I got home and asked my 16-yo son to plug my car in; he did, after grumbling something under his breath as he got out of the car. Teenagers! My observant little one says, "Mommy your car is not charging. The blue light is not blinking." I looked at my 110v charger, blinking red and green lights... great! This was not unfamiliar as it's happened before but my husband is pretty handy and could usually figure out anything electronic and fix it. He looked up the error (apparently the blinking lights mean something) changed the extension cord from the garage and grounded the wiring (sounds Greek to me). Well, he's not called Mr. Fix It for nothing. (In fact, if you happen to drop your iPhone on a concrete floor and shatter the glass face, he's your guy! It's been proven. I've done it twice! But I digress, which I do a lot.) I left Edison (aka, my ActiveE; see earlier post) unplugged, texted my husband (my personal tech support), and confidently rest in the thought that the 110v charger (is that what it's called, Tom?) issue would be resolved later that night. What can I say, it's the optimist in me.
Well, my husband got home, plugged in Edison with the trickle cord thingy to get some power juice. Red light was still blinking but it started to make this buzzing noise. Oh, shoot! That's what Adam Meislik posted as the signs and symptoms of a dying charger. Sure enough, it took its last breath and DIED! No more lights blinking... no more lights... DEAD! We did not even have a chance to see if there was a DNR order.
What was I to do? I didn't really want to use my gas-guzzling ICE (17mls/gal) at $4.449/gal anymore!!! On the average, that's how much I pay to get a full charge and an average of 95 mls on Edison. 95 v 17 mls??? Hmmmm.... this means I would have to pay 5x to drive the same distance with my ICE. You can understand my apprehension! That's not even including the cost of carbon emissions to our health. Don't get me started! Stay tuned for coming entries...
It was a little after 10 PM when I decided to take my Edison to the nearby Nissan dealership to see if the EVSEs were not being used or ICEd. And voila! Both spots were available. I parked and plugged in. Edison was happy. I shall see him in a few hours; yet I was anxious; wanted to make sure he would be ok; that nobody would mess with him. I even wanted to go back as I forgot to leave my business card so they know who to call in case they have a problem with my parking/charging on their lot. My BMW dealer info is still on my windshield so I guess they could call them. Still, I experienced a bit of separation anxiety that I couldn't sleep for an hour or so. The BMW Remote app on my iPhone finally updated and I was relieved... charging 43%... Note that I have spoken to this Nissan Service Dept a few weeks ago; they were hesitant at first but got permission to charge there during off hours.
My husband woke me up at 0434 in the morning to pick up Edison. As I walked to unplug him, I couldn't help but feel like a charge bandit, feeling like I should not be there. But all was well with Edison. He was smiling (see photo), ecstatic to see me! And I him!!!
To think this is just the beginning of the adventure of little Ms. Electronaut! Come to think of it, with the money saved and decreased carbon footprint, I really made out like a bandit! Thank you, Nissan. I shall see you again.
Making a difference, one EV mile at a time,
~M
Making a difference, one EV mile at a time,
~M
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