Lay My Hat

greenbarn wrote: I don’t know quite what that adds to the discussion on supplying free fuel to guests involved in the guinea pig process, but I’d question the sanity of someone setting out on a tour of the wilds of the Scottish Highlands in an electric-only vehicle...

Apparently it's possible to do the whole North Coast 500 in an electric-only vehicle, the Highland Council has installed public charging points at regular intervals round the route. I'm trying to convince Top Gear to bring a Tesla up here to see if it's true!

CarolineJ wrote:

greenbarn wrote: I don’t know quite what that adds to the discussion on supplying free fuel to guests involved in the guinea pig process, but I’d question the sanity of someone setting out on a tour of the wilds of the Scottish Highlands in an electric-only vehicle...

Apparently it's possible to do the whole North Coast 500 in an electric-only vehicle

Ha! I reckon that’s cheating! My idea of driving in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands involves the sort of roads away from the coast where you don’t see another car for an hour, let alone a charging point or filling station! The A9? No thanks!

However, I wouldn’t have expected to be able to do a lot of the west side of the route in an EV, at least not without a trailer full of spare batteries, so full marks to Highland Council.

I can see another issue here; someone arrives at a one of the remote charging points in a green glow, eager to charge their car for the next leg of the journey and stretch their legs and have a bite to eat for the 30 minutes or so it will take (assuming a rapid charger....) to charge to a reasonable level of around 80% of full capacity (just hope that’s enough...).
Except that there are already two other EVs in a similar green glow waiting their turn.
So maybe a tent would be an essential in the boot.
What was that? No room for a tent because the boot’s full of batteries?
I predict a booming demand for B&Bs, with overnight charging points, in close proximity to the route.

Just thought I would add a little.

I would suspect that guests that arrive with electric / hybrid vehicles know that it costs money to recharge their vehicle and they as always will want as much as possible without having to pay more than they have already and they don't want a confrontation with the property owner either.
They won't ask if it's possible for them to recharge their vehicle because they don't want you to say "No you can't" or give you the opportunity to request additional monies to charge their vehicle. The guest doesn't want to have to pay more.
They want something for nothing, in doing this it also gives them a sense of “self gratification” and "getting away with it" afterwards, a laugh and a chuckle on their journey home at the end of the week “we got away with it”.
As somebody pointed out we always publish / advertise all those good and positive things about the property, its location and ourselves, we never publish all those negative things that we know about whatever they may be. My cottage is a fair distance from the nearest roadside and it's not possible to get a vehicle to the cottage. An extension lead in my case would have to be a minimum of 80mtrs long and even longer, it would have to straddle three public footpaths too!
Now there are many FHL's I'm sure in this similar situation.
I'm surprised just how many guests arrive at my cottage not realising / knowing just how far away from the roadside my cottage is even though it clearly says that parking is a minimum of 80mtrs away from my cottage on my website, on the agents website and on their booking forms and within the emails they get.
I'm waiting to see what happens when my first guests arrive with an electric car!!!!
As I see things there are only a small number of ways forward:
Accept the losses brought about by the charging of vehicles.
Increase income to cover the additional cost.
Somehow prevent guests from being able to charge vehicles in the first place by some way or means. Non Standard wall sockets!? The installation of a consumer unit that intelligently knows what has been plugged in and can identify a car charger and then somehow prevent the supply of power to that charger!! (No such system exists!!)
In addition to somehow preventing guests from charging vehicles in the first place install a safe and dedicated metered coin operated charging point for them to use.

Digressing a little.

I see the existence of the human race as we know it today leaning over a make or break fiscal cliff, the main problem being energy.

The hybrid/electric car is a miniscule stepping stone towards maintaining our own future and existence.

