Charging facilities in apartment complex parking lots are an important issue for the spread of EVs
Electric vehicles are mainly charged by chargers installed in base garages and 200V outlets. It is convenient to use. Driving long distances that exceed the cruising range of the on-board battery, such as daily commuting, is not common in the average use of a private car. When you get home, you can connect the cable to the charging port in the parking lot and start the next morning fully charged.
Charging at base parking lots is basic charging for electric vehicle operation. While charging on highways such as SAPA (mainly quick charging) during a long-distance drive is called “route charging”, charging at accommodation facilities (mainly normal charging) is called “destination charging”. It can be understood that charging at the car park (mostly normal charging) is called "basic charging", which is the "basic" of electric vehicle operation.
However, the popularization of charging facilities for electric vehicles, especially in the parking lots of apartment complexes, is a difficult issue in Japan today. Before introducing the case studies we interviewed, let's first sort out the current issues.
(1) Wiring is costly and time-consuming. If you try to install a charging port, you will of course need wiring to draw power. There are probably more than a few parking lots where electricity is coming to the vicinity for lighting facilities, etc., but in general, "200 V x 15 A to 30 A = 3 kW to 6 kW x number of installed units", which is a large amount of wiring for power, is drawn. Depending on the situation, it may be necessary to install a switchboard or the like. Confirmation with the electric power company and contract procedures are also "time and effort" that were not found in parking lots for engine cars.
② There are many expensive chargers in normal chargers, so it costs a lot. Most EVs are equipped with a 200V charging cable, so if you have a 200V outlet for EVs that you can buy for around 2,000 to 3,000 yen, you can charge it. However, if you buy a "normal charger" with a cable or a particular design, it will cost tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yen. There is also a model with a billing function for the eMP network that costs 1.5 million yen per unit.
(3) How to charge reasonably is annoying. The user should bear the electricity charge for charging, but creating a system for how to measure the amount of power and time used, how to charge, and how to pay is a rather thorny issue. In order to deal with these issues, normal chargers and services equipped with a reservation and billing system such as Yourstand, Jigowatts "Ella", and Yubiden "WeCharge" have appeared.
(4) It is difficult to get the understanding of the management union and the landlord. Due to these issues, it is often difficult to obtain the understanding, consent, and cooperation of the management association for subdivisions and the landlord for rentals when installing charging facilities for electric vehicles.
If you install it at the time of new construction, you can easily overcome various hurdles!
Many of the issues, such as consensus building and cost, can be overcome by installing them at the time of new construction. Of course, charging equipment and wiring costs will be required, but if electric vehicles are regarded as a necessary form of mobility in the first place, it will not be a big problem in the large budget at the time of new construction.
This case was exactly "a charging facility that was devised and installed by a landlord with a high awareness of the environment."
The place I visited for the interview was Joyo City in the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture. 200V outlets for charging electric vehicles are installed in 2 of the 24 parking lots on the premises of 24 new apartments called "Sha Maison Refino". Furthermore, it was wired so that outlets could be added to 9 sections in the future.
The person who provided the information was Mr. Yoshihisa Nakagawa. However, the landlord of the apartment is his mother, Hiroko Nakagawa. In addition, Kiku's younger sister, Takako, lives in a detached house next to this apartment and helps with daily management work. In other words, it is a rental housing run by the Nakagawa family. The land where the apartment was newly built was "a rice field". In fact, this is the third apartment that Hiroko owns.
Hiroko-san lives near her apartment, and I listened to the stories of the Nakagawa family... I learned that Mr. Kiku and the Nakagawa family are not only taking on the challenge of "installing charging equipment in collective housing", but also a high-level challenge that could be called the "next step."
The newly built apartment has also acquired ZEH certification
Planning for the new construction of this property started about three years ago. Mr. Kiku, who is the owner of the Nissan LEAF himself, plays the role of the brain of the family, not only charging facilities (outlets) for the parking lot, but also solar power that can distribute a little more than 2 kW to each of the 24 rooftops (total 52.8 kW). Install photovoltaic panels. The hot water system, air conditioner, etc. are also equipped with designated high-performance models, and have been certified as "ZEH = Net Zero Energy House" by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Of course, we are using subsidies for ZEH construction, and it seems that the house builder took over the application, but he said, "It was difficult even if a professional applied." It was so difficult to understand how the organization that would act as a point of contact was so confusing that he even wondered, "Does the government really want to promote ZEH?" (Mr. Yoshihisa).
