?? Schools providing free electric charging?

[AndyL]

https://okotoksonline.com/local/new-...w-ridge-school

"Foothills School Division is participating in a world wide program designed to utilize greener energy to facilitate a smaller carbon footprint for future building."

Ok so way too familiar with LEED...

But why the frick are our school boards competing for LEED silver/gold accreditation at our expense? The ROI isn't there... Providing staff/students free car charging isn't saving the planet - it's just more money we pay in electricity and more infrastructure to maintain!

Why are taxpayers providing free electric charging at schools? No kid is driving 300+km to school, pretty unlikely staff is either.

So why are we paying to provide free charging stations at a school for affluent people who probably drove less than 10km to get there?

This stupidity is why our taxes are so damn high.

[ZenOps]

Sounds good to me.

Assuming they have standard 1575 watt household outlets (probably already pre-existing as block heater outlets) Assuming 7 cents per kwh, it will cost them 10.5 cents per hour to trickle charge while kids are at school.

Maybe 60 cents per day per vehicle for the six hours they may be there, five out of seven days just enough to top up the electricity for a few kilometer trip home. Which is huge if it prevents students from going full Greta.

The Condo assoc I'm in has had the basic "NEMA 5-15" 1575 watt outdoor outlets since 1970, and still works. In Calgary, its definitely possible to be 8 to 10x less cost compared to gasoline, it just take a really long time to charge up.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...HSQDz4/pubhtml

So about 3 miles capacity per hour, even at the absolute slowest charging speed for a full sized Tesla. If you want to charge up a 20 mile scooter, the cost is literally two pennies (but will still probably take up to four hours)

#1 Mandate now is "keep the kids mentally happy", dollar cost is secondary to keeping disgruntled kids from pulling out guns and knifes.

[Tik-Tok]

Dumb, but is it really any different than having plugs for block heaters?

[88CRX]

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Dumb, but is it really any different than having plugs for block heaters?

Block heater plugs usually have built in timers, 20 minutes on/40 minutes off (or something like that) to stop people from 'stealing' power all the time.

[Tik-Tok]

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Block heater plugs usually have built in timers, 20 minutes on/40 minutes off (or something like that) to stop people from 'stealing' power all the time.

Still, I wouldn't be pissed off to find out that a school had 75 block heater plugs, nor am I that it has three EV charge stations. Kids inside the school probably waste more electricity with charging their phones.

[killramos]

Man, if teachers can afford Tesla’s they are definitely overpaid.

[AndyL]

Most schools don't even offer block heater plug-ins... Ours didn't when I was in HS. My kids doesn't have plug ins for the staff parking lot. Why are we paying for kids to fuel up their cars? Why not free gas then too?

If it was a commerically owned and provided system (like tesla) with a card swipe - go for it. But why free?

[pheoxs]

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https://okotoksonline.com/local/new-...w-ridge-school

"Foothills School Division is participating in a world wide program designed to utilize greener energy to facilitate a smaller carbon footprint for future building."

Ok so way too familiar with LEED...

But why the frick are our school boards competing for LEED silver/gold accreditation at our expense? The ROI isn't there... Providing staff/students free car charging isn't saving the planet - it's just more money we pay in electricity and more infrastructure to maintain!

Why are taxpayers providing free electric charging at schools? No kid is driving 300+km to school, pretty unlikely staff is either.

So why are we paying to provide free charging stations at a school for affluent people who probably drove less than 10km to get there?

This stupidity is why our taxes are so damn high.

If they are only driving 10k to school then wouldn't they use barely any power to charge the vehicle? Like maybe on Monday you top it up from the weekend but majority of time a trip home and back to school uses what, 50 cents in electricity?

At the end of the day we do need to shift to more EVs so installing the infrastructure all over the place is a good idea.

[AndyL]

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If they are only driving 10k to school then wouldn't they use barely any power to charge the vehicle? Like maybe on Monday you top it up from the weekend but majority of time a trip home and back to school uses what, 50 cents in electricity?

