range (312 miles) @ 65 MPH.

The top red is the actual tested speed on level ground, no wind, at 20C/68F:

So expect around 500-550 miles in city driving on one full charge.

-Don- Tulare, CA