In the first place, "ZEH" itself is a fairly high-level goal, and I can understand that certification requires complicated verification. Nonetheless, as Mr. Yoshihisa points out, if we are to spread ZEH more widely, it may be necessary to consider a simpler and easier-to-understand subsidy system.
There are subsidies for the purchase of electric cars, but they can only be used when purchasing a new car, and there is a tendency to prefer luxury cars, so even if you want to expect further updates as a commoner living in a small way. I have. More to the point, is a "subsidy" a better way for the government to deal with the environment and popularize electrified vehicles? Let's look forward to the ideas and execution capabilities of politicians and government officials.
Installation of a power meter based on your own idea
What impressed me even more was that the switchboard of the charger (outlet) was equipped with a power meter that showed the power consumption for each wire. is.
In Japan, in order to exchange electricity charges according to the provisions of the Measurement Law, you must use a "measuring instrument that has received type approval or certification based on the Measurement Law". However, measuring instruments that meet the conditions are expensive. It is not something that can be easily installed in private electric vehicle charging facilities.
Kiku's job is an engineer for an electronic device manufacturer. "I chose a small watt-hour meter that is also used for power consumption management in factories, and I had the circuit diagrams created and installed by myself." Equipped so that the electricity meter can be checked from outside the distribution box. The 9 sections that can be expanded were supposed to be installed later.
Regarding the ``rationalization of the electricity measurement system,'' the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy has already begun deliberations. You should be able to "weigh" using a meter.
However, it is still unclear whether the electricity meter that Mr. Kiku installed corresponds to "a meter that meets certain standards." There is a concern that exchanging charges with residents (charging users) based on the "kWh" indicated by the meter may violate the Electricity Business Act.
At the moment, there are no residents who use the electric vehicle charging, but in the near future, if there is a person who uses the EV outlet in this parking lot, the meter will say " Mr. Kiku said that he would like to replace the "kWh" stickers with "x 20 minutes" or "points" and "make arrangements with the residents who will use the charging fees in advance."
This high-value-added housing complex is popular with residents
This apartment was completed in June. When I visited for the interview in July, it was just after the new building was built, but 23 units had already been contracted (although there were still some rooms that had not yet been moved), and there were only two vacancies in the parking lot. bottom. In addition to being a ZEH with high insulation performance, each house is allocated a solar power generation facility, so the electricity bill can be suppressed. Even if the initial investment is a little high, the high added value makes it a popular property.
Right now, there aren't even a single EV or PHEV in the parking lot, but it's highly likely that there will be more in the next few years. It is conceivable that there will be cases where residents will choose an electric vehicle that can be charged as their next car, as long as there is an outlet in the parking lot.
However, when I had a meeting with a real estate agent and asked if I wanted to publicize "EV charging equipment", the person in charge of the agent had a "???" face. “The advantages of EV charging facilities were not yet fully recognized in the real estate industry,” said Yoshihisa with a wry smile.
Even though I consulted with the contractor of the parking lot that I wanted to install an EV charging outlet, they didn't seem to have much know-how. Mr. Kiku himself searches and selects. It is said that it was constructed while giving detailed instructions to the contractor.
Although there are still few precedents for electric vehicle charging facilities in collective housing, the EV outlet at "Sha Maison Refino" is an advanced, rational and wonderful outlet filled with Mr. Kiku's thoughts. Due to compliance concerns, I will refrain from introducing the details and drawings of the equipment, but I hope that it will be useful for owners of collective housing throughout Japan.
Finally, as I mentioned earlier, it was July. I made an article on July 17th when I was in trouble with a Tesla "Model 3" and tried to charge it with a supercharger Iga on the way, but it broke down. It took me a lot of time to do that. I'm sorry, Nakagawa-san. And I'm looking forward to the day when EVs line up in the parking lot of "Shamaison Refino"!
(Interview / Text / Yoshinori Yorimoto)