Days before-hand, I was scoping-out/checking-out/reconnoitering some restaurants for a family gathering (it is the holiday season after-all). I wanted to find both a nice place to enjoy our get-together/sup, but I also thought I would try to mix a little (EVangel-nonprofit-effort) business with pleasure.
While I did find a few places that had both a nice eatery and some public EVSE with both L3 & 2 to show off afterward, I had to choose which (there is so much public EVSE in the SF area to choose from - its soo cool! ). I also had to temper my mental-zeal decision-making as my former/younger-self would be high-energy and adventuresome (I found a place that offers hookas along with their Afghan cuisine - yea, there are a lot of dinning choices here too), I decided to throttle-back/hold-myself-back and temper the gathering location experience to a more mild setting (getting older takes a little of the youthful-exuberance/crazy-fun out ... ). Of those locations I had found: -One location had a nearby company (evernote.com) with 12 EVSE http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/11534 Strictly-speaking this is their company EVSE, however the public has been allowed to use it if a space was available with the driver using their own Blink/ccg EVSE rfid-card. I really like this location though I would have to be brief in showing it off (I would not want a security-person to come check us out). It showed what a company could do for both its employees and share what they have (with limitations) with the public (IMO: a pretty cool company, and their employees should be proud of what they have done). While way-back in the 1990's I could have only dreamt this type of EVSE setup would be at my former work-place (hp), because they were one of the first to do this, their EVSE hardware was not the newest: had the older Blink EVSE, and only a CHAdeMO L3. Since I was likely only going to get a few minutes to show this (my EVangel-activities), I was going to focus more on one of the locations I had found that had newer (more state-of-the-art) EVSE to show off. -A city-owned parking garage within walking distance had a couple of older CT21xx L2&1 EVSE, plus a new CHAdeMO L3 (what looked like a re-badged ABB with Nissan's name on it), all on the Chargepoint network http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/2328 This was better, but that was not the milder/more-conformist eatery I decided to target-for (darn ... it would have made for an interesting seasons-greeting-card image of a family-member toking on a hooka - strictly legal-smoke of-course) -I settled-on/choose the location that was within walking (or in my case hobbling with a cane) distance a nearby company (vwerl.com) with their several EVSE to see http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/8428 Again, this was for their company employee and EV R&D use, but they (like some Silicon Valley companies) allow the public access when they are not using it. They have a good mix of EVSE: two older L2&1 Coulomb CT21xx on the Chargepoint network, and a tall L2 Aerovironment EVSE (these are not set for public use), and their most recent installation an Efacec dual L3 CHAdeMO & combo EVSE [image http://a6b6a4d850da023e34c0-ffd458871468d7801be60d93d5d79b26.r30.cf2.rackcdn.com/55775.jpg ] How it went: As I drove in for the gathering Yesterday evening, I parked nearby. Near enough to ERL strike up a conversation with a VW employee, complementing him on what good EVSE they have and thanked-him for allowing the public to use it when they are not. Looking and speaking with a strong Germanic accent, he said, "Ya, Ya, das ist goot design" (though I knew not to push my luck to expect the typical American style smile during our conversation, I could read by his body language that he took no-displeasure in receiving compliments of their good-work). I kept our chat short and efficient. Yup, after our gathering, we all had a walk over to EVSE and I was allowed to spend a couple minutes showing the difference between the EVSE. While my family members are not as EV-committed as I, thankfully they tolerate my zeal/EV-excitement, and listened to my short-n-sweet spiel of what my nonprofit activities are. Its nice to have people that love you, no matter how much of charging-nut you are :-) For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html#nabble+template%2FNamlServlet.jtp%3Fmacro%3Dsearch_page%26node%3D413529%26query%3DEVLN%2Bbrucedp2%26days%3D0%26sort%3Ddate {brucedp.150m.com} ... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scope%20out ... http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/mix+business+with+pleasure ... [image http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/h/bobhope/bing_crosby1from%20DaveTreichel.jpg toking on a hooka ] ... http://www.thefreedictionary.com/spiel ... http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-OR-s-Oberg-wins-1st-U-S-e-golf-EV-w-41-400-bid-tp4672748.html (VW e-golf ERL likely helped R&D) -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVangel-about-VW-ERL-host-s-public-L3-CHAdeMO-combo-EVSE-tp4672749.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)