Cold and charging

A mild 44 degrees cold and go to warm up in the Leaf and recharge my cell phone while it recharges only to find out one can't do that.
I found out yesterday that while the Leaf is charging you can not operate the heater manually.
This means if its cold and you need some extra charging and you need to hang out in the car to use the heater or the radio or cigarette lighter for your laptop or cell phone your SOL.
I called Nissan CS and they advised me the only 2 ways to turn on the heater in charging mode is to either set the climate timer which works but in 10 min increments in which to set and then wait (what a pain in the a*s) or send the remote climate control signal and in either case you do not turn on the car which means no radio or cigarette lighter.
This bites.
Anyone know of another way around this?

DannyAmes said:

Anyone know of another way around this?

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Not me.

I've tried, but methinks all you can use shore power for is charging and pre-heat or cool. Turn the car on for anthing else and charging stops.

Bill

You can have the car turned on in "accessory mode" while charging (press the power button twice without touching the brake pedal). This should allow you to listen to the radio and draw from the 12 V battery. But I would not run the climate control.

abasile said:

You can have the car turned on in "accessory mode" while charging (press the power button twice without touching the brake pedal). This should allow you to listen to the radio and draw from the 12 V battery. But I would not run the climate control.

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I've done this and it works, I believe I even used the climate control and it appeared to continue on charging... can someone confirm/deny?

abasile said:

You can have the car turned on in "accessory mode" while charging (press the power button twice without touching the brake pedal). This should allow you to listen to the radio and draw from the 12 V battery. But I would not run the climate control.

Click to expand...

The climate control won't work in that mode.

ebill3 said:

DannyAmes said:

Anyone know of another way around this?

Click to expand...

Not me.

I've tried, but methinks all you can use shore power for is charging and pre-heat or cool. Turn the car on for anthing else and charging stops.

Click to expand...

Well, I stand totally corrected.

Charge, press the start button twice without stepping on the brake and all functions are available. All climate control modes, 12 volt accessory jack, and radio all function normally. Charge continues as indicated by the blue lights, the charge light on the EVSE, and the EVSE is drawing ~12 Amps (mine is not upgraded to 16 Amps).

Bill

ebill3 said:

Charge, press the start button twice without stepping on the brake and all functions are available. All climate control modes...

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Just went out to the car to try this.... no, my climate control absolutely does NOT work in this mode, plugged in or not plugged in.

Yes, the 12v fan operates (and you can use that great trick to defrost, foot mode and defrost mode together), but no heater and no air conditioner (no high voltage parts).

TonyWilliams said:

ebill3 said:

Charge, press the start button twice without stepping on the brake and all functions are available. All climate control modes...

Click to expand...

Just went out to the car to try this.... no, my climate control absolutely does NOT work in this mode, plugged in or not plugged in.

Yes, the 12v fan operates (and you can use that great trick to defrost, foot mode and defrost mode together), but no heater and no air conditioner (no high voltage parts).

Click to expand...

Well, I don't know what to say. Later VIN?

I, too, just went out to the garage to repeat my earlier test.

Upgraded EVSE plugged in and charging.
Garage temperature as shown on the LEAF 43°F.
Start twice, no brake pedal.
ALL climate control functions operate. Set fan on high, temperature to 75. It took a few minutes, but the vents were very definitely blowing warm air. Mode: foot - OK; mode: upper - OK; mode: foot and upper - OK; mode: foot and defrost - OK.

EDIT: Forgot, the energy screen showed the climate control using ~1.8 kW.

While running the test, gids increased by 1.

:?: Bill

I have done this many times with my car when i go and fiddle with the nav system (entering names, addresses, etc.) while its plugged in. Turn climate control on via remotely (phone, laptop, etc.). Then if you go into ACC mode (one button push without the brake), climate control stays on but you have access to all the other nav information, etc. Works like a charm everytime

ebill3 said:

Start twice, no brake pedal.
ALL climate control functions operate. Set fan on high, temperature to 75. It took a few minutes, but the vents were very definitely blowing warm air.

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Well, I am using a Blink instead of my EVSEupgrade :lol:

Did you have the energy screen up, and confirm that the climate control starting drawing power? I put the temperature on 90F, and waited for the heater to power up. No joy.

Then, temp on 60F, and still nothing. One other difference, my car wasn't actually charging then, just plugged it, so I'll go try charging now... off I go....

This car kills me!!! Yes, IT WORKS. Only when actually charging, not just plugged in. The heater immediately pulled a big chunk of electrons.

What a goofy car.

OK. So I guess the OP was not turning the car on, or was pressing the brake when he turned on, or ???????

Bill

abasile said:

You can have the car turned on in "accessory mode" while charging (press the power button twice without touching the brake pedal). This should allow you to listen to the radio and draw from the 12 V battery. But I would not run the climate control.

Click to expand...

Just a note here on Nissan nomenclature. There is ACC mode, ON mode, and READY mode. ACC mode is one power button press without brake; ON mode is two; READY is what you get if the brake is pressed. Visually, ACC has the center console lit up, but the dash black; ON has center and dash lit, but no green car with a double arrow on the dash.

I'm not trying to be pedantic here; I just think it helps understanding if we use the same terms that the owners manual uses.

Now, with that background, my experience is that not much other than audio works in ACC, while most things, including climate control, seem to work in ON.

Ray

My car also turns the heater on if it is charging on L2. But on L3 QC, the heater does not work, just the fan.

TonyWilliams said:

This car kills me!!! Yes, IT WORKS. Only when actually charging, not just plugged in. The heater immediately pulled a big chunk of electrons.

What a goofy car.

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Update. Whilst charging on a Blink, the heater would NOT come on.

I was freezing my butt off, waiting for the charge late at night. I had started from near zero SOC (close to the turtle).

Once the battery came up above about 20% SOC, it then started the heater.

More tid bits to remember.

TonyWilliams said:

TonyWilliams said:

This car kills me!!! Yes, IT WORKS. Only when actually charging, not just plugged in. The heater immediately pulled a big chunk of electrons.

What a goofy car.

Click to expand...

Update. Whilst charging on a Blink, the heater would NOT come on.

I was freezing my butt off, waiting for the charge late at night. I had started from near zero SOC (close to the turtle).

Once the battery came up above about 20% SOC, it then started the heater.

More tid bits to remember.

Click to expand...

What a goofy (or smart?) car.

Bill

I find that all functions do work, including the heater, while I am plugged in charging. When the heater is operating it consumes in excess of 3kw. If you are charging at 3.3kw then there is not much left to continue the charge...but it will charge...for me it was about 1 mile per hour (estimated).... Yes, I had some time on my hands for this experiment...

TangoKilo said:

I find that all functions do work, including the heater, while I am plugged in charging.

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Even below 20% SOC ? Yes, I had a bit of time on my hands last night, too.

I only tested the A/C when there were less than two bars left. Only the fan came on. The A/C kicked in when it charged past two bars. I didn't look at the SOC at that point.