The neighbour and the EV charger

[Alittlebit9]

DH has an electric car, and had a charger installed at home on Friday. It cost him £1200.

Today, neighbour (who we are fairly friendly with, in a neighbourly way) has messaged me to ask if we would mind if they used it from time to time. I think she’s being a CF and this will be a slippery slope. Plus it’s on our driveway so we would have to move our cars. Also, I know it isn’t expensive but it’s going onto our bill.

YABU - let them use the charger
YANBU - they need to get their own

Hmmmmm.... I mean I guess she can ask.

To get in the right frame of mind, would you like them using any stored diesel in your garage for free every night.

(If you can't say no straight away, I get it, its neighbours), Send a holding text saying you hadn't thought about it but if it is something she wants to do you would have to work out the logistics due to its location and how much you would charge them to use and the cost of installation pump.

Then a couple of days later you can say that you talked about it with DP, and it decided it would be too difficult to manage and you would have to charge her at least (more than the local charging point) to use. However they are convienent recommend some installers.

Oh and get a camera over it to film for CF behaviour

Hell no. They can use a granny charger (3-pin plug) like the rest of us peasants do.

this will evolve into a mess otherwise!

If you want to make some money, you could tell her you’re happy to let her for £20, providing you aren’t using it. Presumably it will be more convenient for them than using one of the commercial ones so there’s an upside for both of you.

But I’d probably just respond “😂LOL”

If they have bought an EV without arranging a reliable form of charging you can bet your bottom dollar that it won't be "once in a while" that they want to use your charger! I bet they'll soon get fed up of the expense of public chargers or the inconvenience of using a 3 pin plug and will be round at yours regularly. Set your boundaries now!
It might not cost a huge amount to charge but milk and bread doesn't cost a lot either and you wouldn't expect to be able to walk into your neighbours' kitchen and help yourself to a loaf or a pint of milk every few days because you couldn't be bothered going to the shops would you?
One charge doesn't cost you much but it will mount up when they do it regularly, besides which a large part of the reason why you pay for your own charger is for the convenience of being able to charge at home whenever you want or need to. You don't want to come home with 10% battery left and discover someone else sat on your drive charging.
We have friends who are self sufficient in electricity and on days when it's particularly windy or sunny they generate more electricity than they can use, so it costs them nothing to charge their car. On such days sometimes they ring us and ask if we want to go round for a coffee and charge our EV whilst we're there. We also charged there when they were the only people for miles who had electricity for a couple of days after the last bad storms. But we wait to be asked! Even though it's "free" electricity, it's still their electricity, their charger and their home and nobody has the right to help themselves.

I wonder if you can lock it or turn it off so the neighbours can’t sneak a charge when you are not at home. I can’t even believe they would ask! Nope is what I would have said right away. Even if they offered to pay, what happens if their battery somehow gets damaged from a charge (say they use charge incorrectly or there is a surge). Then it’s a huge mess that can drag on for a long time.

I like this!

It is expensive (unless you’re using solar panels for it in which case time of day matters).

I would say, if there is a way that she can use it without parking in front of your house, I would let her use it once in a while. She would pay fir her usage. Nothing wrong with helping someone as long as it doesn't inconvenience you.

Sign up to co-charger. They book it through the app, pay an admin fee to the service and you get the cost of electricity covered.

No, that’s ridiculous!

If it was a neighbour who I was on good terms with and I knew that wouldn't be cheeky about it, yes; but it sounds as if this is definitely not the case!

This is impossible. Even charged overnight on economy 7, say 7p per kWh, it would cost about £6 for a full charge on our EV. In reality it could be significantly more as it takes more than 7hrs to fully charge on a level 2 charger.

Obviously your definition of driving a ‘great deal’ might be different to mine but if your electricity bills really haven’t increased at all there must be something else going on.

You said she asked in a breezy way. It wasn't like when you are washing your car and someone ALWAYS says 'Do mine next would you?!' was it?

Say no, very cheeky.

Just curious - what’s a Tesla double speed? Is it just the same as a type 2 or faster? Can you charge any car with it and not just Teslas?

Sorry I voted wrong. YnotBAU

Your neighbour is a CFC.

If she can afford an overpriced EV, she can afford to get her own charger installed.

The best response to this is to literally tell her to fuck off. And when she gets there, fuck off a lil bit more...

Find out how much it costs commercially to charge an EV. And then you can tell her she can use it for the commercial cost per charge.

Is not replying an option? I don’t think I would even respond to their request.

Your neighbour sounds like she is one of those people who think it’s okay to ask someone to make their life a little bit more complicated so she can make hers a little bit easier. On a regular basis.

I would say yes of course, we just need to get registered on the co-charger app and I’ll send you the details shortly.

Absolutely not! Can't believe the neighbour's got the cheek to ask.

Assuming your daytime rate is about 30p you will need to charge her about £2.25 an hour plus a proportionate of your standing charge and vat and an inconvenience fee so about £5 an hour ish paid upfront should do it.

but obviously it’s still a no.

Lock it so she can’t use it.

Nope…