Tricky. It does seem unreasonable to occupy a charging space for a lot longer than you need it.

Could you park in a non-charging space overnight and move it to charge before work (or vice versa, charge overnight and free up the space before you start work)? I guess this is dependent on how close the parking is to where you are for the night/day.

 

Are you intending to park at the Rail Station long-stay multi-storey car park at Princes Square? If so, and you are prepared to pay for 18 hours of parking there, then I would just leave it plugged in until you collect it next day. There are 56 x 22 kW type 2 chargers in there. So the odds of all 56 being in use and a 57th car arriving to be disappointed are very long. In any case, this park and its chargers were designed to cover rail users travelling out of the City for long periods. So they tacitly accept that what you would be doing is normal. It's a facility for precisely your use case.

 

I hadn't considered that as I didn't know it existed, but it seems ideal for this. That does answer the question. 50 odd chargers makes me feel like less of a dick leaving the car there all day.

As for parking it in the morning, I'm not an early riser, so unlikely to be practical.

 

but I'll be occupied from 9-5 each day. So if I arrive at say 8pm, I won't be able to move the car until around 6pm the next day. It'll be parked there for around 22 hours.

Can you not plug in when you arrive, charge overnight and diconnect the next morning before you leave and move to a regular parking spot? or am I missing something?

Occupying a desty for almost 24 hours is taking the proverbial (a bit).

 

Can you not plug in when you arrive, charge overnight and diconnect the next morning before you leave and move to a regular parking spot? or am I missing something?

Seems the best approach, ensures you get a charge if there's a spot free to charge over-night, if not, then check again in the morning and leave it charging during the day.

Plus even with all day 9-5 type events, there's normally a lunch break when people can pop-out to do stuff.

 

If I am in Leeds shopping I use the chargers at the Trinity car park, and I often see cars left there all day plugged in. I have never seen all the charging bays fully occupied, so I cannot see any harm in what you propose.

 

Fair enough. I guess I’m a bit old school when it comes to destination chargers - my general attitude is that they’re a shared but finite resource and it’s just fair to get off when you’ve had your fill.

But then again as you say if they’re never fully occupied at this particular car park - then no harm done staying beyond your time to full.

 

I’ve not bothered with destination charging so far in Leeds (my son graduated in the summer after 3 years at Uni there), but that is because I can easily rapid charge on the way down from Scotland (usually at Leeming Bar Gridserve rapids) and then again on the way home (at Newton Ayecliffe services Instavolt or Jet Charge rapids), where I’d be taking a comfort break. If the destination chargers on the top level of the Arndale Centre in Headingly worked then I’d be able to avoid the rapids (I stay at the Headingly Lremier Inn as it’s a few mins walk from my sons flat), but they’ve been out of action for all the times I’ve been visiting Leeds.

 

So how do you accommodate this type of charging?

Personally I'd charge up on a rapid on the way in and then use a normal parking space rather than taking a destination charger. Recharge somewhere on the way home.

Scotland has overstay costs for occupying a charger beyond some limit. Seems a good idea, except for overnight issues.

Really need a bank of chargers to justify occupying one that whole time.

 

I think it is one thing to plug in and go shopping or have a meeting and then return, but quite another to plug in knowing that you will be away from the car for hours after it stops charging. The former is normal destination charging... the latter is hogging IMO.

I would try to work it so that you vacate the charger as soon as you can after you know that it will stop charging., even if that means a quick trip out to the car park lunchtime or after work. IMO parking up for 22hrs on a public 7kW charger is not very friendly to others that might need it. I have a car park here in Plymouth that has 2 x 7kW Polar posts, so 4 sockets. The council parks up there to charge but they leave their cars/vans there overnight and at weekends. It means that those posts are useless to most people that want to pop into town and plug in while shopping... which is what they are best for.

Just be mindful of others.

 

If it is the location where there are 56 chargers then I'd be tempted to leave the car (providing there's no overstay fees), if it's somewhere where there's only 2-3 then I'd probably try and move off the charger once done.

 

Precisely. Other than at a massive venue such as the NEC during a very popular event, I can't imagine that 56 sockets will be fully occupied at any one time. Certainly not in a provincial city centre car park next to a main rail station.

Think about it from the point of view of any hypothetical driver being potentially inconvenienced by this long stay. Someone arriving at, say, 9 pm and spotting this bay in use would fully expect that socket to only become available the next morning. And a second car arriving the next day at 9 am would not expect that charger to be available until a commuter had finished work at 6 pm.

From the point of view of those two cars, they would both be completely unaware that their assumptions were wrong - and be also completely unconcerned anyway, because in both cases there were dozens of alternative sockets free to plug into.

Context is king.

In the OP's situation, I would just just plug-n-go.

No one doing that could be considered as being unfriendly or inconsiderate of others in that specific use case. Except of course for the lip pursing petty etiquette police who are unable to avoid any excuse to finger-point at people that they consider to be less virtuous than themselves.

 

The council parks up there to charge but they leave their cars/vans there overnight and at weekends. It means that those posts are useless to most people that want to pop into town and plug in while shopping... which is what they are best for.

Another view might be that the Council use them every day and are therefore using them to greater benefit that occasional users. Using charge points in a shoppers car park overnight sounds like an excellent use of the facilities but the idea does fall down if they are blocked over the weekend.

Personally, I don’t need to charge if I am popping anywhere. I need charging if I’m travelling further than half the range of the car. I applaud Councils who got grant funding to install charge points but I need them to be 100 miles away, not on my doorstep.

 

No. It isn't good use. It is blocking. They have turned what should be public charging into council only charging. If the council need charging they should install their own on council property and not block public chargers.

 

There are 13 charging points at the Trinity car park in Leeds, and as I write this at 6.30pm on a Wednesday evening 10 of these are free. I would not be concerned to plug my car in and leave it overnight.

 

Check the charging Ts and Cs for overstay charges. If there aren't any, that means they are fairly relaxed in this location and you can be too.

 

there are quite a few council run car parks that got EV charge points fitted likely with grant money, but clearly are using them heavily for council vehicles. I'm not sure what I think of that

 

I don't mind the council using those chargers for their vehicles. What I do mind is that those bays are frequently full of vehicles (e-NV200's to be clear) either not plugged in or for which charging completed yesterday. As the number of chargers approaches "a larger figure" this becomes less of a problem.