drive-in theater

[loomis2]

So Friday night, for only the second time in my life and the first time in a few decades, I went to a drive-in movie theater. The first movie was Monsters University and the plan was for the family to sit outside and watch it. I hooked my mp3 player with an fm tuner to a speaker and plugged that into my car using an inverter plugged into the 12v adapter in the car.

I ended up taking our Prius instead of the Leaf because I didn't know what five hours of movies (it was a double feature) would do to the Leaf battery. For the second movie we sat in the car and listened through the car's speakers.

So that is my question. Would I have been perfectly fine taking the Leaf to something like that? Would the whole inverter thing put too much of a strain on the system for that length of time? Does it use the battery pack at all for something like that, or is that what the traditional car battery is for? Since this is a different sort of electric car scenario than normal I thought I would pose the question to you guys in case we do it again. With the Prius, whenever the battery power was low the engine would kick on for a few minutes to charge it back up. That was kind of annoying, so I would much rather take the Leaf next time, you know?

 

[lion]

Considering people are able to run a fridge using the LEAF for 10+ hours, I'd say you are safe. As long as you keep the car in 'READY', I don't think you will have any issues.

 

[loomis2]

Cool. And who ran a fridge from their Leaf for 10 hours, and why?

 

[lion]

Search the forums, it was tested on here by folks trying to use their car as a power backup solution. I have the wiring installed in my car as well (see sig), just waiting for the prices to drop on the 1000W inverter, so I can power some appliances in case of power outages (or have access to 120VAC when on the road).

 

[09Bamb00]

During the blackout in the Northern Virginia area, one of the leaf owners used his leaf as a generator for his neighbour's fridge. I think that was several days.

 

[loomis2]

That is awesome.

 

[KillaWhat]

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=13097" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[/url]

 

[RegGuheert]

During the blackout in the Northern Virginia area, one of the leaf owners used his leaf as a generator for his neighbour's fridge. I think that was several days.

Correct, except it was just for one day. Sorry, I buried the post inside a thread on a different topic: I Miss My Leaf!

Interestingly, that was precisely one year ago, today. The derecho event occurred on June 29, 2012. I loaned the LEAF to our neighbors the morning after: June 30, 2012.

 

[UBUYGAS]

With the Leaf at full charge and it just on with no lights you can sit still for 96 hours. The energy info screen says i'm using around 250 watts per hour with the Leaf just on. 24KW Battery should last me around 96 hours. With lights on it's around 70 hours. That's just standing still, no regen.

I think you would have been perfectly fine.

The other day I sat in one hour bumper to bumper traffic in NYC for 1 mile and used up 1% of battery.

 

[Levenkay]

The energy info screen says i'm using around 250 watts per hour with the Leaf just on.

Hmm.. It *should* just say you're using 250 watts.

 

[LEAFfan]

With the Leaf at full charge and it just on with no lights you can sit still for 96 hours. The energy info screen says i'm using around 250 watts per hour with the Leaf just on. 24KW Battery should last me around 96 hours. With lights on it's around 70 hours. That's just standing still, no regen.

Just to be clear, the car needs to be in 'Ready', not On. If you use the 'On' position, you will drain your 12V and then your LEAF will not start.

 

[TimLee]

With the car in Ready you would have been OK if just powering radio or MP3 player. Depending on how far it was to and from the drive-in you probably could have even run the AC. Depending on how hot it is, the AC will use one bar every 1/2 hour to 1 hour. Although the AC will run in Ready mode, it doesn't seem as effective in just Ready mode on my 2011 LEAF. So I just usually have it in ready to move fully powered mode, in Park and with the Parking Brake on. I also use the AC a lot while doing DCFC.

 

[loomis2]

Just to be clear since I am a new Leaf owner, to put it in READY you hit the power button twice without hitting the brake pedal, right?

And LeafFan, that is exactly what I probably would have done, which is why I didn't take the Leaf this time without checking wiht the community here first!

 

[LEAFfan]

Just to be clear since I am a new Leaf owner, to put it in READY you hit the power button twice without hitting the brake pedal, right?

No, for 'READY' you have to put your foot on the brake pedal as you push the car's Power button once. One push without foot on brake is 'ACC' and two pushes without foot on brake is 'ON'.

 

[TimLee]

Just to be clear since I am a new Leaf owner, to put it in READY you hit the power button twice without hitting the brake pedal, right?

And LeafFan, that is exactly what I probably would have done, which is why I didn't take the Leaf this time without checking wiht the community here first!

You can be certain it is On by checking to see if the AC will run. It won't run in the ACC single button push mode.
Note that even though I use the radio a lot in On mode in the garden, the LEAF is notoriously bad about not keeping the 12V battery properly charged. Additional use of the 12V battery may not be very good for the 12V battery.
See the topic http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=11094#p255010" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
My 12V battery required warranty replacement at the two year HV battery check. The 12V battery is covered for full replacement under the original 3 year, 36,000 mile LEAF warranty.
Hopefully Nissan will fix the software on the LEAF charging of the 12V battery, but they haven't yet.
It was asked about at the end of the January 8th townhall meeting. Nissans only response that I have seen is that the LEAF 12V battery warranty replacements have been <1% which is normal.

