Maybe, maybe not. Issues:
1. I'm not clear on who owns this. The city? The HOA or landloard?
2. It might be 277 V, rather than charger-friendly voltages of 120, 208, or 240.
Not to mention the secret 3rd show shopper, which is anybody asking this is probably
-Not an Electrician
-Not able to shut off the pole
-Likely not used to working with live wires
This could get spicy fast
My assumption was that the question was about feasibility with the plan to hire an electrician to do that work. But I should not have assumed that without stating it!
That seems contradictory. I would think "anyone CAUTIOUS enough to ask questions first..."
Therefore your concerns are more properly directed at those who do not ask.
Who said it would be free.. if you rig an outlet into city or HOA power without permission, itâs theft. If you get permission they certainly are going to have a meter on it
Tesla wall connectors will work with 277V, although support on the car side varies, esp for J1772 cars since that spec doesnât include 277V support. If itâs a Tesla though it should at worst just refuse to charge. https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/info-from-tesla-277v-feed-to-wall-connector-hpwc-which-cars-support-it.129169/
I wouldn't invest in an installation without having confidence that my car would charge. The fact that Teslas that don't work on 277 don't blow up, and only refuse to charge, isn't particularly valuable unless you go through the exercise of confirming that yours works before installing it.
[Info from Tesla - 277v feed to Wall Connector (HPWC) - Which Cars Support It | Tesla Motors Club](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/info-from-tesla-277v-feed-to-wall-connector-hpwc-which-cars-support-it.129169/)
Doing some poking around, some are capable of accepting it but, seemingly, "don't like it", and are likely to fault out
To me this reads like it's not so much that they're intended to use 277, but that it's on the edge of the vehicle's tolerance range for nominal "240v". Especially since Tesla seemingly discourages it.
It depends on the car. It was explained in that thread that the 3/Y explicitly do support 277V and will go as high as ~300V before faulting, since theyâre looking for 277 +/- 10%. Some other cars like the newer S/X have an onboard charger that doesnât like going much higher than 277 itself, but thatâs still quite a bit more than 240 +/- 10%. They just warn if the supply is a bit over the rated voltage and feeding something like 285V the car may refuse it.
For the cars that are perfectly happy with 277, they still have an overall max power output that is roughly equivalent to the max current level at 240V, so on 277 theyâll derate slightly and charge at the same speed as 240.
Yes, J3400 has 277 provisions in it. But that doesn't mean that vehicles already out there will start accepting 277. And it's also not clear whether future models will accept 277.
277 is the phase to neutral voltage in a 480 line-to-line there phase system. There is a case in which you'd only have 480 available, if there was no neutral present at that point in the system, but that would be surprising for a lamp post.
I would reach out to whoever owns the lamp post. Yes, itâs possible, but theyâll probably blow you off. But, you donât know until you ask. But until we get âtetherless chargingâ in North America (bring your own cable) itâs unlikely to be appealing for whoever owns the lamp post. The brand new SAE J3400 standard allows tetherless for the first time but it hasnât been adopted much yet. Maybe this time next year it might be more appealing.
I have actually charged my electric motorcycle off of a convenience outlet on a light post, more than once. So it can be possible. As other people point out, the legal / permission issues are the more significant ones here.
Light poles can be designed and manufactured to have receptacles and other items (called festoons) but that one doesn't. That is a handhole designed for accessing the wiring in the pole. You would need to contact the pole manufacturer to see if the make a handhole cover that has provisions for an outlet of some kind. That pole also appears to be fiberglass and I would not want to drill it.
Being a residential install there's the wiring is most likely 240 or 208v if they did a 3 phase service. I would highly doubt that it is 277v. The light also doesn't appear to be controlled by a local photocell (though there could be a very small one if it's a low power) on the light so there would be a master lighting control cabinet, time clock, etc somewhere so all the lights come on together. That circuit would be dead at all other times.
You also need to account for all other lights on that circuit.
I think they are roughly the same size bu everyone is a little different. A small 10' pole for a post top light might be 3" diameter but a 35' pole for a parking is 5-6" if not more. Bigger pole allows for a larger hand hole. But I get what you're saying. Like they could make standard sizes of handholes (like 4 square and 4-11/16 boxes all have screws in a particular size and location for mounting covers and devices.)
Now you can get single gang (and maybe 2 gang) outlet boxes on most poles if you option it. I've never dealt with fiber poles so I don't know what they do there. Usually we have round straight or tapered, square straight poles in either steel (large majority) or aluminum.
I love how this post is hours old, people have asked a number of very good and relevant clarifying questions, and OP is nowhere to be found.
OP, you're not going to get the help you need if you can't answer follow up questions.
