Public Chargers Up Poles? Seriously?

[bwanamdevu]

One of the U.S. electric companies, National Grid have come up with an idea that they are piloting in Melrose, close to Boston in Massachusett. They have developed an EV public charger that is perched way above head height on electric poles. Several films on YouTube show how they operate to release a charging cable that an EV owner can use. Early results have been so promising that about 100 of these units are going to be installed in Los Angeles.

Perhaps this is something that the U.K. charging companies can investigate. I could envisage them on electric, telephone or street light poles in urban settings where people would struggle to fit chargers of their own. The American installers have also estimated that fitting this sort of charger saves about 70% of the normal installation costs! No ripping up the streets or pavements!

Two YouTube films are about this procedure. First one here with a follow-up one in winter.

 

[Alb]

This solution only works where power is carried on overhead lines so would be unsuitable in most UK cities. The dangling cable is also a hazard that would never be allowed in the UK although it might work in an area that wasn't shared with pedestrians.

 

[phillycee]

Its fairly easy to add a charging point to an existing street lamp posts... Wiring already in place and you can then park roadside without trailing cables of the footpath

 

[5teep]

One company (ubtricity) at least is planning to install charge points in lamp posts in UK. It's a good idea and as phillycee says reasonably easy to do as long at the council in question can supply the power.

 

[bwanamdevu]

One company (ubtricity) at least is planning to install charge points in lamp posts in UK. It's a good idea and as phillycee says reasonably easy to do as long at the council in question can supply the power.

That’s good news! Must see if I can read up about that.

 

[Alb]

Lamp posts may provide a suitable location to house a charger but there will still be the disruption of running a suitable supply because the existing cable will certainly not have the required capacity.

 

[phillycee]

I've seen a few lamp-post chargers in East London...but they were all in controlled residents parking areas...so I couldn't use them

 

[5teep]

Lamp posts may provide a suitable location to house a charger but there will still be the disruption of running a suitable supply because the existing cable will certainly not have the required capacity.

For now yes but there would not be a huge amount going in at once. My guess would be ramped up as ev sales rise and you're only going to find them in places where the supply is sufficient.

 

[AdamMGEV]

There's a lot of lamp post charge points in Liverpool near me.

 

[AdamMGEV]

 

[AdamMGEV]

That's one from ubitricity, been there for years I think

 

[Alb]

I think the image caption is a giveaway Adam

 

[bwanamdevu]

Just had a look on Google Maps and there appear to be about eleven or so Ubitricity lamp-post chargers in the streets around this one!

 

[Gomev]

Lamp posts may provide a suitable location to house a charger but there will still be the disruption of running a suitable supply because the existing cable will certainly not have the required capacity.

Original lampposts ran incandescent bulbs, I believe up to about 500w each bulb (I could well be wrong on that, I'm sure someone else will know). So the power for these for a whole street was enormous. With better bulbs this reduced, and most, in fact all, around here anyway now use LED so there is bags of power available sitting there.

 

[AdamMGEV]

Just had a look on Google Maps and there appear to be about eleven or so Ubitricity lamp-post chargers in the streets around this one!

Ye if you go on zapmaps and filter by ubitricity it's surprising how many there are

 

[Alb]

Original lampposts ran incandescent bulbs, I believe up to about 500w each bulb (I could well be wrong on that, I'm sure someone else will know). So the power for these for a whole street was enormous. With better bulbs this reduced, and most, in fact all, around here anyway now use LED so there is bags of power available sitting there.

Much will depend on the age of the delivery infrastructure. The very oldest stuff would have been based on incandescent but anything installed in the last 40 or so years would have been based on SOX or SON and most of these lamps would have been <100W in residential areas.
I'd still say an upgrade of supply would be necessary.

 

[bwanamdevu]

These Ubitricity lamp-post chargers appear to be concentrated in London and Liverpool. Checked a few on Google Maps and their chargers in other places seem to be conventional ones.

 

[AdamMGEV]

These Ubitricity lamp-post chargers appear to be concentrated in London and Liverpool. checked a few on Google Maps and their chargers in other places seem to be conventional ones.

So both in the two most important cities of the UK

 

[bwanamdevu]

So both in the two most important cities of the UK

Does that mean that Sheffield will be next if they are working their way through the most important cities?

 

[AdamMGEV]

Does that mean that Sheffield will be next if they are working their way through the most important cities?

They could only afford to do the top 2 sorry