Newbie Questions

It has been one month since Eva (Cayenne Red) came to live at our house in Elm Colorado. We love her. I bought her for 20 mile commutes to work, but my wife has since parked her Prius (2005, 192,000 miles and counting), and has commandeered my Leaf. I love to heartily laugh as I drive by the gas station. Thanks to all the info on this website, I now charge with the V2 EVSE upgrade. I have a few of questions:

1) Other than using the Leaf timer, is there a way to stop the charging at 80%?

2) Is there any problem stopping a charge abruptly, e.g. disconnecting the J1772 while charging with the EVSE?

3) Driving with no AC on in the mountains when it is warm, I have seen a curious alert in small yellow letters on the Navigation screen-- something like "Turn ON Climate Control for -3miles". So I turn on the climate control and the alert then states-- "Turn OFF Cimate Control for + 3 miles". I turn it off and it again states "Turn ON Climate Control for -3miles". I may not have the + and - signs exactly correct, as the warning then disappears. I have not found anything about this on this website. Any thoughts?

Thanks

ElmLeaf said:

It has been one month since Eva (Cayenne Red) came to live at our house in Elm Colorado. We love her. I bought her for 20 mile commutes to work, but my wife has since parked her Prius (2005, 192,000 miles and counting), and has commandeered my Leaf. I love to heartily laugh as I drive by the gas station. Thanks to all the info on this website, I now charge with the V2 EVSE upgrade. I have a few of questions:

1) Other than using the Leaf timer, is there a way to stop the charging at 80%?

2) Is there any problem stopping a charge abruptly, e.g. disconnecting the J1772 while charging with the EVSE?

3) Driving with no AC on in the mountains when it is warm, I have seen a curious alert in small yellow letters on the Navigation screen-- something like "Turn ON Climate Control for -3miles". So I turn on the climate control and the alert then states-- "Turn OFF Cimate Control for + 3 miles". I turn it off and it again states "Turn ON Climate Control for -3miles". I may not have the + and - signs exactly correct, as the warning then disappears. I have not found anything about this on this website. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Click to expand...

You can set the car to charge to 100% or 80%. You can disconnect the J1772 connector while it's charging, not a problem. The climate control message is just to let you know how you can increase your range. If range isn't an issue, run the AC or heater as you like.

ElmLeaf said:

It has been one month since Eva (Cayenne Red) came to live at our house in Elm Colorado. We love her. I bought her for 20 mile commutes to work, but my wife has since parked her Prius (2005, 192,000 miles and counting), and has commandeered my Leaf. I love to heartily laugh as I drive by the gas station. Thanks to all the info on this website, I now charge with the V2 EVSE upgrade. I have a few of questions:

1) Other than using the Leaf timer, is there a way to stop the charging at 80%?

2) Is there any problem stopping a charge abruptly, e.g. disconnecting the J1772 while charging with the EVSE?

3) Driving with no AC on in the mountains when it is warm, I have seen a curious alert in small yellow letters on the Navigation screen-- something like "Turn ON Climate Control for -3miles". So I turn on the climate control and the alert then states-- "Turn OFF Cimate Control for + 3 miles". I turn it off and it again states "Turn ON Climate Control for -3miles". I may not have the + and - signs exactly correct, as the warning then disappears. I have not found anything about this on this website. Any thoughts?
Thanks

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum!
1. No, unless you set your LEAF charge to '80%' or watch your 'fuel' bars and stop it when they reach ten bars. I just set the charge to '80%', timer to 11AM to 11AM (so I can plug in anywhere at anytime and it will charge to 80%), then I use the override switch (top/center switch left side of dash) if I want 100%.

ElmLeaf said:

It has been one month since Eva (Cayenne Red) came to live at our house in Elm Colorado. We love her. I bought her for 20 mile commutes to work, but my wife has since parked her Prius (2005, 192,000 miles and counting), and has commandeered my Leaf. I love to heartily laugh as I drive by the gas station. Thanks to all the info on this website, I now charge with the V2 EVSE upgrade. I have a few of questions:

1) Other than using the Leaf timer, is there a way to stop the charging at 80%?

2) Is there any problem stopping a charge abruptly, e.g. disconnecting the J1772 while charging with the EVSE?

3) Driving with no AC on in the mountains when it is warm, I have seen a curious alert in small yellow letters on the Navigation screen-- something like "Turn ON Climate Control for -3miles". So I turn on the climate control and the alert then states-- "Turn OFF Cimate Control for + 3 miles". I turn it off and it again states "Turn ON Climate Control for -3miles". I may not have the + and - signs exactly correct, as the warning then disappears. I have not found anything about this on this website. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Click to expand...

1) yes, determine how much charge you need and time it will take, plug it in, then unplug it when it reaches your target SOC. i would recommend manually charging to 70% when temps get above 80F

2) no, the design of the EVSE insures it. besides, there is no other way to interrupt the charge other than unplugging EVSE from the wall which is not recommended. the plug to the wall is not rated to be used as much as the J-1772 handle. so wear out the handle, not the plug (now, dont read more into this than what i have said. the plug is not fragile and is easily replaceable... but why bother? unplug it and take it with you if you need to)

3) that is something i STRONGLY suggest you ignore. if you need the info, what that screen is telling you is the effect on the GOM.

look at your estimated range and then turn on A/C you will see the adjustment. for something even funnier, switch from drive to eco

No,
No,
just an estimate on the range effect if using climate control. You decide if you need the extra 3 miles.

