Finding the chase and cutting to it

I started a new job on Tuesday, which has meant I am working in a different, swanky, office.

Swanky?

It’s been recently refurbed and thanks to lockdown, largely unsoiled since the work was done. Of course that means you try many new things. One of my learning points today was a different type of charging socket.

Charging socket? What’s that got to do with work?

Well, it was a new socket near my new office building. It was a connectedkerb socket which was a novel design – or at least one I hadn’t seen before. Following the instructions on AtAdastral, I downloaded the app and signed up my card.

So far so good. Tried to get the app to open the port for our charge cable. Only to find “Socket xxxx not found in our network”. I phoned the help desk, two resets and some rebooting of the app and I finally realised I was inadvertantly in a network blind spot – walking away from the socket adn things started going much better. Still the socket did not open!

I’m looking at the front and the helpful person on the end of the phone line didn’t seem to know why it wasn’t just working. I finally thought, why don’t I just try introducing my cable and see what happens?

It wasn’t obvious, but that’s what needed to happen. Once there, it is then easy to start the charge. Charge normally, then end the charge and pull out the cable.

Now, I should say, this is not a free charge which is what’s currently available in my home town. The help desk requirement didn’t mean it was quick that time either but at least I didn’t have to doubly register anywhere unlike many of the other sockets on site. It works out a little cheaper at home, so definitely makes V2G cost in for us and all while taking the car in to work, reducing our carbon footprint.

Win-win?