The Possibility of Charging the Battery from a Portable Gen.

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If you try to use the 700 watt generator to charge the LEAF, you will most likely just blow out the generator because the LEAF is a 1440 watt load, quite likely WAY too much for the poor little 700w generator.

Your other option is to spare the life of your generator for the things that it CAN do, and walk. :)
 
ya, i wonder. but i have seen plenty of people use an underpowered generator before and had "somewhat" minimal negative effects. but that usually comes with a voltage drop. i wonder if the damage would apply to the battery pack or would it just adjust its draw?
 
The charger in the LEAF will try to follow the Control Pilot setting (12 amps).

Of course, a 40-hour (6-amp) version of the EVSE could be made fairly easily.

Also, it is NOT clear if there might be damage to the LEAF, but I (with 50 years EE experience) would not want to try it on MY LEAF, or even on YOUR LEAF.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
ya, i wonder. but i have seen plenty of people use an underpowered generator before and had "somewhat" minimal negative effects. but that usually comes with a voltage drop. i wonder if the damage would apply to the battery pack or would it just adjust its draw?
Click to expand...

The quote from Nissan given at the start of this thread: 'Any supply variation using a generator could cause unknown concerns resulting in damage to the vehicle and/or the generator and might invalidate the vehicle’s warranty', would suggest that Nissan have probably investigated using a low power generator to come up with this statement.

Regards Bob
 
oh well. i am fully confident that that type of generation will be unneeded in my case.

it kinda reminds me of a situation that happened during the Columbus Day Storm. i had a neighbor who was using his generator to run a few freezers to save his food. (we had no power for 12 days!!) not sure what kind of generator he was using or exactly what he was powering, but the thing would run at full speed about 90% (RPMs changed with the load demand and his was sitting in his backyard which faced my backyard so very easy to hear) of the time. trip every once in a while, cool off and restart. it did that constantly for a few days before he came out to check it (almost none of us were staying at our respective houses during all this since it was pretty much waaay too cold (FYI; pellet stoves might sound like a good idea but they SUCK in a power outage!!)
 
Maybe, but more likely the corporate lawyers wrote this so that Nissan wouldn't even have to investigate use of a low power generator. Note that it's a very 'iffy' statement, yet makes it clear that the warranty is at risk.

blobm said:
The quote from Nissan given at the start of this thread: 'Any supply variation using a generator could cause unknown concerns resulting in damage to the vehicle and/or the generator and might invalidate the vehicle’s warranty', would suggest that Nissan have probably investigated using a low power generator to come up with this statement.
Click to expand...
 
Yodrak said:
Maybe, but more likely the corporate lawyers wrote this so that Nissan wouldn't even have to investigate use of a low power generator. Note that it's a very 'iffy' statement, yet makes it clear that the warranty is at risk.

blobm said:
The quote from Nissan given at the start of this thread: 'Any supply variation using a generator could cause unknown concerns resulting in damage to the vehicle and/or the generator and might invalidate the vehicle’s warranty', would suggest that Nissan have probably investigated using a low power generator to come up with this statement.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Yes, you could be right, unfortunately. I guess only time..... and a few brave experimenters will find out! Regards Bob
 
At 120v, 7A (840 watts) continuous, charging would only add about 3 miles of range per hour of charging. Almost too slow to be useful for anything but real "emergency" (or remote area) charging, I suspect.

But, make it to that mountain cabin that has no "e", and charge for a day or so to get back out to civilization ... could be the ONLY "e-roaming" method available. :)

So, assuming the LEAF's internal charger will "work" when "offered" only 7 amps, it does appear to be one solution.

Another might be some solar panels at the cabin ... :D
 
It really depends on how the charger in the LEAF works, if it is smart it will slow down the charging power level and adapt to what its being offered.. but perhaps not. Your 700w generator may just slow down quickly and stop once you plug it in.. btw, generator ratings are usually optimistic.

You may have to buffer the output of solar panels thru a battery bank before you offer it to the LEAF's charger, or perhaps go in directly thru the DC fast charge port.

I would think the minimum generator you would need is a 3500kva unit, better at 5000kva. Generators already put out fairly clean sine wave so dont worry about it.. it will use a lot of gas and it will take hours to charge your LEAF.
 
The SAE J1772 standard allows for the charging dock (EVSE) to inform the charger (the car) how much power is available..

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/stakeholders/infrastructure/finalsaej1772.doc

The connector uses a +/-12VDC square wave signal to inform the charger how many amps to draw, see "FIGURE 8 – EVSE CURRENT CAPACITY VS. CONTROL PILOT PULSE WIDTH" in that link.. the standard allows for adjustment from 6A to 48A.. so the smallest generator you can use is 6A*110V= 660W, assuming you can adjust the charging dock to that level, apparently some of those are not adjustable. In conclusion make sure you get an adjustable EVSE.

700W generator is cutting it too close, a little fouling on the sparkplug, or some gasohol and it will stall.
 
I thought of the same thing for emergency charging and came up with an expensive, but doable solution.
1. The generator needs to be an inverter type (claimed to not damage sensitive electronics).
2. It needs to support a 15A 120V circuit (1800W).
3. It needs to be quiet.
4. It needs to be light weight so I can get it out of the car and onto the ground and vice versa.
5. It needs to be compact.
I came up with the Honda EU1000iA. It can be paired with a second unit to make available 2000W and they only weigh 29 lbs. apiece.
It was a fun "surfing" project but it isn't worth the money to me because I don't go camping. It may be worth it to someone else who is planning on taking their LEAF to the woods. Now if Nissan would just okay or provide specifications for an acceptable generator set up.
 
Would be more practical and cheaper to use the Honda EU2000iA. 1600W rated (13.3A), 2000W max.(16.7A), it would be working hard but how much would your really want to charge your Leaf anyway. I'd be happy with a 30% charge which would be enough to go get some ice and find someone that had some power to plug into. If my power was out for a day or two, I'd be fine anyway since I would be driving my leaf more then 30 miles a day.
 
electricD said:
Would be more practical and cheaper to use the Honda EU2000iA. 1600W rated (13.3A), 2000W max.(16.7A), it would be working hard but how much would your really want to charge your Leaf anyway. I'd be happy with a 30% charge which would be enough to go get some ice and find someone that had some power to plug into. If my power was out for a day or two, I'd be fine anyway since I would be driving my leaf more then 30 miles a day.
Click to expand...


I like that they can run on three fuels, very convenient for long term storage and extended use.
 
I would wait until someone that has a Honda 2000 posts the results before I spent the money. 1600va may not be enough depending on the power factor of this inductive load. Also the generator may need to be derated for alternate fuels including the typical 10% ethanol-gasoline. Might need to go up to a Yamaha EF2400iSHC
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/products/modelspecs/475/0/specs.aspx

Xantrex whitepaper on power factor correction:
http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Battery-Chargers/XC-Battery-Charger/MS20070214_pfc-whitepaper02.pdf
 
Here's the type of generator I want for my Leaf: :D

4782271002_d54443c198.jpg


Yep, that's a Mitsubishi i MiEV getting topped off for the day!

We had this at the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association's EV Awareness Day in downtown Portland over the summer. Pretty awesome stuff! You can check out all the images I took there on my flickr page.
 

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