Are you going to keep a driving log?

[mwalsh]

When I go for gas, I write the mileage driven on the previous tank on the gas station receipt and reset the odometer. Then I put the receipt in the glove box and pretty much forget about them. I only get concerned if the mileage is way off what I should be getting per gallon.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i will keep a log on what my expenses are, miles driven, general observations, etc. most of if will be in spreadsheet form tracking whatever data the car will provide me. i have done it with my Zenn and 3 Pri's i've owned.

**My Priuschat signature**

My Blue 2010 : Last tank 576.6 @ 53.3 pump (60.1 MFD) 5.12 CPM, 30 MPH, Lifetime:9751.9 miles MPG pump. 53.34 (58.92 MFD) 5.11 CPM. Summer MPG 57.4 Winter: 49.79


My 2006 SPM: Last tank 533.7 @50.8 pump (52.1 MFD) 5.56 cpm
winter mpg 49.44 summer mpg 53.41
lifetime: 47,903.9 miles 51.16 mpg pump (52.31 mpg MFD) 5.55 cpm

My 2007 Zenn total "fuel cost" $186.59 on "about" 10,738 miles. 1.74 cents per mile (granted i plug in for free at work!!)

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i will keep a log on what my expenses are, miles driven, general observations, etc. most of if will be in spreadsheet form tracking whatever data the car will provide me. i have done it with my Zenn and 3 Pri's i've owned.

**My Priuschat signature**

My Blue 2010 : Last tank 576.6 @ 53.3 pump (60.1 MFD) 5.12 CPM, 30 MPH, Lifetime:9751.9 miles MPG pump. 53.34 (58.92 MFD) 5.11 CPM. Summer MPG 57.4 Winter: 49.79


My 2006 SPM: Last tank 533.7 @50.8 pump (52.1 MFD) 5.56 cpm
winter mpg 49.44 summer mpg 53.41
lifetime: 47,903.9 miles 51.16 mpg pump (52.31 mpg MFD) 5.55 cpm

My 2007 Zenn total "fuel cost" $186.59 on "about" 10,738 miles. 1.74 cents per mile (granted i plug in for free at work!!)

 

[Bicster]

The closest I will ever get is replaying my location data from the Google Latitude dashboard. Which is really creepy, btw... I can view my location at any point in time since I turned tracking on, and I can reply an entire day in a time lapse video overlaid on a map. Data can also be exported.

 

[Jimmydreams]

I use http://appcubby.com/gas/ for keeping track of my mileage, MPG, gas costs, maintenance costs, etc. If you have an iPhone, give it a try. It's $4.99, but well worth it, if you ask me.

 

[philaphonic]

I keep a log now with my Civic and have with all my other cars. It may have to be different with the Leaf though. Right now I make an entry everytime I fill up with gas with the following info:

total miles from last fill; gallons to fill; cost/gal; miles/gal; date

It sounds like these items won't be quite as meaningful with the Leaf. Anybody have suggestions as to what to track?

I do almost the exact same thing. Then I let Excel make nice graphs to show how my gas mileage is slowly decreasing as my gen 1 Prius ages.

Does anyone know if the LEAF itself can keep track of (i.e., quantify and report) the power dumped into it on each charge session? Or do I have to get a charging station with a meter?

 

[smkettner]

I plan to make no separate log what so ever
Odometer and miles remaining will be my only log
I will estimate my business miles once a year and take the standard IRS mileage rate

 

[planet4ever]

For nearly a year, now, I've been trying to jot down the mileage on my Civic the first time I got into it each day. I started this trying to decide how much a Volt would help me get off fossil fuel. (Yes, I was a Volt fan a year ago.) Over time the spreadsheet I developed out of that plus gasoline purchase records helped me analyze the relative advantages of Civic, Prius, Volt, and LEAF for my own driving patterns.

There were a number of times that I got too rushed, or forgot to make a notation, but I took that as equivalent to being too rushed or forgetting to plug in at night. I may try to continue this when I get my LEAF, but it seems as though I'll need to record not only mileage but also "fuel intake" (i.e. kWh) each day. I'd love to be pleasantly surprised, but I doubt if the LEAF itself will maintain a log I could use for that purpose. I expect to do nearly all of my charging at home, and all of that at 120v, so my current plan is to connect through a "Kill A Watt" that I have. I fear, however, that writing down two numbers from two different locations every day is going to get old real fast.

Something that seems barely possible, and would be really neat, would be if I could use CARWINGS to query mileage and power intake from my computer. Then I could set up an autorun program to emulate web browser commands, run it at the same time every day, and log the results.

 

[Boomer23]

I'll definitely keep a log. It fits with my current pattern of obsessively checking my home electrical solar generation and usage on a daily basis, which led to my interest in EVs. So tracking the energy usage and mileage of an EV will just be an add-on activity to what I'm used to doing.

