Hotel power

While a charging station is your best bet, not every hotel I have stayed at has one. That leaves the EV driver dependent on outdoor plugs, which might be limited in the total amount of current they can deliver. Ill share some tips from my experiences charging my EV at hotels around Ontario. A little bit of communication goes a long way, plugshare, a business card on the dash, and your contact information at the reception helps ensure you get your EV charged and other guests get to enjoy the hotel too.

Most hotel operators are more than happy to let you use their outdoor plugs to charge your EV. Always ensure you have their permission to charge before you plug in, its important that they know how to find you in case things do not go as planned. Also, be sure to check in on your car from time to time, despite leaving my contact information with the reception, often that’s how I find issues when they arise. When planning your trip, its best to call ahead if you are reliant on hotel charging. It has happened when traveling through Northern Ontario that I really had to make sure I was able to charge overnight, calling ahead is a solid way to ensure you know what is waiting once you get there.

An electrical circuit will snake its way from the electrical panel to some lights and outlets. That circuit will have a maximum current rating based on how much current the circuit can carry safely. Looking at my own electrical panel, 15A seems to be the most common current limit. It seems reasonable to expect a hotel circuit connected to an outside outlet to also be 15A. It is possibly a 20A circuit (sometimes these use a “T” on one side of the outlet (see photo below). Whichever outlet you use, note that the total allowable current is only 15-20 A, your EV likely will use 12-13A of that allowance, which does not leave a lot of room for other appliances on the circuit.

Once while staying at a Best Western, the staff kindly allowed me to charge using the plugs in the parking area. After exchanging contact information, I plugged in and started charging. A few hours later, I got a call from the reception, turns out a guest in the room right by the plug, was trying to use the microwave, which is usually a 10-15A appliance. Adding my 12A car charger and we got a circuit load that is 22A, way bigger than even a 20A circuit can handle, so the breaker flipped. A quick discussion with the reception and the guest suggested that I better use a neighboring plug as the guest by that outlet was not staying in the room, which I did, charging my car successfully, and leaving my fellow hotel guest to enjoy their microwave.

While most outlets have two plugs, usually, both are on the same circuit. There is a way to wire the outlet such that the two plugs are on separate circuits, and sometimes this is done. I recall a parking garage in the Niagara Falls Area (source), where the outlets are wired separately. In that case, you can charge two EV’s, but usually its a safe bet that you can only charge one EV per outlet-pair. While staying at a ski-resort north of Ottawa, I found a plug, got permission from the hotel and started charging. Another EV then plugged into the other plug of the outlet, which tripped the fuse, as two EV’s charging at 12 A each, will exceed even a 20 A circuit limit. No matter, I found another active outlet and continued my charge, so it is helpful to check in on your EV from time to time as these things do happen.

Plugshare is a handy way to stay in touch with other EV drivers. Often just a little bit of communication goes a long way. Once in Northern Ontario, I plugged my EV into the charging station, left contact information at the front desk, and checked in on Plugshare. This proved very helpful, as another EV driver needed a quick top-up before heading out, together we figured out a way to share the charging station as my Leaf only needed about 8 hours to charge up, leaving plenty of time to charge the other EV.

I usually leave my business card on the dash, in case there is a problem, not everyone is an avid plugshare user, and sometimes a shift-changeover at the reception desk can result in the loss of your contact information.