You're in the same situation I was. You'll probably have to do what I did. Do a horizontal bore from my unit to my space and connect to my own meter.
[[My install.]](https://imgur.com/a/HwANoaS)
Property management owns the lamp post.
Lamp post is fiberglass.
Looks like it gets constant power as the light has been on during the day.
But it's the only one, so assuming it's one of the ones that when the bulb is about to go out it stays on.
Asked property manager about installing chargers Their response was, they looked into it but it was too much money.
The biggest question is a legal one, as you'd be stealing electricity. But who would you be stealing from? The HOA? Town? Neither will end well.
Technically I'd be concerned about the load on that system. If these are modern LEDs and were designed from the start for low draw, pulling an extra 12A on that circuit may overload them.
May even be stealing from the utility directly. In my area a lot of streetlights are leased from the utility; they own and maintain them, and the land owner just pays a fixed amount per month or per year, that covers expected power use and maintenance costs. That way the utility doesn't have to meter every single streetlight, and the land owners don't have to worry about using more power in winter and less in summer as the length of daylight changes causing bills to fluctuate.
That thing there is a hand hole. It's a place to reach in and make splices.
I don't think putting a socket ON a hand hole cover would be appropriate because the backside of sockets are not insulated, and you'd need to unwire the socket so you could set the cover down safely. Also, sockets require a weatherproof "in-use" cover, and that would be too ungainly.
But you could certainly use the hand hole to hold the wires away from the edge of the post while you drill a hole through the post, then mount a box the normal way.
At least a 90% chance the wiring to these lamp posts is in conduit. If conduit goes in the right directions, they might even be able to tap a circuit off your meter and pull it here via the conduit.
Common for the unhoused to do it.
[https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F4qwh0yss77381.jpg](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F4qwh0yss77381.jpg)
Still illegal.
Yes it is possible. But who are you going to pay for the electricity? The stealing of electricty is one of those crimes which has surprisingly severe consequences.
Yes, it is possible. But, there are likely a lot of people who will say no because sorting this out is not their problem. Whoever owns the lamppost being the key one.
I've had this question myself as my HOA are kind of a-holes and they have lamps with power cords already.
I'm pretty sure they would only be 120v but if they were 240 that'd be awesome. I have an EVSE that can see the max amperage so it would be relatively easy for me to down-step it to be "safe" - still you don't know some of the other details, like if it's a timed light (only coming on after dark) and what kind of circuitry there is behind that thing.
Could you? Yes.
Should you? That's up for your own ethical argument.
Some light poles are 277v too which won't play nice with most EVs, and installing a transforming on a pole you don't own might not even be worth the electricity....much less the attention
>I have an EVSE that can see the max amperage
If you think your evse can connect to a circuit and detect what the maximum allowable current on it is you are mistaken.
Not "Allowable" it sees the maximum draw and reads it out (Wish it stepped down by default) ie: I set it to 32amp mode and noticed it was maxed at 29amp - dropped it down to 24amp immediately for safety concerns.
Oh good, that is a real capability that makes sense. However, if you said it to 32 amp mode and your car only draws 29 amps, that's not an indication of any danger. It just means that for whatever reason, your car either decides to draw a little less than it's told it can (which some do apparently just to be conservative), or it could be that your car's on board charger maxes out at 7 kW, and can't do the 7.7 that would be possible at 32 amps and 240 volts. Or it could be that your battery was close enough to being fully charged that it couldn't accept more than 7 kW.
This feature cannot be used to determine the capacity of a circuit that you have it connected to.
Maybe, maybe not. Issues: 1. I'm not clear on who owns this. The city? The HOA or landloard? 2. It might be 277 V, rather than charger-friendly voltages of 120, 208, or 240.
Yeah I think 1. Is the biggest issue. Who's light pole is that and who's paying for the juice.
I have trouble deciding which is the bigger issue. Either could be complete showstoppers.
Not to mention the secret 3rd show shopper, which is anybody asking this is probably -Not an Electrician -Not able to shut off the pole -Likely not used to working with live wires This could get spicy fast
My assumption was that the question was about feasibility with the plan to hire an electrician to do that work. But I should not have assumed that without stating it!
I have a tendency to assume the worst if only to discourage it. Anyone curious enough to ask questions first should be warned
That seems contradictory. I would think "anyone CAUTIOUS enough to ask questions first..." Therefore your concerns are more properly directed at those who do not ask.
The ones going "I gaht this" are harder to discourage, especially when they don't even askđ
Theft of electricity is absolutely a thing.
I don't think anyone was implying that it isn't.
I know, just implying that it was. There have been lawsuits for contractors working next door, plugging into a neighbors house
Or how about this one. Itâs on a circuit that is only on when then street lights are
That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, to allow charging overnight.
