eyedrop said:
Is it possible to buy the 20amp EVSE upgrade and charge off a 110v 20amp circuit, setting the EVSE to draw 16 amps? According to my calculations, this would yield 1.9Kw. A nice little boost over standard 12A. Its easy to find 110v 20A circuits at businesses with outdoor outlets...
Its unfortunate the EVSE upgrade has a max of 20A. I wonder if they are working on a 30A version for the future? Is there a portable charging chord capable of 30A? Looks like the best Ill get with 20A is 4.8 Kwh... Which is reasonable. But in the future with higher capacity batteries, these slower L2 chargers would take eternity to charge a battery to full.
I noticed you've been sloppy with units, sometimes getting them right and sometimes not. For the above 20 amp case, you meant 4.8 kW.
kW and kWh are very different metrics. It's the same as confusing gallons with horsepower. Think of kW = horsepower, kWh = gallons. kW is a rate.
If one charges at 1 kW (or 1000 watts) for 6 hours, 6 kWh came out of the wall. If it's at 6 kW for 1 hour, it's also 6 kWh. If it's 1 watt for 6000 hours, it's also 6 kWh.
One pays for electricity at home in cents per kWh. There are a few utilities w/residential plans where they not only bill per kWh but also have demand charges, but that's rare and complicates calculations. (Demand charges aren't unusual on many commercial plans.)
24 kWh Leaf has ~21 kWh usable battery but since charging isn't 100% efficient, it takes more than 21 kWh out of the wall to fully charge a dead Leaf. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=155305#p155305 has some figures, but it was before the '13+ Leaf w/optional 6 kW on-board charger.
(BTW, 1 hp = ~0.746 kW and 1 gallon of gasoline=33.7 kWh per many .gov sites.)
As for "Is there a portable charging chord capable of 30A?", sure:
http://shop.quickchargepower.com/JESLA-is-THE-40-amp-J1772-portable-charging-solution-JESLA.htm
Search the below for ones that are 30+ amps and mention plug:
https://store.clippercreek.com/level2/level2-20-to-32
https://store.clippercreek.com/level2/level2-40-to-80
It looks like you've been ignoring several people's questions abot the max wattage of your on-board charger, as THAT can be the limiting factor. What model year and trim do you have?
It is important to understand what I pointed to at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14728&p=332668#p332668.
If you have only the 3.x kW OBC, then level 2 EVSEs above 16 amps at 240 volts will NOT help you.