Greetings from Ottawa - last 2017 Leaf S in Canada

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marcelg

Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2017
Messages
21
Location
Ottawa, ON
Hi there,

I just leased what is probably the last 2017 Leaf S in Canada. The dealer had to have it shipped from Winnipeg. That's their story at least. I'm planning on using the 120V charger for the time being, and maybe adding a proper charger when we upgrade our home's electrical panel from 60 amps to 100 amps.

I would've like to have waited for the 2018 Leaf, but my former vehicle (X-Trail) needed brakes, a tie rod, the AC was shot, and maybe was getting a hole in the exhaust. Among other things.

Question re the climate timer in the winter: will it work when plugged into a 120V outlet? What temperature does the car set the cabin to?

cheers,
Marcel
 
The climate control should work plugged into a L1-120V, but it won't work well in ON. In deep winter, 1200 W (hair drying) isn't much heat.
 
Reddy said:
The climate control should work plugged into a L1-120V, but it won't work well in ON. In deep winter, 1200 W (hair drying) isn't much heat.

Ok, thanks. That should be fine for me, most of my weekday trips are under 15km, so even if the pre-heating uses some of the battery, I'll still be fine.

Do you know what the default temperature setting is for the climate control timer? It doesn't seem to say in the manual.
 
Reddy said:
The climate control should work plugged into a L1-120V, but it won't work well in ON. In deep winter, 1200 W (hair drying) isn't much heat.

Incorrect. The heater should draw as much as it needs, with the rest coming from the pack. I would definitely worry about the S's range in Winter, though. Not in frigid weather- that will be the same as the heatpump-equipped cars. But in mild weather it will use almost as much juice as it does in frigid. What is your commute length, and the longest trips you plan to take with the car?

The charging cable that comes with the car (called an EVSE, because the charger is actually inside the car) may not be able to add enough charge for daily trips in frigid weather. Again, it will depend on how much you drive.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Incorrect. The heater should draw as much as it needs, with the rest coming from the pack. I would definitely worry about the S's range in Winter, though. Not in frigid weather- that will be the same as the heatpump-equipped cars. But in mild weather it will use almost as much juice as it does in frigid. What is your commute length, and the longest trips you plan to take with the car?

The charging cable that comes with the car (called an EVSE, because the charger is actually inside the car) may not be able to add enough charge for daily trips in frigid weather. Again, it will depend on how much you drive.

Thanks for the info. This should be fine. I work from home, so most trips are short and not every day. Going to hockey, swimming, groceries, dropping my wife off at work, taking a kid to the dentist, are all between 2km-20km round trips generally. Weekends we might need longer drives to do multiple errands, but even then it's usually less than 100km. And there are a few free Level 2 chargers scattered around the city.

I was mainly thinking about using the climate timer to defrost the car ahead of time on early mornings when going to hockey. With the heated seats and steering wheel, I'm hoping we can probably keep the cabin temperature down to 15C or even less.

Here's how I'm calculating it: Looking at the LEAF range chart, for the rare occasions it's -20C (basically worst case), I should lose about 20% of my range, and for my normal city driving that's currently 7.7km/kwh, so I'd end up with ~150km. Using the cabin heater set to 10-15C + seat heater might use another 2-3kwh? So range ends up roughly 130km-140km, and my trips are usually 15km or less, so I'll probably be ok.

cheers,
Marcel
 
Reddy said:
marcelg said:
Do you know what the default temperature setting is for the climate control timer? It doesn't seem to say in the manual.
I think it's 77F.

Ok thanks. That's pretty warm. Maybe I'll set the climate timer so that it'll be half warmed up at the time that I want to leave...

cheers,
Marcel
 
LeftieBiker said:
in mild weather it will use almost as much juice as it does in frigid. What is your commute length, and the longest trips you plan to take with the car?

If you live in a cold enough climate (say, Winnipeg, with average high of -9C for Dec/Jan/Feb), then the heat-pump becomes less of a requirement: it is too cold for the heat pump to operate, so you need to buy an EV which has enough range to meet all your needs... at -15C. The extra range in spring/fall becomes a "nice to have." I think the "must have" locations for heat-pump would be those with the longest heating seasons, but fewest "squeaky snow" days. Maybe London, where you heat the car 10 months of the year, but rarely see freezing temps, would have the biggest energy savings, and you can plan your daily transport around having those extra KMs of capacity.
 
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