114,000 miles and counting. A charging question.

[Thick8]

Hi all,
Been a while since I've been here. The 100 mile a day run for the last 5 years sure has added up. I'm finishing each day with anywhere between 5% -10% depending on lighting and wiper requirements. Zoe is charged each day at 240v, and I've noticed that the charge times listed in the dash have grown. Not sure by how much because I don't really keep track. I plan on waiting till the 72-month, 0% financing loan is paid off next August before I decide between a new Leaf or a new battery.
I think Zoe will require some supplemental charging thru the winter months this year because the extra requirements of heating and exterior lighting. I plan on charging at work on a 120v circuit. I tested the outlet I will be using the other day. it took her from about 58% to 84% over a 7-hour period.
The questions are 1. Will the 240v overnight charge to 100%, and daily 8-hour 120v charging cause additional battery degradation? 2. What is the charge rate at 120 volts? I used to know but I am old, so I forgot. I want to determine the associated cost of the daily charge to figure it into my yearly raise.
Thanks,
John

 

[LeftieBiker]

The car uses ~1300 watts at 120 volts with the Nissan trickle or dual voltage charger. ~1200 watts goes into the car.

Any 240 volt charging cable set to more than 10 amps or so should charge the car overnight. A more typical 30 amp cable or charging station should do it in about 4-5 hours.

 

[Thick8]

1300 watts. Thanks for that.

 

[LeftieBiker]

That's give or take a few watts. The rule of thumb (mine anyway) is to not use the trickle charge cable on any 15 amp circuit with anything more than a light bulb or two on it. Preferably LED.

 

[Thick8]

I'll only be using the trickle charge at work to supplement the 6600w nightly charge. It's a 120v/20a commercial receptacle. I don't think there will be any issues as there is nothing else plugged in to any of the other receptacles on the circuit. The building is 2 years old, and they overkilled everything when they built it.

 

[knightmb]

I read back in your earlier post, you have a 2018 SV built just a month after my wife's 2018 SL, so at least I have something similar to compare with. I wish you could post up some LeafSpy screenshots, but without all of that, you could let us know if you still have all 12 bars of capacity after this many miles? My wife is close to 74K miles and still has 12 bars (somehow) and she really does not take good care of her Leaf. :lol:

Now the questions at hand, the amount of time to fully charge have gotten longer? That's actually not a bad thing, at least it means the Leaf still thinks the battery capacity is quite good. If full charge times were decreasing over time, then it would be because of shrinking battery capacity with age and use.

You live in the same climate zone that I do, so the heat based degradation might not be a big issue since you never mention doing any QC sessions for your trips back and forth to work. It sounds like your Leaf is in excellent condition, so you might maximize an upgrade to a Leaf+ version if you can find a dealership to maximize your trade in value or just sell it out-right to some like minded EV knowledgeable people. If you enjoyed your Leaf now, the 62 kWh version is same driving experience except you have more power and longer range, which can be a nice bonus. Then your trips back and forth to work will be a breeze, no range anxiety, rocket down the highway if you want and not worry about efficiency. :lol:
It does suck to have another car payment when you just paid off your vehicle, but you seem like the kind of person who would really enjoy the upgrade.
Also, don't be afraid to look at used Leaf+ purchases. You might find someone who took good care of their Leaf, but need more range or features and want to buy a Tesla for example. Again, that would be a LeafSpy thing to see how well they treated the battery before you buy, but it can sure save you a lot of money not having to pay the "dealership" tax for a brand new vehicle. Granted, warranty will be quite different, so I'm sure you can weigh the cost and benefits of that yourself.

As far as daily and overnight charging, I don't see those causing any significant degradation. If I reading this correctly, you've already been doing this for years, so if something was going to cause an issue I'm sure you would have noticed it by now? It doesn't read like you have the Leaf sitting at 100% SOC for days or weeks or at 0% SOC for days or weeks, so you are doing the about the best that any of us can do to take care of the battery when using the Leaf as a daily driver.

The charge rate for 120v Nissan EVSE is 120v X 12A = 1,440 watts of power. Granted, not all of that goes into the battery because something like 300 watts of it is running the charging system, coolant system, 12V system, BMS, etc. So only about +1 kilowatt of power is actually going into the battery. :?
That's why it is more efficient to charge at 240/208V because the faster the battery is charged, the less time that "waste" power is being used.

Hi all,
Been a while since I've been here. The 100 mile a day run for the last 5 years sure has added up. I'm finishing each day with anywhere between 5% -10% depending on lighting and wiper requirements. Zoe is charged each day at 240v, and I've noticed that the charge times listed in the dash have grown. Not sure by how much because I don't really keep track. I plan on waiting till the 72-month, 0% financing loan is paid off next August before I decide between a new Leaf or a new battery.
I think Zoe will require some supplemental charging thru the winter months this year because the extra requirements of heating and exterior lighting. I plan on charging at work on a 120v circuit. I tested the outlet I will be using the other day. it took her from about 58% to 84% over a 7-hour period.
The questions are 1. Will the 240v overnight charge to 100%, and daily 8-hour 120v charging cause additional battery degradation? 2. What is the charge rate at 120 volts? I used to know but I am old, so I forgot. I want to determine the associated cost of the daily charge to figure it into my yearly raise.
Thanks,
John

 

[Stanton]

Been a while since I've been here. The 100 mile a day run for the last 5 years sure has added up. I'm finishing each day with anywhere between 5% -10% depending on lighting and wiper requirements.

Forgetting about charging, etc., an EV with that many miles driven that far every day will experience faster degradation than say...my car (100k miles over twice the time with daily drives <50 miles). If you intend to continue with the same driving pattern/habits, I think you should move on to a (new) EV with a larger battery pack (assuming you currently have a 40kWh pack--like me). Another way to think about it: you are basically "deep cycling" your current pack every day (not the best thing), and would use a much less (percentage wise) of a larger pack...which would ultimately reduce the wear on the pack and degradation over time.
My 2 cents.

 

[MikeinPA]

The longer charge times may be attributed to increased internal resistance in the cells. The car is tapering charge current earlier than when new to keep cell voltage at ~4.13 volts, so it takes longer for the same amount of charging amp hours. As an aside, the LBC may be capable of collecting data on the relationship between a) time at full pack voltage and b) amps accepted during the time at full voltage to calculate internal resistance and hence HX.