 

[RegGuheert]

You can be certain it is On by checking to see if the AC will run. It won't run in the ACC single button push mode.

You can ONLY run the air conditioning in ON mode while charging. And only while charging will the 12V battery be charged in ON mode. As LEAFfan has said, if you want the 12V battery to charge when not connected to the EVSE, you MUST be in READY mode. This is the mode that you use to drive the car. You can verify this mode by the green indicator of the car with a bidirectional arrow pointing both ways.

The 12V battery is covered for full replacement under the original 3 year, 36,000 mile LEAF warranty.

No, all Nissan 12V batteries have their own pro-rated warranty schedule which is detailed in our warranty manuals. Full replacement is only provided for 24 months.

 

[MikeD]

LEAFfan: The 2013 Leaf WILL charge the 12v battery in ON mode (as well as in READY mode)! THIS IS AN IMPORTANT CHANGE FROM MODEL YRS 2011/12 (like you I have a 2011, so I know that model year will NOT charge in ON mode).

From the 2013 LEAF Owner's Manual:
CHARGING THE 12-VOLT BATTERY
The 12-volt battery is charged automatically using electricity stored in the Li-ion battery. When the 12-volt battery is being charged, the charge status indicator light on the instrument panel flashes. (except when charging the Li-ion battery or the power switch is in the READY to drive position.) See Charge status indicator light in the Charge section.

While vehicle is driven:
The Li-ion battery charges the 12-volt battery as necessary when the power switch is in the READY to drive position or ON position. The 12-volt battery is not charged in the following conditions.
• When the power switch is in ACC position.
• When the power switch is in ON position and shift position is in the N (Neutal) position.

While the vehicle is not in use:
When the EV (Electric Vehicle) system is off for an extended time, the 12-volt battery may be automatically charged for a short period of time on a regular basis.

This is a welcome change that allows 12v battery charging w/o resorting to the higher overhead present in READY mode.

 

[TimLee]

You can be certain it is On by checking to see if the AC will run. It won't run in the ACC single button push mode.

You can ONLY run the air conditioning in ON mode while charging. And only while charging will the 12V battery be charged in ON mode. As LEAFfan has said, if you want the 12V battery to charge when not connected to the EVSE, you MUST be in READY mode. This is the mode that you use to drive the car. You can verify this mode by the green indicator of the car with a bidirectional arrow pointing both ways.

The 12V battery is covered for full replacement under the original 3 year, 36,000 mile LEAF warranty.

No, all Nissan 12V batteries have their own pro-rated warranty schedule which is detailed in our warranty manuals. Full replacement is only provided for 24 months.

You are incorrect.
For the 2011 LEAF, the HVAC fan will run and the 12V battery will charge in the two button push, no foot on the brake, ON mode. You may be correct that the AC compressor will not run in the ON position, but the HVAC fan does run.
Have done this for many hours. Periodically as the 12V battery voltage drops, the blue light starts flashing, and it does charge from the HV battery DC to DC converter.
Although the warranty manual says what you state, the manual is incorrect. Jeff (Hawk0630) from Nissan posted a quote from Billy Hayes that noted this in their response to the January 8th town hall meeting about the 12V battery inadequate charging. See the following link:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11136&start=60#p265592" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It does sound like the 2013 LEAF may have improved the 12V battery charging. I think the 2011 LEAF does also periodically check the 12V battery voltage and charge it if needed. But the software is deficient apparently in the voltage level that is maintained. But if the 2011 LEAF is plugged into the EVSE, it will not charge the 12V battery except when the EVSE is charging the HV battery. That is why many people who left a 2011 LEAF hooked up to the EVSE for a two or three week trip came home and found the 12V battery dead.
I don't know if the 2013 LEAF has corrected that or not.

 

[kennyboy]

I've been considering taking my LEAF to a drive-in, but I've had a couple of concerns.

If I have to have the car in READY in order to use the radio to hear the movie, what will I do about all of the displays being on? Will I have to manually dim the driver display using the button there to the lower left of the steering wheel AND go into the settings on the center display to dim it, or preferably turn it off?

It just seems like when the car is powered on there would be an awful lot of illumination going on which would make it difficult to watch a movie at a drive-in.

And secondly, I've wondered about the headlights.

Is there ANY way to get from parking lights only to OFF or from OFF to parking lights only without passing through the AUTO mode, which would flash my LED headlights on others trying to watch the film?

It's been a while since I've been to a drive in, but isn't it common courtesy to navigate through the drive-in with only your parking lights on if a film is actually already in progress?

I don't see any way to do that in the LEAF without passing through AUTO and flashing the headlights when I turn my parking lights off or on.

I guess I could park, leave the parking lights on, power down the car, THEN turn the light switch to OFF and then power the car back up?

And if I needed to leave early, I guess the reverse of that would work too, wouldn't it?

Power down car, turn light switch to parking lights only and THEN power up car again?

 

[lion]

Was not aware of the 12V battery issues. This is making me wonder if using the LEAF as a backup power source is a bad idea (not that it would happen frequently, if at all, considering I haven't used my gas generator in 10 years).