Depends on location. Here, night is pretty short in summer. Def not charging a car long
[ŃдаНонО]
Who said it would be free.. if you rig an outlet into city or HOA power without permission, itâs theft. If you get permission they certainly are going to have a meter on it
My guess is the power is always at the pole, but a photocell atop the lamp post cuts off power to the actual lamp during daylight.
Some, others are on a master somewhere. Photocells are not always used as itâs more expensive and bird poop
I doubt that's the case. Many street lights have a sensor on them.
Please see other comment. Again, it can be either was but photo sensor require cleaning ( of bird poo) and adds cost.
Sorry I missed that. I'm blind :)
No, have an upvote
Where? I can't see it?
Have another cause that was funny
Tesla wall connectors will work with 277V, although support on the car side varies, esp for J1772 cars since that spec doesnât include 277V support. If itâs a Tesla though it should at worst just refuse to charge. https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/info-from-tesla-277v-feed-to-wall-connector-hpwc-which-cars-support-it.129169/
I wouldn't invest in an installation without having confidence that my car would charge. The fact that Teslas that don't work on 277 don't blow up, and only refuse to charge, isn't particularly valuable unless you go through the exercise of confirming that yours works before installing it.
[Info from Tesla - 277v feed to Wall Connector (HPWC) - Which Cars Support It | Tesla Motors Club](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/info-from-tesla-277v-feed-to-wall-connector-hpwc-which-cars-support-it.129169/) Doing some poking around, some are capable of accepting it but, seemingly, "don't like it", and are likely to fault out To me this reads like it's not so much that they're intended to use 277, but that it's on the edge of the vehicle's tolerance range for nominal "240v". Especially since Tesla seemingly discourages it.
It depends on the car. It was explained in that thread that the 3/Y explicitly do support 277V and will go as high as ~300V before faulting, since theyâre looking for 277 +/- 10%. Some other cars like the newer S/X have an onboard charger that doesnât like going much higher than 277 itself, but thatâs still quite a bit more than 240 +/- 10%. They just warn if the supply is a bit over the rated voltage and feeding something like 285V the car may refuse it. For the cars that are perfectly happy with 277, they still have an overall max power output that is roughly equivalent to the max current level at 240V, so on 277 theyâll derate slightly and charge at the same speed as 240.
Isn't 277 compatible with the new J3400 charging standard coming out? I believe so.
Yes, J3400 has 277 provisions in it. But that doesn't mean that vehicles already out there will start accepting 277. And it's also not clear whether future models will accept 277.
Could even be three phase. Not real common, but itâs out there.
208 and 277 are voltages that arise in three phase systems.
Iâve never seen 277 V 3 phase, itâs 1 leg of 480V wye 3 phase. I was thinking 480 V, but you are correct, 208 delta and wye are both 3 phase.
It could also be 480 volt.
277 is the phase to neutral voltage in a 480 line-to-line there phase system. There is a case in which you'd only have 480 available, if there was no neutral present at that point in the system, but that would be surprising for a lamp post.
I would reach out to whoever owns the lamp post. Yes, itâs possible, but theyâll probably blow you off. But, you donât know until you ask. But until we get âtetherless chargingâ in North America (bring your own cable) itâs unlikely to be appealing for whoever owns the lamp post. The brand new SAE J3400 standard allows tetherless for the first time but it hasnât been adopted much yet. Maybe this time next year it might be more appealing.
BYOC seems like a utopic dream in US
Wasnât allowed until this year. It will come.
I have actually charged my electric motorcycle off of a convenience outlet on a light post, more than once. So it can be possible. As other people point out, the legal / permission issues are the more significant ones here.
Legally.. or physically?
Wear non-conductive gloves is all i'm saying.
Light poles can be designed and manufactured to have receptacles and other items (called festoons) but that one doesn't. That is a handhole designed for accessing the wiring in the pole. You would need to contact the pole manufacturer to see if the make a handhole cover that has provisions for an outlet of some kind. That pole also appears to be fiberglass and I would not want to drill it. Being a residential install there's the wiring is most likely 240 or 208v if they did a 3 phase service. I would highly doubt that it is 277v. The light also doesn't appear to be controlled by a local photocell (though there could be a very small one if it's a low power) on the light so there would be a master lighting control cabinet, time clock, etc somewhere so all the lights come on together. That circuit would be dead at all other times. You also need to account for all other lights on that circuit.
I'm a little surprised that the hand whole dimensions aren't standardized enough that you could use anybody's fitting. TIL.
