Sonoma County Leaf Owners Out There??

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kawh

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
16
I am a 1-month leaf owner in sebastopol. hope to touch base with other owners. so many questions.... are you charging away from home? have you gotten your blink port yet? have you driven to san francisco? berkeley?

let's communicate our experiences... seems to me like there's a bit of a black hole between santa rosa and the bridge-- only dealership is in petaluma. not comfortable enough yet to take the leaf into the big city.
 
Hi, we got ours on April 1 and that's no fool'in. I live in NW SR. I saw another blue LEAF in the wild at Coffee & Hopper a week ago, but I've searched the neighborhood and can't find it again.

Check out the http://nbeaa.org site. (and the past meetings log http://nbeaa.org/meetings/past_meetings.htm) I work with Chris and he's just been too buys to organize a NBEAA meeting lately, but he said with increase in EV owners there should be a meeting in the next month or so.

I don't have the blink, I have the overpriced charger that was the only offering back in Nov. I've only done a couple of times away from home and that was just to check that the charger was operational (SoCo center, SoCo Water Agency).

I've made 1 trip to SF for the GGEAA meeting last month and charged for ~5hrs to make the trip back.

Talk more,
Mike
 
We live in SF, got our leaf last week. Getting comfortable with the idea of a trip to our weekend cabin at Russian River. Have scoped out the chargers at Sonoma Cty Admin in SR. 73 miles door-to-door for us, would take surface streets, 116 from Petaluma, just working up the nerve!
 
I'm going to REFUEL near Monterey this weekend. I'm going to through Sausalito on the way down this time instead of the big hill on 101; that hill alone consumes a lot of range. On the way home I'm considering going Bay Bridge & Richmond Bridge, but that will be on Monday and the traffic may be too much for me.


More to follow after the journey.
 
Taxidan,
"Have scoped out the chargers at Sonoma Cty Admin in SR. 73 miles door-to-door for us, would take surface streets, 116 from Petaluma, just working up the nerve!"

We've gone to Duncan Mills/Cazadero twice with our Leaf and have stopped at Santa Rosa Nissan, 1275 Santa Rosa Ave. 707-545-7050 each time for Level 2 charging. They have about 4 EVSEs available. Quite walkable to downtown with stuff to do.

For future reference, am looking for Leaf owners in western Sonoma County for emergency use of Level 1 EVSE cord. Ours got fried in an electrical outage and still waiting for replacement. Please PM me. Can't make trip to our cabin till we get a replacement, and hate using the ICE car.
 
Fiestatrio:
How did you manage to get your HOV sticker BEFORE DMV gave you license plates? My application was sent back telling me to wait till I got my license plate number. Fortunately, the registration just arrived with the plate number (not the plates yet). Was that you I met at the GGEVA meeting cuz I applied right after hearing someone say at that meeting that they got their HOV sticker without their license plate number.
 
Although I am in San Francisco I plan to run the Leaf alot thru Santa Rosa. I have a summer house in Kenwood, but have yet to take the Leaf there. Probably going to try next week.
 
Phoenix said:
Fiestatrio:
How did you manage to get your HOV sticker BEFORE DMV gave you license plates? My application was sent back telling me to wait till I got my license plate number. Fortunately, the registration just arrived with the plate number (not the plates yet). Was that you I met at the GGEVA meeting cuz I applied right after hearing someone say at that meeting that they got their HOV sticker without their license plate number.

Hi, Yep that was me at the GGEVA meeting. It's academic for you now, but I just put "new" in the field where the license # goes, and the VIN where the VIN goes and it worked for me.
 
Drove up Friday for the first time, Noe Valley to Guerneville. 74 miles door to door, full charge, original range estimate was 103 mi. Afraid of the Waldo Grade, so took surface streets thru Sausalito. Friday traffic helped keep speed to 60, poked thru Novato merge, then Stoney Point (saw a s/b blue Leaf), and 116. Made it with 4.8 m/kw avg., and 22 miles of range to spare.

L1 charging takes all nigh and morning.

Heading back tomorrow, still concerned about Waldo, then bridge, then 7 miles of juice-sucking San Francisco driving.

Confirmed Sonoma Admin L2's, and Inman Family Winery on Olivet is a sweet place, the charger is free, and it's their own solar-generated juice.

Love Me My Leaf!
 
Taxidan

Good report. I too am in Noe Valley so it was interesting to see that you could make it to Guerneville. See you around the neighborhood.
 