I foresee us either plunging into a global war for the domination of a power source and returning to a medieval existents or cracking "Cold Fusion" or something similar and having cricket ball sized power plants in our homes, factories and vehicles that last forever and run on a 9V battery!!!!!!

akwe-xavante wrote: They won't ask if it's possible for them to recharge their vehicle because they don't want you to say "No you can't"

Which is a fair point.
As has been touched on before, in most cases the answer has to be “No you can’t” for simple reasons of electrical safety.
The typical EV trickle charger intended to be plugged in to a domestic supply is rated at around 3kWatts. Remember the classic single-bar radiant electric fire? Think the equivalent of 3 of those plugged in to just one of the domestic circuits in your property - is the circuit and wiring capable of handling that for 8 hours?
And just suppose the cable they bring isn’t long enough - do they think “no problem, I’ve got an extension reel” and use that? And if they’re ignorant enough to do that, they’re probably ignorant enough to leave the reel partially coiled up and generating enough heat to cause a fire - in your property. So when the insurers ask if you told the guests they could charge their car, which directly resulted in the fire, and you say “Well, yes, I did....” do you think they’ll pay out?
So no Mr or Ms Greenguest, we do not have a dedicated charging point and we can’t guarantee the suitability of any particular socket you choose to plug into, so you may not charge your vehicle. Sorry.

And just to go back to the original discussion about whether to absorb the cost or not, remember I mentioned the electric fires? If guests turn up at your property, which has full central heating and is toasty warm, bringing with them 3 single bar electric fires which they leave on all night because they like them, how would you feel about it? After all, it’s less than 4 quid a night.

I personally think that the charging of electric/hybrid vehicles should be paid for in some way.

The problem being how to achieve it.

If I had a Holiday let whereby it was possible to get a vehicle to it to charge I would without question want to have a safe and dedicated point specifically for the purpose of charging vehicles, metered and coin operated or not to protect my property as far as achievable from internal risks and the outward risks brought about by the use of the guests leads and charging equipment etc.

The power point would have to be outside to prevent a situation whereby the guest could run an extension lead in through an open door or window and then leave the property to do whatever for the day leaving the building insecure but the power point should also be secure enough so that unauthorised people could not use it either. Next door neighbour running an extension through the hedge under the cover of darkness!

But how to do this so that it is only possible via a very specific power point though? How do you prevent them from ignoring a safe charging point whether it be coin operated or not and using some other power point instead just because they can!

Shock horror city based hotels in Spain hardly ever supply free car parking. Imagine that paying to store your car, usually with no recharge point either.
What is this world coming too?

akwe-xavante wrote:I personally think that the charging of electric/hybrid vehicles should be paid for in some way.

I think it would cost considerably more to install meters etc than you'd ever recover from the charges - unless EVs became very common. If they did become common, then it would be rather like Wifi and those who charge would end up being in the minority and thought of as penny pinching, and you would just raise your rates to cover the expected use!

An update on this as some guests just plugged their car in without asking, with an extension cord, and tripped the electricity twice, so I have been doing some research as I'd like to provide charging but with some guests arriving in four cars and touring around the whole area, the cost could add up, and obviously it's no good if the place keeps tripping.

You can get metered plugs which show how much has gone through them via wifi to an app, these seem like a very good solution if you have somewhere to put them, and we may look into adding them.

However for the moment being able to charge cars means upgrading our electricity tariff. I'm looking into the cost implications of this but it's clear that in France at least, it's not a given that you can just plug it in and it will be fine.

Additionally, because (possibly like many rental properties) it is not worth us switching to very cheap overnight electricity), the overnight charge that works well for many people's personal use doesn't apply.

And also several people have mentioned that a long extension lead (which the guests brought with them) could be a fire risk. Certainly it didn't look very safe in the rain with clingfilm wrapped around it! Plus 'holiday brain' applies here as always.

So we're looking into the upgrade tariff / dedicated charge point with wifi metering option, and meanwhile this has gone into the confirmation info:

"If you're arriving in an electric vehicle, please tell us in advance so we can send you details of charging points"

And then into the confirmation of details email will go:

"We welcome electric vehicles but we do not at present have a dedicated car charging port, and our electricity supply is unsuitable for charging them via a domestic socket. Car charging stations are available to use throughout Chamonix: (link) "

Thoughts on this welcome!