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McDavis

Active member
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
28
Location
Denver, CO
True story. We went to California on vacation and there was a Leaf on a used car lot so we bought it. It's the SL model and we're having it delivered to Denver, Colorado where we live. And where there are no charging stations. :)

We're excited! Is anyone else from Colorado?
 
Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new LEAF! If ever a car belonged in Colorado, it's the LEAF.

What part of our state did you visit and find the LEAF for sale? Maybe it belonged to one of us on the forum. Some members have reported selling their LEAFs.
 
welcome and congrats. you will enjoy the feeling of running all your errands now without the worry of how to keep it to just a few trips.
 
mwalsh said:
Wow! Talk about an impulse purchase. Welcome! :D
Click to expand...
Yes, welcome! Impulse purchases sometimes prove in retrospect to be wise, and I think this will be one of them.

When your Leaf arrives, check the EVSE ("charger") in the trunk to see if has already been upgraded. Visit http://www.evseupgrade.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for details or search on this site. An upgraded unit would give you the option of charging on either 120V or 240V, assuming you have an available 240V circuit in your garage or can add one while waiting for the car to arrive. The upgraded unit is currently the lowest-cost method of getting 240V charging. Some people, myself included, rely on it as the only home charging source, while others prefer a wall-mounted unit (Schneider, Blink, GE, Levitron, etc), keeping the original unit in the car for use away from home.
 
HighDesertDriver said:
mwalsh said:
Wow! Talk about an impulse purchase. Welcome! :D
Click to expand...
Yes, welcome! Impulse purchases sometimes prove in retrospect to be wise, and I think this will be one of them.

When your Leaf arrives, check the EVSE ("charger") in the trunk to see if has already been upgraded. Visit http://www.evseupgrade.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for details or search on this site. An upgraded unit would give you the option of charging on either 120V or 240V, assuming you have an available 240V circuit in your garage or can add one while waiting for the car to arrive. The upgraded unit is currently the lowest-cost method of getting 240V charging. Some people, myself included, rely on it as the only home charging source, while others prefer a wall-mounted unit (Schneider, Blink, GE, Levitron, etc), keeping the original unit in the car for use away from home.
Click to expand...

At first I was skeptical, but in hind site, the EVSE upgrade appears to be a brilliant, offordable and reliable solution. We had an ark welder 240 outlet in our garage, had it removed before the Blink was installed through the EV project only to have them install practically the same outlet which the blink is plugged into... I originally thought it was going to be hardwired and having the hebejebes about electricity I prefered that. If I had to do it over again and was not apart of the EV project and had to pay for all of it out of pocket I would simply go with the EVSE upgrade and a plug in the wall. As phil and others have said, an EVSE is really just a glorified heavy duty extension chord and need not be complex nor expensive.
 
I'll try to reply to everyone in this one post...

We bought the car in north San Diego. There is an electrical outlet in our garage, but I'd still like to see the infrastructure improve. We did tons of research before we bought it and my partner is a university professor and environmental engineer. He's been stupid crazy over this since GM's EV1. It was $31 K and I was still under the impression that it qualified for the state rebate and if we file our taxes first, don't we win? :) The EVSE charger upgrade seems costly when I am okay with what we have and adding one in our garage. Though I'll look into it.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and peeing on my "First in CO," parade. :) I'll cope...for now.
 
Just an update for those of you that are curious....

We do not have the cold weather package and I'm really feeling it, now :). The car is great, my commute is 20 miles, roundtrip and about 5 are on the highway. I haven't had a problem at all and it does great in the snow while in ECO mode. The heat keeps up, though I was just told that the heater is throttled while in ECO mode. No wonder it takes longer to heat up. I should have thought of that.

Our charger is the GE Wattstation and it works great. We love that we can completely turn it off for no "vampire" energy consumption. We haven't used the charging timers or only charged to 80%, whatever that nonsense is, and we are not noticing any problems.

We're not really getting many questions or lookie-loos, which surprised me. Maybe when it warms up people will be more chatty. We tried to take it to Larry Miller Nissan in Englewood, CO because that's about 3 blocks from our house, but they were completely uninterested. I was shocked and offended, so we took it to GO Nissan on S. Wadsworth. They have been more than happy to see it and love it with us! We have an appointment scheduled for Friday because it seems to me the steering is out of alignment and I hate a crooked steering wheel.

