Why is value changed from watt to kW?

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Hi I have obseved that kW have disapered from Tag:amenity=charging_station - OpenStreetMap Wiki but not from Tag:man_made=charge_point - OpenStreetMap Wiki

So i did go to https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:socket:\\* It was also gone there !

socket:type:output Power in kilowatts, numeric; e.g., 50. The maximum power that can be sourced from a single socket of the specified type at that charging station. Implies kilowatts, for megawatts add the unit MW.

I cant find why/then that value changed from watt to kW.

Personaly i find it to be a bad idear.

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https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:socket:* - fixed link

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3

have you tried looking through page history?

4

From the point of view of someone who owns an EV, kW makes more sense than Watts.

5

Agreed, but that’s why our recent advice was to put kW after the number.

It did start here Key:socket:* - OpenStreetMap Wiki

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Here is an example from another place that has power data.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:generator:output:\*

If the rating of the output is known, add a numerical value followed by the unit. Otherwise simply add ‘yes’.

generator:output:electricity=* yes / x W / x kW / x MW / x GW
generator:output:heat=* yes / x W / x kW / x MW / x GW
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On Key:socket it was removed three weeks ago, along with several other undiscussed changes. I think this can be safely reverted - like I already did with the table with all socket types.

IMHO it makes sense to have kilowatt as default, but also explicitly ask to have a unit added - there are too many different sockets, some in the Watt range, some in the megawatts.

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I agree that it is the best option.

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I removed “ kW” from charging_station nodes in Greece which i am constantly registering.
Main reason is to have easy and usefull overpass queries.
Having “kw” “KW” “kW” checks on queries, makes life difficult.

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I agree. All the changes made to amenity=charging_station and to man_made=charge_point at that time should be reverted.

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That’s not a good reason to remove the unit: you can make a case-insensitive search in Overpass Turbo, using regular expressions.

This query will find 22 and 22kW and 22 kW, and all variations like Kw or kw.

4 Likes
12

Just came across the distribution of values for nacs chargers.

Where as in Europe it seems a lot more with kW

I think this needs to be defined somehow more clearly.

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I think the current Wiki entry is clear enough:

Depending on the socket, the typical units can be W, kW or MW. A unit should be added for clarity, but if it is omitted, kW should be assumed.

Insofar I see exactly 3 wrong values for nacs and no incorrect ones for type2_combo among the first 100 entries, apart from a few clearly wrong ‘1’ and ‘2’.
What is inconsistent is the spelling. The wiki recommends a space and proper capitalization, but this is a minor issue that can easily be taken into account by data consumers.

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For 3800 charging stations in Greece i have ommited the power unit. All of them are in kW.
For MW i will use thousands.
I am sticking with “kW should be assumed”.