Good trip Taxidan, you did very well. I haven't had a chance to post my Monterey trip from 2 weeks ago now (gosh). SF to Guerneville with 22 miles to spare is better than I've done.

One key learning was that I won't every take Waldo Grade again, I figure I gained 10-12 miles of range by going through surface streets of Sausalito!

I wasn't on Stony Pt on Friday so it wasn't me you saw in the blue.
 
well-- i posted this a month ago, then was away and such. still haven't made the big drive to s.f.

santa rosa/ west county owners-- we should have a get-together.

we are in west county, and have solar-- so willing to help out anyone up here needing a charge-- but don't know how to go about getting that sort of trusting relationship going. any ideas on that-- let me know.

meanwhile-- still want to know where i can charge in marin county-- i would feel much more secure with a spot there. santa rosa and petaluma are covered by dealerships.... anyone charged in marin county on the run??
kawh
 
kawh

In downtown San Rafael there are 3 Chargepoint L2 charge stations. http://www.mychargepoint.net/find-stations.php.

These should help you out.


Mary C
 
I would suggest a meet-up at the Inman Winery to check out their EV charging station. But I don't get the sense that there are that many Leafs out there yet in Sonoma County. At the very least, there may be an advantage for us to get together at some point and see about doing a map of private plug share outlets in Sonoma County, especially for emergencies.

We love driving our Leaf from Oakland to Cazadero, and slowing down our lifestyle, thereby getting to really know the towns along the way. Last week drove from Oakland to San Francisco with another stop in Mill Valley before stopping in at Petaluma to bike, lunch, hike, shop, and oh yeah, to pick up my replacement EVSE and to re-electrify (re-fuel). Just used Hwy 101 to get to Petaluma, then Hwy 116 west to our destination on a hill. What joy! :D
 
I got my Leaf on May 9th from North Bay Nissan and now have about 4,200 miles on it driving in Sonoma county......

The longest trip has been From Sebastopol to Sonoma with 22 miles of range left!

Long range trips are still with my Caravan which I will need for and cargo hauling.......

Love the leaf and my wife uses it when I am out of town on trips!

I would like to get together with Sonoma County Leaf owners also.

:)
 
Some thoughts for whenever we get together for a meet-up:

1. Map of where we are (by city or general location or whatever info one is willing to disclose) so that we know who's closest to us if we ever need emergency Leaf help (besides or in addition to, Leaf's tow service). Just from gleaning this group, sounds like Sebastopol, Kenwood, Santa Rosa & Cazadero are somewhat represented. Any other towns out there?

2. Would like to know what charging options are available north of Sonoma to the Oregon border. (Sounds like Oregon to the Canadian border may be covered by Quick Charge by Nov. 30th).

3. For someone coming from Sonoma County to San Francisco, what are inexpensive charging options around the city? Or vice-versa. Anyone interested in collaborative Leaf-share exchanges for those occasions? Sort-of like Getaround.com or Plugshare meets A Better Place.

4. Out in the boonies, is it possible to DC charge from PV solar panels? Or from batteries? (may have to check out the technical section of this forum more.)

[Edit]: 5. How's about a meet-up at the October San Francisco Bay Leaf meeting since many of us are also near enough to the city? Either before or after the actual meeting for an introductory face-to-face. I will carry a Sonoma County sign to reach out.
 
I see that there are about 4 more Leaf owners in the Sebastopol area!

Is anyone interested in getting together and discussing how they are doing with their Leaf's?

Getting the heater to work in cold weather seems to be one topic being discussed! :D

Merry Christmas and a better New Year with No Gas :lol:
 
I would like to see Sonoma County LEAFers explore the possibility of installing a DC Quick Charge in Healdsburg which apparently does not impose a demand charge for under 50 kw. Any commercial/business entities in Healdsburg who can clarify electrical costs/billing there? Anyone with property with easy access to the 101 freeway which could be a good location for QC? How great would that be if we could have a Sonoma County meet at a potential QC location!
 
Phoenix said:
I would like to see Sonoma County LEAFers explore the possibility of installing a DC Quick Charge in Healdsburg which apparently does not impose a demand charge for under 50 kw. Any commercial/business entities in Healdsburg who can clarify electrical costs/billing there? Anyone with property with easy access to the 101 freeway which could be a good location for QC? How great would that be if we could have a Sonoma County meet at a potential QC location!

X2 on this.

Also note that the Coppolo Winery just installed a couple of Chargepoint docks. Slow but steady progress.
 
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