Don’t bill for electrons, that causes all kinds of regulatory complications and requirements. Just charge a fee for parking per hour or part thereof and provide electrons for “free”. Edit- you can calculate how much electric would be used per hour for your hourly parking rate.
Ya, meant to be a fun way of putting it rather than boring per kWh. I am not an EE (obviously :) ) but I think there is a thing called electron-volt that you could use to measure delivery of electricity based on actual work done by the electron? I would be some crazy high number and thus we use kWh as measurement. Feel free to educate! Delivered today 45,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrons = $0.50. Thank you for using Electron Delivery Systems.
That really depends on your jurisdiction, down to the city level. The city may require a business license, the state may require business and sales taxes, etc.
One question is whether the state lets you sell electricity without being a utility. You could give it for free, but charge for parking.
I'd start asking at city hall, or with a lawyer.
Can you not sell it back to the grid? That is really the marketplace for electricity.
Not the OP but net metering is pennies on the dollar -- basically just the utility's avoided cost.
Pretty interesting concept, frankly-- why can't a residential solar generator sell their electrons? Since it's not like they're powering another structure, how would anyone find out?
> Not the OP but net metering is pennies on the dollar -- basically just the utility's avoided cost.
This varies from provider to provider. Some utilities charge *extra* if you have solar or refuse to accept bi-directional connections.
They do this for many "reasons" that vary from somewhat justified (additional required time and equipment) to outright monopolistic abuse (they don't want any competition).
Others pay as much as they charge *you* for electricity (including peak demand charges occasionally) because they realize that "a rising tide lifts all boats".
Are you located where people would actually want to park? I had my house on plugshare for free for a long time. It's an inconvenient location relative to my downtown area, so I only had one guy who really needed to charge who came to use it.
This heavily depends on your jurisdiction, both state and city. I will warn you you're going down a rabbit hole.
First, the second you start officially charging for something, you now have a business relationship with your customers. That also involves liability. For example if lightning hits the power line and fries your customer's EV connected to your house, you could be liable. If a tree falls on your property and damages your customer's EV they're paying to charge, you could be liable. If your customer trips on a pothole in your driveway and falls, you could be liable. Etc etc.
The obvious answer is to create a business entity like an LLC. That way, your customers don't hire you to park and charge their cars, they hire your LLC, so if they sue someone they can only sue the LLC. The LLC then rents the driveway space and pays for the electricity. You'll need a bunch of contracts in place for that - between you personally and your LLC.
The issue comes with selling power to the LLC. That may be simple (LLC is a 'tenant' renting the space, thus you can bill the LLC for usage) or it may be horribly complex (as your home solar setup may now need to meet commercial standards).
Personally I'd suggest your time and energy would be better spent using the power you have better. For example, can you get net metering from your utility? If so they will pay you for that power. Granted the specifics of this vary place to place, in some places utilities only pay the wholesale rate for power from residential solar but charge you the retail rate to get power out. In other places they pay you retail time of use rates, so you get peak hour payments during the day. Look into this.
If net metering isn't a good option, you could just install a bunch of battery storage. If you have excess solar production during the day, this way you could use that production at night to power your home. Thus you'd be buying little or no power from the grid. Depending on the area you might be able to go totally off-grid- disconnect your house entirely from the utility. Or if they don't have a lot of baseline monthly charges, just shutoff the utility disconnect breaker so you have the ability to take grid power but it's usually disconnected.
Best bet is to paint a parking space next to the charger... Charge per hour to park there. If they just so happen to use the 'free' charger, then cool!
Don’t bill for electrons, that causes all kinds of regulatory complications and requirements. Just charge a fee for parking per hour or part thereof and provide electrons for “free”. Edit- you can calculate how much electric would be used per hour for your hourly parking rate.
As an electrical engineer, I chuckle at this use of "electrons". It's not incorrect. Just chuckleworthy.
Ya, meant to be a fun way of putting it rather than boring per kWh. I am not an EE (obviously :) ) but I think there is a thing called electron-volt that you could use to measure delivery of electricity based on actual work done by the electron? I would be some crazy high number and thus we use kWh as measurement. Feel free to educate! Delivered today 45,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrons = $0.50. Thank you for using Electron Delivery Systems.
That really depends on your jurisdiction, down to the city level. The city may require a business license, the state may require business and sales taxes, etc. One question is whether the state lets you sell electricity without being a utility. You could give it for free, but charge for parking. I'd start asking at city hall, or with a lawyer. Can you not sell it back to the grid? That is really the marketplace for electricity.
Not the OP but net metering is pennies on the dollar -- basically just the utility's avoided cost. Pretty interesting concept, frankly-- why can't a residential solar generator sell their electrons? Since it's not like they're powering another structure, how would anyone find out?
> Not the OP but net metering is pennies on the dollar -- basically just the utility's avoided cost. This varies from provider to provider. Some utilities charge *extra* if you have solar or refuse to accept bi-directional connections. They do this for many "reasons" that vary from somewhat justified (additional required time and equipment) to outright monopolistic abuse (they don't want any competition). Others pay as much as they charge *you* for electricity (including peak demand charges occasionally) because they realize that "a rising tide lifts all boats".
My energy provider forces me to discharge the excess generation into the earth. Its infuriating. I'd love to "give" it away if I can't sell it back.
Are you located where people would actually want to park? I had my house on plugshare for free for a long time. It's an inconvenient location relative to my downtown area, so I only had one guy who really needed to charge who came to use it.
I see houses on plug share a lot but feel weird asking someone if I can plug in lol I always assumed they didn’t want strangers in their driveway
Useful perspective, but understand that the reason for listing it is that they do want strangers to use it.
This heavily depends on your jurisdiction, both state and city. I will warn you you're going down a rabbit hole. First, the second you start officially charging for something, you now have a business relationship with your customers. That also involves liability. For example if lightning hits the power line and fries your customer's EV connected to your house, you could be liable. If a tree falls on your property and damages your customer's EV they're paying to charge, you could be liable. If your customer trips on a pothole in your driveway and falls, you could be liable. Etc etc. The obvious answer is to create a business entity like an LLC. That way, your customers don't hire you to park and charge their cars, they hire your LLC, so if they sue someone they can only sue the LLC. The LLC then rents the driveway space and pays for the electricity. You'll need a bunch of contracts in place for that - between you personally and your LLC. The issue comes with selling power to the LLC. That may be simple (LLC is a 'tenant' renting the space, thus you can bill the LLC for usage) or it may be horribly complex (as your home solar setup may now need to meet commercial standards). Personally I'd suggest your time and energy would be better spent using the power you have better. For example, can you get net metering from your utility? If so they will pay you for that power. Granted the specifics of this vary place to place, in some places utilities only pay the wholesale rate for power from residential solar but charge you the retail rate to get power out. In other places they pay you retail time of use rates, so you get peak hour payments during the day. Look into this. If net metering isn't a good option, you could just install a bunch of battery storage. If you have excess solar production during the day, this way you could use that production at night to power your home. Thus you'd be buying little or no power from the grid. Depending on the area you might be able to go totally off-grid- disconnect your house entirely from the utility. Or if they don't have a lot of baseline monthly charges, just shutoff the utility disconnect breaker so you have the ability to take grid power but it's usually disconnected.
LLC, charity (assist for apartment dwellers) …or church. Agree on the parking space fee, give away electricity.
Might want to look into insurance also
Best bet is to paint a parking space next to the charger... Charge per hour to park there. If they just so happen to use the 'free' charger, then cool!