DaveinOlyWA said:

2) no, the design of the EVSE insures it. besides, there is no other way to interrupt the charge other than unplugging EVSE from the wall which is not recommended. the plug to the wall is not rated to be used as much as the J-1772 handle. so wear out the handle, not the plug (now, dont read more into this than what i have said. the plug is not fragile and is easily replaceable... but why bother? unplug it and take it with you if you need to)

Click to expand...

You should NEVER unplug the EVSE from the wall while charging. The J1772 design assures that current is cut before the J1772 plug is removed from the car to avoid arcing. The wall plug has no such protection and will arc and may damage the outlet.

You can freely unplug the J1772 but always unplug it before unplugging from the wall!

ElmLeaf said:

1) Other than using the Leaf timer, is there a way to stop the charging at 80%?

2) Is there any problem stopping a charge abruptly, e.g. disconnecting the J1772 while charging with the EVSE?

Click to expand...

1. If you end up purchasing an EVSE for your garage then depending on your model sometimes the EVSE can effectively stop the charge before you hit 80%. For example the Schneider I have has a delay setting that you can delay the flow of electricity up to 8 hours in 1 hour increments. So If you want 70%, take 30 or so minutes off the time to 80% on the dash, then work backwards in 1 hour increments to determine how many hours to delay. Set the delay at the EVSE and plug it in.

2. I certainly hope not since that's the way the charge point systems are out and about because the ones I've seen have no turn off it's just unplug and go.


Just my 2 cents. Here's your complimentary pick ax to poke holes.

Thanks for the help!

Another question:

I travel about 60 miles and gain 3500 feet in elevation to spend the night at a cabin in the Rockies. I start out with 100% charge and the Leaf is at 15% charge upon my arrival at the cabin. I plan to return the following day, descending the 3500 feet over 60 miles. If I charge to 80% that night, will I overcharge or overheat the battery on the way down the mountain? Should I terminate the charge at 50% or so? The bottom line question is, can I harm the battery with an overcharge the battery on a prolonged downhill trip?

ElmLeaf said:

I travel about 60 miles and gain 3500 feet in elevation to spend the night at a cabin in the Rockies. I start out with 100% charge and the Leaf is at 15% charge upon my arrival at the cabin. I plan to return the following day, descending the 3500 feet over 60 miles. If I charge to 80% that night, will I overcharge or overheat the battery on the way down the mountain? Should I terminate the charge at 50% or so? The bottom line question is, can I harm the battery with an overcharge the battery on a prolonged downhill trip?

Click to expand...

Will you get there? At 60 mph on a new battery @20C with no climate control the range from Tony's wonderful chart is 82 miles. After correcting for the altitude gain, 63 miles. After correcting for thinner air, 67 miles. That's a bit over 10% margin, close to the 15% you state, or LBW but before VLBW. And this includes no allowance for use of climate control, or weather and no allowance for baggage or passengers. I don't like to cut it that close, but I'm perhaps overly cautious, I never plan on going below two bars. Is there any place on the way that you can charge? Adding a bar or two would give you margin and wouldn't take that long at L2.

On the return, depending on slope and speed, you might not charge the battery at all on the downhill. If the slope is shallow enough, you need to use power to maintain speed. If the slope is constant over the trip, you will use power the whole way to maintain 60 mph. If the slope is steeper in parts, you might coast, or regenerate some power into the batteries. If you lose the 3500 feet in 30 miles, you would add about a bar to the battery, about L2 charge rate. If you drop even faster, you might get the battery close enough to 100% that it slows charging, and then mostly the friction brakes would be used to slow the car. Or even hit the charge rate limit of the battery pack (40 kW), and the friction brakes will be used beyond that point.

The battery management software slows charging as the charge level gets close to 100% to protect the battery. Seems to work, as far as I can determine. I live on a hill, and when I charge to 100% I seen basically no regeneration when I drop from 320 feet to 12 feet above sea level. Also, I'm aware of a case where someone charged to 100% at the top of Stevens Pass in WA, and reported that the car wouldn't regenerate until after the steepest part of the decent was over. At 60 mph, the steep part of the decent normally adds about one bar to the capacity meter. 1400 feet in about 4.5 miles.

In short, I see no concern for the return trip.

ElmLeaf said:

Thanks for the help!

Another question:

I travel about 60 miles and gain 3500 feet in elevation to spend the night at a cabin in the Rockies. I start out with 100% charge and the Leaf is at 15% charge upon my arrival at the cabin. I plan to return the following day, descending the 3500 feet over 60 miles. If I charge to 80% that night, will I overcharge or overheat the battery on the way down the mountain? Should I terminate the charge at 50% or so? The bottom line question is, can I harm the battery with an overcharge the battery on a prolonged downhill trip?

Click to expand...

Sounds like he already has made the trip! No, you cannot harm the battery. If you like regen braking going downhill then you probably want to go down in ECO to maximize it, and if you find that your regen bubbles start the vanish (the double-bubbles to the left become single-bubbles) at some point on the return then perhaps next time leave a little less charge in the vehicle to give you more regen room.

Thanks for the info. Yes, I have made the trip, and arrived safely at the top of the excursion. I did turn off the AC and was conservative in my speed on the way up. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a problem with regen charging on the trip down, but that doesn't seem to be the case. After a bit more driving about town near the cabin prior to recharging, I received a low battery warning. Nothing like finding the limits, eh?