The 6 essential points for installing charging points in a building

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According to a Céline Zünd article in the newspaper Le Temps (in French), "installing an electric charging station will be as essential for a homeowner as putting a refrigerator in a kitchen."

Indeed, the electric car is gaining ground in a world of individual transport undergoing an ecological transformation. In its wake, a whole charging infrastructure must be established, especially in homes. In the same article, Laurent Pignot from the Touring Club Suisse emphasizes that homeowners must equip their rental properties with charging stations:

"We know that 90% of recharges are done at home. Switzerland has 60% tenants. That's where we need to act first."

The installation of charging stations in a building requires careful preparation to meet the needs of tenants while complying with regulations and ensuring technical feasibility. Here are the important points to consider and how Climkit can support you.

1. A Modular and Scalable Installation

It is impossible to know which tenant will acquire an electric vehicle, and the demand for charging stations will increase exponentially. Therefore, it is important that the installation of the stations is flexible to meet different demands.

At Climkit, we recommend installing a flat cable around the perimeter of the rental building's parking lot or the PPE to pre-equip each parking space. A Wi-Fi network should also be set up to communicate with the stations.

Charging stations can then be installed quickly and easily as residents acquire electric cars without the need to run a new cable from the electrical panel.

2. Dynamic Management

Since the power supply to buildings is limited, it is essential to implement a system that automatically regulates the electrical power based on the number of vehicles charging and the available energy. This avoids costly reinforcement of the building's electrical connection while ensuring that fuses do not blow in case of a momentary overload.

Thanks to Climkit's dynamic management solution, the stations communicate through our gateway, which is already used for reading electricity meters. This gateway reads the meter installed at the entrance, constantly measuring what is drawn from the network and the consumption of the apartments, and if it detects that we are approaching the limit offered by the network, it regulates and automatically reduces the available power at the stations.

3. Freedom in Material Choice

There are various types of stations that meet different needs, for example, depending on the power offered (normal power or accelerated power). Furthermore, this field is rapidly developing, so new technologies offering new advantages will emerge. It will be necessary to ensure that your installation accepts different types of charging stations.

At Climkit, we use standardized equipment with charging stations that use an open communication protocol called OCPP, such as the ABB Terra AC station. Thus, regardless of the manufacturer chosen, it is possible to install any model of station as long as it can communicate via this protocol.

4. Shared Stations

To optimize your investment, it may be useful to make the stations available to all the occupants of the building. For this purpose, you will need to be able to track each consumer in their use of the station (electric consumption).

To manage the collective use of the stations, Climkit provides individual RFID badges. This allows users to identify themselves in the system, authorize charging at the station, and measure their electric consumption via the station's integrated meter.

To go further in sharing, we offer the possibility of making the stations publicly accessible with payment via Twint or credit cards.

5. A Simple Billing and Accounting Service

To track the use of the stations, it is important to implement a system for managing charging services. It can also manage reservations and bill users if necessary.

However, it is up to you to define the rates. For a PPE (building with divided ownership), we recommend billing at the rate of the distribution network operator (DNO). For an RCP (Regroupement pour la Consommation Propre or Swiss collective system of energy self-consumption), it is preferable to use the rate defined for electricity from the photovoltaic installation when it supplies the stations.

Additionally, in rental buildings, if the owner provides a charging station, they can ask to increase the rate. The difference will allow them to amortize the installation. Another option is to implement a fixed subscription like a rental, usually costing CHF 30.- to CHF 40.- per month, for the availability of the station.

Thanks to badge identification, Climkit tracks consumption and bills residents quarterly and individually for their use of the stations at the defined rates, including as part of a subscription offered by the owner. If the charging stations are connected to a photovoltaic installation, we know how to distinguish energy from the network from solar energy. Additionally, when a DNO meter is installed specifically for the charging stations, Climkit receives and pays the electricity bill issued by the latter.

6. A Convenient Monitoring Tool

Both users and the owner or manager need to be able to monitor the use of the stations and billing data.

Thanks to Climkit's online portal, all information regarding user consumption and billing elements are easily accessible and manageable by all parties involved.

By using Climkit, you are sure to take into account the key criteria for installing charging stations in a building effectively, thus best meeting the growing needs of tenants for charging their electric vehicles. And, in addition, you simplify your life with an extremely simple management system.

About Climkit

Climkit has been promoting the production of photovoltaic electricity since the launch of its solution in 2017 for managing the self-consumption groups in Vevey (VD).

Since then, we have extended our offer to all forms of energy and consumption in a building: heat, cold, water, laundry, electric mobility, etc. We facilitate the management of your building thanks to our counting, billing, visualization and optimization tools. Active throughout Switzerland, we work with local professional companies for the design and installation of our products. We're also proud that our Community solution has been approved by the Solar Impulse Foundation.

Our entire team is available to assist you in your projects, as we support the 1500 RCPs who place their trust in us!