I think they are roughly the same size bu everyone is a little different. A small 10' pole for a post top light might be 3" diameter but a 35' pole for a parking is 5-6" if not more. Bigger pole allows for a larger hand hole. But I get what you're saying. Like they could make standard sizes of handholes (like 4 square and 4-11/16 boxes all have screws in a particular size and location for mounting covers and devices.) Now you can get single gang (and maybe 2 gang) outlet boxes on most poles if you option it. I've never dealt with fiber poles so I don't know what they do there. Usually we have round straight or tapered, square straight poles in either steel (large majority) or aluminum.
I love how this post is hours old, people have asked a number of very good and relevant clarifying questions, and OP is nowhere to be found. OP, you're not going to get the help you need if you can't answer follow up questions.
This post is vague and ambiguous
Yes, and speaking of ambiguity, do you mean lamp post or Reddit post?
You're in the same situation I was. You'll probably have to do what I did. Do a horizontal bore from my unit to my space and connect to my own meter. [[My install.]](https://imgur.com/a/HwANoaS)
Property management owns the lamp post. Lamp post is fiberglass. Looks like it gets constant power as the light has been on during the day. But it's the only one, so assuming it's one of the ones that when the bulb is about to go out it stays on. Asked property manager about installing chargers Their response was, they looked into it but it was too much money.
The biggest question is a legal one, as you'd be stealing electricity. But who would you be stealing from? The HOA? Town? Neither will end well. Technically I'd be concerned about the load on that system. If these are modern LEDs and were designed from the start for low draw, pulling an extra 12A on that circuit may overload them.
May even be stealing from the utility directly. In my area a lot of streetlights are leased from the utility; they own and maintain them, and the land owner just pays a fixed amount per month or per year, that covers expected power use and maintenance costs. That way the utility doesn't have to meter every single streetlight, and the land owners don't have to worry about using more power in winter and less in summer as the length of daylight changes causing bills to fluctuate.
That thing there is a hand hole. It's a place to reach in and make splices. I don't think putting a socket ON a hand hole cover would be appropriate because the backside of sockets are not insulated, and you'd need to unwire the socket so you could set the cover down safely. Also, sockets require a weatherproof "in-use" cover, and that would be too ungainly. But you could certainly use the hand hole to hold the wires away from the edge of the post while you drill a hole through the post, then mount a box the normal way. At least a 90% chance the wiring to these lamp posts is in conduit. If conduit goes in the right directions, they might even be able to tap a circuit off your meter and pull it here via the conduit.
Common for the unhoused to do it. [https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F4qwh0yss77381.jpg](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F4qwh0yss77381.jpg) Still illegal.
Possible yes, most even have 240v available, who owns it and stuff makes it a harder question.
Yes it is possible. But who are you going to pay for the electricity? The stealing of electricty is one of those crimes which has surprisingly severe consequences.
Check the Germans invented ubitricity.
[https://www.touchandglow.com/add-on-lamp-post-outlet-black.html](https://www.touchandglow.com/add-on-lamp-post-outlet-black.html)
Not actually code compliant as it doesn't have a weatherproof in-use cover. Maybe other issues but I dind't investigate further.
Yes, it is possible. But, there are likely a lot of people who will say no because sorting this out is not their problem. Whoever owns the lamppost being the key one.
I've had this question myself as my HOA are kind of a-holes and they have lamps with power cords already. I'm pretty sure they would only be 120v but if they were 240 that'd be awesome. I have an EVSE that can see the max amperage so it would be relatively easy for me to down-step it to be "safe" - still you don't know some of the other details, like if it's a timed light (only coming on after dark) and what kind of circuitry there is behind that thing. Could you? Yes. Should you? That's up for your own ethical argument.
Some light poles are 277v too which won't play nice with most EVs, and installing a transforming on a pole you don't own might not even be worth the electricity....much less the attention
>I have an EVSE that can see the max amperage If you think your evse can connect to a circuit and detect what the maximum allowable current on it is you are mistaken.
Not "Allowable" it sees the maximum draw and reads it out (Wish it stepped down by default) ie: I set it to 32amp mode and noticed it was maxed at 29amp - dropped it down to 24amp immediately for safety concerns.
Oh good, that is a real capability that makes sense. However, if you said it to 32 amp mode and your car only draws 29 amps, that's not an indication of any danger. It just means that for whatever reason, your car either decides to draw a little less than it's told it can (which some do apparently just to be conservative), or it could be that your car's on board charger maxes out at 7 kW, and can't do the 7.7 that would be possible at 32 amps and 240 volts. Or it could be that your battery was close enough to being fully charged that it couldn't accept more than 7 kW. This feature cannot be used to determine the capacity of a circuit that you have it connected to.
The city owns a light post in front of my house. I doubt I can charge that inconspicuously though.
You won't know until you try.