EV charging
You have a socket or a wallbox and somebody who would like to use it: a guest, a neighbour, a customer. With Roraima that socket comes alive for whoever paid and goes quiet when their time is up.
The same old problem
Anyone running a place to stay hears it constantly: "can I plug the car in?". Saying yes means giving away the electricity of a charge that lasts hours. Saying no means losing a customer. And totting it up at the end of the stay is awkward for everybody.
Public charge points cost far more than a switched socket and only make sense with constant traffic. For a three-room B&B the sums do not work.
The simple road
Roraima is not a public charge point management system and does not act as a charging operator. It does something simpler and, for many people, more useful: it lets you sell access to the socket you already have.
- By time: the customer buys four hours of charging and the socket stays live for those four hours.
- By session: they buy a bundle of five and use them within the period you set, up to 30 days.
- Included in the stay: the socket comes on with everything else when the booking starts, as an included extra.
If the device controlling the socket can measure current, you also see how much energy went through in each session. That is the number you need to decide whether your price makes sense, or to redo the sums when the tariff changes.
To be clear: this is not an installation certified for selling energy to the public, and it does not issue an invoice per kilowatt-hour. It is a charging service sold by time or by session. If you open the socket or wallbox to anyone passing by, for example the customers of a shop, it becomes a publicly accessible charging point, and the European rules on public charging points apply to you, not to Roraima.
Where it works well
B&Bs and holiday homes
Charging becomes a paid extra on the stay, bought at booking time or during it.
Shared garages
One communal socket used by several households, with a separate tally for each instead of a row at the residents' meeting.
Businesses
The staff car park, with charging live only during the hours you choose. For the customers of a shop a wallbox is a publicly accessible charging point, which requires the price displayed near the socket, card payment without registration and the operator's other obligations.
Campsites and stopovers
The pitch hook-ups, often already installed for motorhomes, sold with the stay. In the product description you state the socket's amperage and the price per night or per hour, so buyers see them before paying.
What you need
A supported device that can open and close the socket's circuit, ideally one that also measures consumption. These are common, inexpensive components an electrician fits in the consumer unit quickly. The installation stays yours: nobody comes to replace it.
Worth reading too
- Locks and devices: what connects, and how.
- Your online shop: selling access by time or by the go.
Stop giving electricity away
One socket, one price, and "can I plug the car in?" stops being a problem.
See the plans Talk to us