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Last night, for the second time, I've tried to charge at an Instavolt location, which during the day is faultless, but late at night (after 10pm, when the filling station is closed) is impossible because there's no power to the units.
Instavolt stated that chargers should be available 24/7.
It seems that when the filling station staff clock off for the night and turn off the pumps, they also seem to flick a breaker that turns off both of Instavolt's charge points. Lights, CCTV and fridges in the shop are still powered.
Location: West Meon filling station, Electric Vehicle (EV) Rapid Charging Station - West Meon
which is annoying because it's in the middle of a charging desert, it's possible to limp back to Petersfield.
Don't trust Instavolt / Chargepoint / Zap-Map's real-time status for things like that, if there's no power to the unit, it still shows as available on these because that's the last known status. Perhaps charge point manufacturers should have big capacitors in their internal power supply to the controllers such that they can report to the network that power has been lost and it's shutting down, before ceasing to function, much like some 3d printers perform a tidy shutdown and save state so they can resume when power returns?
Instavolt stated that chargers should be available 24/7.
It seems that when the filling station staff clock off for the night and turn off the pumps, they also seem to flick a breaker that turns off both of Instavolt's charge points. Lights, CCTV and fridges in the shop are still powered.
Location: West Meon filling station, Electric Vehicle (EV) Rapid Charging Station - West Meon
which is annoying because it's in the middle of a charging desert, it's possible to limp back to Petersfield.
Don't trust Instavolt / Chargepoint / Zap-Map's real-time status for things like that, if there's no power to the unit, it still shows as available on these because that's the last known status. Perhaps charge point manufacturers should have big capacitors in their internal power supply to the controllers such that they can report to the network that power has been lost and it's shutting down, before ceasing to function, much like some 3d printers perform a tidy shutdown and save state so they can resume when power returns?