Here at Sunpak we are committed to becoming a sustainable company. A big part of that is the vehicles we drive. Last year was our first step in this when we purchased an Electric Ford Transit. Tim has been driving this around and it’s been great. The range isn’t amazing, around 120 miles but for what we need it works. Tim charges every night at home and on the odd occasion plugs in for 20 minutes on his way home or at lunch. Eagle county has some great options for this, the best being the Wendy’s rest area in Edwards which is really convenient. Tim’s home has PV and this covers the added usage of the EV which is amazing.

Two weeks ago we decided to add another EV to the company. We purchased a F150 Lightning and it’s amazing. We have a topper and ladder racks coming which are going to make it a great versatile service truck. The higher range of 220 miles gives us even more flexibility and the onboard 20a 120v power is going to be great not only for us for charging power tool batteries on the go but also offering customers basic power during power shut down.

This brings me to the question in this article. Do you need a home EV charger?

I have been driving this on and off for the last few weeks and as it’s not going to be my vehicle I don’t have a home EV charger so I figured this would be a great test.

So my answer is….. No, no you don’t need a home EV charger especially in Eagle county. We have some great charging options. I use the electrify America chargers at Wendy’s in Edwards which has 2x 150kw chargers and 2x 350kw stations. I never had to wait to charge and with a quick stop doing paperwork or having some lunch I had a good 100 miles+ added to the battery. There are also other chargers scattered around at Edwards Rec center, Maveric and shop & hop in Avon. Vail parking structures and lots more dotted around. Most of these other one are pretty slow charger but will get you out of trouble. I’m sure in the next year or two the option will increase dramatically.

Having said that though when I get an electric truck in the future I will 100% install an EV charger at home and there are 3 main reasons for that.

Convenience– just being able to plug in at night and wake up to a fully charged battery makes life a lot easier.
Cost– the super charger are great and fast however they are currently charging $0.56/kWh. Were as charging at home on grid would be around $0.11/kWh plus a few variable fees that are very tiny, Basically a 5th of the price and if you have solar it could potentially charged on solar power.
Full Charge– the super chargers only charge to 90% leaving 20+ miles on the 220 range unavailable however home chargers will change to the full allowance.

Home charging choices?

When it comes to home charging their are two chargers I think are great

ChargePoint– A great EV charger with an easy to use app variable power option on one charger to work with any home’s current power usage. The app allows you to track how much energy you have used which is great for our employees as it allows them to put in an expense form allowing them to be reimbursed for the energy they use.

Emporia– This is a great Colorado company that also has an Energy monitoring system that ties into the EV charger. This allows you to install the charger with the maximum amount of power and the charge will ramp up and down depending on how much energy your home is using while your trying to charge.

We hope this article has some useful information for you but if you do have any questions on this topic please feel free to email us at info@sunpakelectric.com and we will do our best to help you with and questions or concerns you may have.

Sean