My wife asked me this morning if I could add a field for logging events when we need to change from our normal car usage patterns because the LEAF is an EV. Example: She normally drives the Prius, I'll drive the LEAF. But if I need to drive to LA or Santa Barbara or south to San Diego while she needs a car for local errands, we'll swap cars. She wants to track that change in our driving behaviors so that we can see how many times a year we'll be making accommodations for one of our cars being an EV. That would also be a good indication of the impact on our lives if both cars had limited range, times when we'd need to borrow or rent a car, or use other transportation options. We're very interested in learning how owning an EV impacts our lives in small or large ways. I'm planning to blog about our experiences for potential new owners or those interested in how EVs will fit into our world.

 

[evnow]

For nearly a year, now, I've been trying to jot down the mileage on my Civic the first time I got into it each day. I started this trying to decide how much a Volt would help me get off fossil fuel. (Yes, I was a Volt fan a year ago.) Over time the spreadsheet I developed out of that plus gasoline purchase records helped me analyze the relative advantages of Civic, Prius, Volt, and LEAF for my own driving patterns.

Can you publish the numbers (basically select a few ranges of miles and then the # of days you travelled those many miles) and your analysis of the relative advantages of Civic, Prius, Volt, and LEAF for that pattern ?

 

[SilverLeaf]

The BLINK EVSE will automagically keep track of
..Daily Electric Usage in KWH
..Daily Electric Usage in $$$

The EVSE probably does not have standard access to the daily milage

Either directly from the BLINK EVSE or via the customer web portal, the above numbers are available in a variety of formats.

 

[evnow]

Carwings will keep track of the trips, if you want.

 

[SilverLeaf]

... from another post

Apparently the actual daily driving mileage will be available via CARWINGS.

For those participants in the EV Project

..Daily Driving Mileage (CARWINGS)
..KWh Usage (BLINK)
..KWH Cost (BLINK)

will be electronically available via a combination of the BLINK Web Portal and the CARWINGS Web Portal.

 

[garygid]

The LEAF could have optional-use, user-configurable logging of use (miles, charging, and even mpe and speed profiles if desired), with a "printout" to a USB Thumb Drive.

 

[wgs1912]

The leaf is suppose to keep track of how many kW used when charging. It also has a capacity gauge beside the SOC gauge showing battery degradation over time (not a number just a light bar gauge that will lower with lowered capactiy).

 

[Rat]

Maybe this has been answered elsewhere on this forum, but does anyone know whether the Leaf charging system records the stop time when the battery is fully charged? That's the number I most want to know, but it is going to happen overnight while I'm sleeping. At the beginning when I am getting used to the range available in different usage scenarios, I want to know when I should start charging to take advantage of off-peak hours and still be able to get a full charge by the time I want to leave the next morning. I'll only be using Level 1, so I cannot be confident that it will easily charge between midnight and 6 am. If I can go in the garage and see a display that says it stopped charging at 4:12 am as battery was at capacity, or something like that, then I won't need to keep a written log. If it just shows "fully charged" or something of that nature (probably with a diagram or icon of some sort) but not when it reached that state, I won't know whether it stopped at 4am or 1 minute before I walked into the garage. The next time I drive farther I might be rudely awakened to find the car only 3/4 full when I'm ready to leave. In that case I would find it necessary to log miles driven and start/stop times for several weeks or months until I feel I know when to start/stop.

 

[mwalsh]

Maybe this has been answered elsewhere on this forum, but does anyone know

Adding to that...l would also like to know the state of charge at any given time during the charging process. Just like I can click on the icon for my laptop battery now and it will tell me "91% remaining" (as it does just at the moment). If it further told me the time to 100% charge....well that would be pretty awesome too.

This will become somewhat important if I choose to only using 110v charging with the 16 hours (15 hours, if I try to stay within Off-Peak and Super-Off Peak periods) I have available between daily uses.

 

[garygid]

When you are parked and setting up the LEAF to charge later, doen't one of the screens show the estimated L1 and L2 charging-to-full durations?

If so, that would be helpful in setting the "Start-Charging" time, based on your e-rates and your anticipated needs for the next day's use.

Of course, for L1 charging, it probably assumes 12 amps and something between 110 and 120 volts for calculating the time required for "full" charging.

If you happen to have a 16 amp L1 EVSE on 121 volts , the charging time would typically be ... somewhat shorter.

Since the LEAF has a TOD clock, there is no reason that it couldn't log the full charging info, unless Nissan just did not program that, yet.

 

[garygid]

Actually, we do not yet know what MAXIMUM current the LEAF will draw
(IF, yes IF, "offered" more by the EVSE) for L1 or L2 charging.

L2 might be 15 or 16 amps.
L1 might be 12 amps, ... but could easily be 15 or 16 amps.

 

[wgs1912]

When you are parked and setting up the LEAF to charge later, doen't one of the screens show the estimated L1 and L2 charging-to-full durations?

Yes it shows estimated time to full charge for 120v or 240v. You can also set timer for different days of week. Viewed through nav screen and carwings. The three blue indicator lamps on dash that show charge progress one solid 33% two 66% three 99%. Also has gauge showing avg. miles per kW.