westernrvparkowner wrote:
Campgrounds may not be a good choice to recharge Teslas and the like. Campground pedestals and their wiring circuits (and the NEC specifications for those wiring demands) were determined and created by the demands of RVs using those pedestals. The high electrical needs of those rechargers would completely throw those demand computations out the window. Add a couple of rechargers to a loop of campground pedestals being used by RVs and you will likely either trip the main breakers or add to the voltage drop on the loop. This may either greatly inconvenience all the other RVs on that loop or, in the case of voltage drop, damage the components of those RVs.
We are not vehicle refueling stops, we are RV parks. We do not allow recharging of electrical vehicles under any circumstances. We do not have the infrastructure to recharge electric vehicles.
We will not be installing public recharging stations for the simple reason that we don't want to have to entertain someone who is not a guest for the 30 minutes to an hour it would take to recharge their batteries. Those people would be wanting to either use the park's other facilities during that time or maybe just wander around the park, creating a security concern for all the other guests. Plus it has been our very limited experience (very small, statistically invalid sample to be sure) that people wanting to recharge their batteries are not really interested in paying for the service. Had one guy offer us $5.00 in exchange for the three hours it was going to take him to recharge his Tesla. Not interested in that deal at all.
Westernrvparkowner, you may know a lot about RV parks, but it doesn't sound like you know much, if anything, about electric cars. For example, did you know that the Tesla will only draw 40 amps off of a 50 amp outlet? That's right, the Tesla is smart enough to understand the code and will only draw the maximum rated energy from the 50 amp outlet which is 40 amps continuous. It will vary the power throughout the cycle so 40 amps will be the max.
Furthermore, the Tesla owner has the option to dial that down to any setting that's appropriate to protect your sensitive, possibly outdated circuits. But they could not dial them up.
To be completely frank with you, if you do not have the infrastructure to recharge electric vehicles, your circuits are really not up to the task of running large rigs with three air conditioners, washer and dryers, electric water heaters, dishwashers, etc. either.
Why do you assume that these people will want to be entertained as "not a guest?" Why can't they rent a spot from you? How much power do you think a Tesla could even consume? The largest battery pack is 90 KW. Even if it was completely drained and they charged it full that's only 90 KW of power. At 15 cents per kilowatt that would only cost you $13.50. Even if the charging process is only 90% efficient that's still only $14.80 max. But you probably aren't paying that much for power and no Tesla will ever come in completely drained. The guy who wanted to offer you $5.00 for three hours was giving you a decent deal. How much power do you think he could possibly draw in three hours? You could have charged him $10.00 and made everyone happy.
The times are changing and that means more and more power usage from your circuits. You can adapt with the times or choose to offer substandard service to the increasing power demands of your customers.