We are like the 5th (possibly the 50th, there is no tracking registry here...) to own a LEAF in CO, apparently but to all of our friends, we are first. :)
 
thanks for the update, glad it's working out for you without the cold whether package! keep us posted as the winter dips further.
 
McDavis said:
We haven't used the charging timers or only charged to 80%, whatever that nonsense is
Click to expand...
That 80% nonsense is a way of making the battery last longer. Not a tremendous difference, but certainly worth doing if it's convenient. You can probably figure out one might do with a timer if needed :D
 
Well done, McDavis, that is awesome! And thank you for the update!

Love your sense of adventure.

The battery warmer thing only kicks in at -10C (14F), I've read. I know it gets colder than that in Colorado, but you'd see some significant range degradation before the battery got that cold. According to the same article, 2012's battery is more warmly insulated than the 2011. In the end, though I'm not sure the battery warmer would do that much for you. (Those seat heaters? That might be another story! :D )

-Brad
 
bradleygibson said:
The battery warmer thing only kicks in at -10C (14F), I've read-Brad
Click to expand...

This is not exactly true.
From the 2012 LEAF manual:

LI-ION BATTERY HEATER

CAUTION
The Li-ion battery heater does not operate if the available Li-ion battery charge is less than approximately 30% and the charger is not connected to the vehicle. To help prevent the Li-ion battery from freezing, do not leave the vehicle in an environment if temperatures may go below -4ºF (-20ºC) unless the vehicle is connected to a charger.

The Li-ion battery heater helps to prevent the Li-ion battery from freezing and helps to prevent significant reductions in the Li-ion battery output when the temperature is cold. The Li-ion battery heater automatically turns on when the Li-ion battery temperature is approximately -4ºF (-20ºC) or colder. The Li-ion battery heater automatically turns off when the Li-ion battery temperature is approximately 14ºF (-10ºC) or higher.
Click to expand...
 
Hi, EdmondLeaf,

Thank you--glad to finally read something authoritative on how the battery heater works.

Thing is, it turns on at an even colder point than the article indicated; how much range would a battery at -19C (just before the heater kicks in) have? I suspect its range would be significantly degraded.

Perhaps this means that a Leaf with a battery heater wouldn't have any practical range advantage over McDavis' 2011 Leaf (unless parked overnight outside in below -20C temperatures)... Am I reading that wrong?

Thanks again for the authoritative info,
-Brad
 
McDavis said:
Just an update for those of you that are curious....

We do not have the cold weather package and I'm really feeling it, now :). The car is great, my commute is 20 miles, roundtrip and about 5 are on the highway. I haven't had a problem at all and it does great in the snow while in ECO mode. The heat keeps up, though I was just told that the heater is throttled while in ECO mode. No wonder it takes longer to heat up. I should have thought of that.

Our charger is the GE Wattstation and it works great. We love that we can completely turn it off for no "vampire" energy consumption. We haven't used the charging timers or only charged to 80%, whatever that nonsense is, and we are not noticing any problems.

We're not really getting many questions or lookie-loos, which surprised me. Maybe when it warms up people will be more chatty. We tried to take it to Larry Miller Nissan in Englewood, CO because that's about 3 blocks from our house, but they were completely uninterested. I was shocked and offended, so we took it to GO Nissan on S. Wadsworth. They have been more than happy to see it and love it with us! We have an appointment scheduled for Friday because it seems to me the steering is out of alignment and I hate a crooked steering wheel.

We are like the 5th (possibly the 50th, there is no tracking registry here...) to own a LEAF in CO, apparently but to all of our friends, we are first. :)
Click to expand...

Mine came with a "crooked steering wheel" as well but I'm holding off until my one year check up next month because the only think I hate more the the crooked wheel is going to the dealer. :p
 
The crooked steering wheel is something they're aware of. If you put the steering wheel all the way up it's crooked. All the way down and it's fine. I can live with it as long as I know it's not doinking up my tires. :)
 
bradleygibson said:
Perhaps this means that a Leaf with a battery heater wouldn't have any practical range advantage over McDavis' 2011 Leaf (unless parked overnight outside in below -20C temperatures)... Am I reading that wrong?
Click to expand...

The range might actually be slightly less, since (at -20C) the CWP equipped LEAF will be burning 300watts to try and heat the battery pack, and the non-CWP LEAF will not.

The heater on the battery is NOT TO INCREASE RANGE. It is to protect the battery from freezing at -30C.
 

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