The dilemma when apartment dwellers use electric cars
After ordering the electric car, the next thing Jules Stewart did was ask the manager of the apartment building where she lived about installing an electric charging point in the garage.
Jules Stewart, 60, is a speechwriter. She said she’s willing to pay the bill and doesn’t need any luxuries like a Tesla Powerwall or three-phase charging. She only needed a plug to charge her car overnight.
“It’s a normal 240V charger,” says Stewart. “I don’t think car owners will mind because they’ll end up having electricity in the garage, which wasn’t there before. So that’s what’s going on,” says Stewart. benefit them”.
But since making the request in December, she hasn’t heard back, despite following up twice.
Stewart’s home is one of 25 apartments in the apartment complex built in the 1960s. So the property manager will have to confirm with the neighborhood management committee if she’s authorized to install it. plug or not, before asking the owner for permission”.
Professor Cathy Sherry, from the University of New South Wales’ department of law and justice, said there were many difficulties preventing apartment dwellers from using electric vehicles, installing solar panels or switching from gas to electricity. for cooking and heating.
Financial problems are just one of many obstacles. And for renters, about half of all people living in apartments across Australia, they may not be able to overcome the barriers.
The UNSW City Center for the Future’s Australasian Strata Insights 2020 report shows Australia has 340,601 apartment buildings across the country, home to 2.2 million people.
The residential system, which collectively manages portions of the commons, often goes against optimal decision-making, Sherry said.
Only owners can vote in residential committees. In many cases when it comes to improvements that reduce emissions, but cost money in the short term, the concerns of apartment dwellers and investors can be at odds.
More than 1 in 10 apartments across Australia are vacant by investors. In Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia, the ratio is close to one in five.
“Investors often just want money,” Sherry said. “What’s the incentive for property owners who don’t even rent out to do a green upgrade in an apartment building?”
Nathan Hage at an electric vehicle charging point in the basement of an apartment building in Sydney, Australia. Photo: The Guardian.
The financial benefits of doing the right thing
The Zinc Building in Alexandria, Sydney is a testament to what apartment buildings can do.
Nathan Hage, 45, is a supply chain logistics officer and serves on the building’s residential committee. He said when the apartment building was built in 2005, the developers didn’t pay attention to sustainability.
Two decades on, the 45-unit building has 10 electric vehicle chargers in the basement, with capacity to meet increased demand. In addition, 24kW of solar power will be installed on the roof and another 70kW will be added in the near future.
“There have been people visiting, standing in the parking lot, looking at the electric car charger and saying, ‘How do you do this?'” Hage said.
This process has been facilitated by a number of utilities, such as a computer-sized device installed in the building’s electrical chamber, which allows for a fair distribution of solar energy between the buildings. apartment.
Hage says he’s had good luck with the hardest part, which is convincing other condo owners to make the same commitment.
“Every step you take becomes more enjoyable because the benefits accrue to each other. Once you take the leap to solar energy, you will spend less to afford it,” he said. ability to invest more money in solar innovations and other things”.
He said the building is now looking at battery options and replacing the hot water system with gas.
Each project will have different needs
In many other cases, however, the process is much more difficult. Brent Clark is the chief executive officer of Wattblock, a consulting firm that works with residential committees to improve the sustainability of apartment complexes. He said the residential management committee is part of the stalled electrification process.
“Think of the civic classes as the fourth level of government,” says Clark. people want, they need help from the first, second and third levels of government to help them on the path to decarbonization, electrification.”
Clark says that the residents of older buildings are the ones who face the biggest challenges. Each building will have different needs, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
However, Clark said older buildings will likely be forced to at least double or triple capacity to meet future tenant demand. Many apartment dwellers are also looking for electric vehicle charging devices in the building’s parking lot.
“Time bomb” in apartment basements
Dale Cohen, secretary of the residential committee for Richmont, in Sydney’s inner-city Pyrmont suburb, said the longer decarbonization action in apartment buildings is delayed, the more urgent and costly it becomes.
Cohen, now the owner of a Tesla, drove a Mitsubishi plug-in hybrid in 2017. At the time, he met with his building management committee to discuss an assistive upgrade. Charge electric vehicles in the 3-storey garage.
He began to wonder what would happen if more people started driving electric cars. What if everyone charges at the same time? How much power does the building have? Who will pay? And how will they do it?
Cohen’s questions took five years to answer.
One of the most pressing challenges is getting the necessary votes from the residential committee to pass any changes. Challenges have been eased with reforms in New South Wales, Australian territories and Western Australia that have lowered the required holders’ voting threshold from 75% to 50%.
Then there are the logistical and technical issues involved in retrofitting a nine-story building and the cost of implementation.
“To make a seismic change and electrify everything in our building would cost more than $500,000. We need 100 percent of owners with electric vehicles to be able to do that,” says Cohen.
“I’ve said before that there are ticking time bombs in the basements of apartment buildings across the country. That’s what I think. That’s how big the problem is,” he said.
Cohen said his building, now being rolled out in phases, will allow electric cars to be everywhere in the cellar as demand increases, a project that will cost “more than $100,000”.
Chris Duggan, chief executive officer at the Association of Residential Communities of Australia, said electric vehicle charging had become an issue that represented sustainability and the risks posed by climate change.
“Traditionally, segregationist policies and housing policies have focused more on a per-unit policy. There will come a time when electric vehicle charging becomes an infrastructure requirement,” says Duggan. .
If the upgrades are not made, the tenants even show their opinion by moving elsewhere. Buildings that cannot provide sustainable amenities will lose value.
Duggan says the government needs to launch an education campaign to guide management committees on how to change and a class-specific funding program to help pay for building upgrades. old.
Sherry said that governments “rarely” mandated retrofitting existing apartment buildings. Most of the measures that have been successful, such as installing fire alarms and locking windows to prevent children from falling out, are small-scale and cheap.
Ms. Sherry believes that tackling climate change will be much more complicated. “There are hundreds of thousands of schemes in Australia, there’s no reason why they all go to great lengths to reform what already exists. They need mandate and guidance. That’s reality.”
Source: The Guardian
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