santa monica charge stations and dual-meter

k2msmith said:

I may be interested in driving to our office in Santa Monica/Venice area coming north on PCH. The distance one-way is roughly 50 miles. I am thinking a commute might be possible if I can find a charging station to "top off" at. If the car will give me 70-80 miles on a charge. That would mean that I would need about 30 miles of additional charge during the day while I am in Venice to get home. Does anyone have any experience with the car to know if this will work or not ? Could I get 30 miles of top off during a an 8 hour office visit with standard 110V AC ? How do I find out where the DC fast chargers are being installed (if any yet)....

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k2msmith said:

My new Leaf is supposed to arrive in September, according to an email sent to me by Nissan. After driving the EV-1 prototype many years ago and being so impressed with it, I vowed to get an electric car as soon as feasible - the day has come !...

I have a few questions for anyone who has experience with the car already..

I may be interested in driving to our office in Santa Monica/Venice area coming north on PCH. The distance one-way is roughly 50 miles. I am thinking a commute might be possible if I can find a charging station to "top off" at. If the car will give me 70-80 miles on a charge. That would mean that I would need about 30 miles of additional charge during the day while I am in Venice to get home. Does anyone have any experience with the car to know if this will work or not ? Could I get 30 miles of top off during a an 8 hour office visit with standard 110V AC ? How do I find out where the DC fast chargers are being installed (if any yet)...

Another question- Aerovironment is coming to install the charger early August - but now I wonder if I should get a dual electric meter setup with Souther California Edison. They are sending me an analysis of my electric usage this week to help me make a decision. Is most of the e-car community going with a dual meter setup in their house for electric car charging ?

Thanks All.

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Devin said:

k2msmith said:

I may be interested in driving to our office in Santa Monica/Venice area coming north on PCH. The distance one-way is roughly 50 miles. I am thinking a commute might be possible if I can find a charging station to "top off" at. If the car will give me 70-80 miles on a charge. That would mean that I would need about 30 miles of additional charge during the day while I am in Venice to get home. Does anyone have any experience with the car to know if this will work or not ? Could I get 30 miles of top off during a an 8 hour office visit with standard 110V AC ? How do I find out where the DC fast chargers are being installed (if any yet)....

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I plug in at work and have only used L2 charging twice since I took delivery. The rule of thumb I use is 4 mi/hr L1 charging. 8 hours of charging should give you about 32 miles. If you are driving only 100 miles a day and L2 charging at home then you should be A-OK. If it were me, I'd do an L2 charge to 80% overnight and then do timer-disabled L1 charging while at work.

You may be able to make the round trip without additional charging with some hypermiling but I wouldn't want to count on that on a daily basis. Of course the other option is to find L2 charging stations in your last 20 miles (Nissan dealers, mall, etc) that you could resort to in a pinch. L2 will get you about 12 mi/hr charging so an hour or two at a public charger would easily get you home. I'd still try to go for the above option (80% L2 overnight, L1 during the day) as it'll be less stress on both you and your battery.

It would be helpful to know where you're starting from to calculate the elevation difference. If you go net downhill on your way home you should be more than fine.

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