[Simon..Hewison]

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?

 

[cah197]

🤣

I’m laughing at stupid stuff charging companies do, not your misfortune.

 

[Simon..Hewison]

🤣

I’m laughing at stupid stuff charging companies do, not your misfortune.

I feel it's a misunderstanding when the electricians wired up the supply to the chargepoints, or it might simply be a training or labelling issue. The shop staff should be able to flip the switch to isolate power to the pumps when shutting the site down at the end of the night without affecting the (24/7) supply to the charge points, which are actually sited around the back of the building away from the volatile compounds.

 

[cah197]

I feel it's a misunderstanding when the electricians wired up the supply to the chargepoints, or it might simply be a training or labelling issue. The shop staff should be able to flip the switch to isolate power to the pumps when shutting the site down at the end of the night without affecting the (24/7) supply to the charge points, which are actually sited around the back of the building away from the volatile compounds.

I wonder if the Safety Elves were up to their old tricks?

 

[dk6780]

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?

A UPS for the ancillary functions sounds entirely sensible.

I wonder if the Safety Elves were up to their old tricks?

Probably, saving the owners from being sued when an EV owner is assaulted/robbed whilst using a charge point when there are no filling station staff around.

 

[srichards]

What do Instavolt say when you complain that the pumps are turned off at 10 pm? If ZapMap is wrong then they need to lean on ZapMap to show they're not 24/7.

A lot of the fuel station location ones show 'out of service' after 10pm. I've noticed a few that turn red to indicate there is an issue.

 

[Tooks]

It’s probably a fuel station thing, the Instavolt units at Starbucks that I’ve used after hours are still powered up, as are ones at Supermarkets that close at 2200.

The mindset of the fuel station must be one of ‘we’re closed, no cars on site’.

 

[cah197]

Probably, saving the owners from being sued when an EV owner is assaulted/robbed whilst using a charge point when there are no filling station staff around.

Probably scared of EVs catching fire whilst no-one is around.

 

[Simon..Hewison]

What do Instavolt say when you complain that the pumps are turned off at 10 pm? If ZapMap is wrong then they need to lean on ZapMap to show they're not 24/7.

A lot of the fuel station location ones show 'out of service' after 10pm. I've noticed a few that turn red to indicate there is an issue.

Zap-Map get a live status feed from Instavolt (actually, I think it's via Chargepoint, who run their back-end). It's not a Zap-Map (or abetterrouteplanner, or watts up, or Plugshare, or in-car navigation systems) problem if their source data is wrong. To expect each and every charge point registry to manually keep track of cases where reality is different from a 'live status' is a never-ending task.
The source data from the network says 24/7, and Instavolt's helpline says it should be 24/7. They were going to raise an issue to query with the site management as to what was going on.

 

[AndyK]

It’s probably a fuel station thing, the Instavolt units at Starbucks that I’ve used after hours are still powered up, as are ones at Supermarkets that close at 2200.

The mindset of the fuel station must be one of ‘we’re closed, no cars on site’.

Luckily that isn't the view BP take with BP Pulse chargers!

 

[blueacid]

Or perhaps the EV Chargers have a breaker labelled "EV Pumps" or similar... and the staff turning off for the day have been told to "switch off the pumps".

Easy mistake to make!

 

[dk6780]

Probably scared of EVs catching fire whilst no-one is around.

Scared of missing the opportunity to watch? There's not much else they can do once it has started.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Or perhaps the EV Chargers have a breaker labelled "EV Pumps" or similar... and the staff turning off for the day have been told to "switch off the pumps".

Easy mistake to make!

TBH, that sounds far and away the most plausible reason. As a schoolboy I worked at a local garage in the evenings, on the pumps (back when super was just under five shillings per gallon). Because I was the only one there in the evening, I had to secure the pumps, lock the place up, turn off loads of (marked) switches for the pumps, lights, etc, cash up the till and take the takings to the nightsafe at the local bank, then drop the office key back through the letterbox on my way home. Crazy level of responsibilty for a 16 year old. I well remember the bank of switches in the office, all marked with a list showing which had to be turned off overnight.