At the end of the day we do need to shift to more EVs so installing the infrastructure all over the place is a good idea.

A cheapass like me would be driving all over not charging at home to push the cost onto someone else Why pay for a charger at home when I can charge at school for free?

Not arguing we shouldn't allow the infrastructure but places like petrocan are spending a fortune adding paid charging station infrastructure. Tesla's putting chargers everywhere (not free) And our government is just giving it away?

[pheoxs]

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A cheapass like me would be driving all over not charging at home to push the cost onto someone else Why pay for a charger at home when I can charge at school for free?

Not arguing we shouldn't allow the infrastructure but places like petrocan are spending a fortune adding paid charging station infrastructure. Tesla's putting chargers everywhere (not free) And our government is just giving it away?

They probably have a long term plan. Install the infrastructure first and then eventually charge for it. Would be a good revenue boost for the schools tbh.

[rage2]

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A cheapass like me would be driving all over not charging at home to push the cost onto someone else Why pay for a charger at home when I can charge at school for free?

Not arguing we shouldn't allow the infrastructure but places like petrocan are spending a fortune adding paid charging station infrastructure. Tesla's putting chargers everywhere (not free) And our government is just giving it away?

This is literally what @benyl does. You'd be surprised at how much subsidized free charging there is out there. Most of the city owned downtown parking lots offer free charging. Not many people taking advantage of it, but we're not really a big EV city yet. The biggest lot has 30+ chargers and only 4 or 5 are used at peak time.



As long as CPS parking is profitable I guess it's ok?

[AndyL]

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They probably have a long term plan. Install the infrastructure first and then eventually charge for it. Would be a good revenue boost for the schools tbh.

I see lots of them going in free around... Sun country highway has a bunch in the area. Provide them or tesla or whoever the space to install a commercial system. Doesn't mean you should provide it yourself and compete against the private industry.

[Masked Bandit]

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Still, I wouldn't be pissed off to find out that a school had 75 block heater plugs, nor am I that it has three EV charge stations. Kids inside the school probably waste more electricity with charging their phones.

The wife's school has them but if you want a parking stall with a plug in you have to pay extra each year (this is for the teachers, not the students).

[benyl]

They are trying to encourage adoption. No different than McDonald's offering free toys with a happy meal. I'd actually prefer that people not convert to electric cars. More free charging for me.

At work, if I am not in before 8:15, I don't get a charging spot.

[ZenOps]

Eventually there will be non-tesla cars, and kids can still do the electric bike or scooter too.

Heck, if solar panels get cheap enough it might be feasible to just line the top of the school with solar panels.

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...store/2041826/

[ZenOps]

BTW: Its stupidly affordable if you got the ATCO 3 cents per kwh deal.

[The Cosworth]

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Man, if teachers can afford Tesla’s they are definitely overpaid.

Yeah I was thinking, what parent is buying their kid a tesla and what teacher can afford one. Haha. This seems like a real strange non-issue.

[Xtrema]

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Man, if teachers can afford Tesla’s they are definitely overpaid.

It's for the principle. $150K/year definitely can get you a $50K car.

That's why there is only 3/96 spots are set aside for EV. Still, what does a LEED cert buy a school?

[AndyL]

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Still, what does a LEED cert buy a school?

A plaque on the wall and a name on a list... and a super expensive one at that.

When I was a project coordinator, I was the poor bitch tasked with filling out the documents for the LEED coordinator (think 3-4 people at the prime contractor). Your architect tells us what product to use, what bits and pieces how to connect/attach it. Then the prime contractor comes back 3-4 months later, tells you you're going to unpack at your shop, because they're overbudget on waste, So you can't bring big crates that the components are packed in for shipping to site. Then they turn around and tell you since they spec'd an item made in europe, and had to be shipped around the world and assembled onsite you need to revise the document to "locally manufactured" because they need more LEED points.

So basically it's a big fucking gong show which adds a HUGE margin to the cost of a building and effectively doesn't nothing for the environment - but costs taxpayers a fricken ton of money.

[ZenOps]