Florida

[Weatherman]

Yes, I have looked at the CarWings data, and my impressions are:


1) Energy use estimates (miles/kWh) are too generous

I'm not sure how the numbers are derived, but I've calculated my use at 3.5 miles/kWh with my Schneider EVSE. The L1 EVSE was even worse, at 3.1 miles/kWh. CarWings thinks I'm getting 4.1 miles/kWh. My guess is that CarWings doesn't try to account for energy lost in charging the car and only tries to calculate energy taken out of the battery when the car is used. I'm not too surprised I rank high on CarWings energy efficiency tally. I don't drive slow, but I still get passed by about 75% of the people on the road (most people drive as if they don't care how much they spend on gasoline).


2) Miles driven are off

My daily, round trip commute is 39 miles. I'm very certain of that. CarWings thinks I only drive 38 miles. I have no idea where that extra mile disappeared to.


3) CarWings doesn't update information on weekends and holidays

I didn't know that computers took weekends off (and I certainly hope the data isn't entered by hand), but I never see updates to the information on weekends or holidays. It only updates during the week. Over the Christmas and New Years weekends, five days past before the information was updated. I guess the computer got both the Friday, before, and the Monday, after, off.


I got 51.5 mpg in my 2007 Prius, so I already know all the tricks. CarWings is more of a curiosity to me than anything else, and I won't miss it when the three-year subscription expires.

 

[N1ghtrider]

Has anyone taken an in depth look at their CarWings data online?

There is quite a lot of info there! I have driven 600 miles on $13 of Electricity averaging 4.2miles/KWh. I have not been driving with much concern for Energy Economy (A/C is a necessity in South Florida) and I am already ranked Gold!

I have 800 miles on my Leaf and have averaged 5.2M/kWh (Platinum ranking) I guess I understand how a few have unusually high mileage over 5 or 10 miles, but I can't figure out how the world leaders (many in USA) have 7.5-8.4M/kWh over hundreds of miles.

 

[N1ghtrider]

Alright, so far we have the following for the 1/14 meet-up in Delray...

Confirmed:

• LTLFTcomposite
• spike09 (needs charge)
• N1ghtrider (needs charge)
• BrainDonor

Unconfirmed (yet):

• Brightonuk
• Weatherman
• keydiver
• Now7grandkids

Unable to make it (this time):

• evenoelle

Any others?

I just emailed David (the Gold Coast EAA Chapter president). We are welcome to attend their meeting. It starts at 10am at the Delray Beach Community Center (50 NW 1st Ave). Since they are a rather technical group the discussion will be about building chargers for their EV conversion cars. At the end of the meeting they go over to the Banker's Row parking lot 2 blocks away to look at the cars. The 3 free charging stations are located at this parking lot. It would be best for everyone to meet at the Community Center first. It is OK to arrive at the end of the meeting if you just want to show off your car. They have not seen the Leaf up close yet, so I am sure there would be a lot of interest.

Do we have any agenda for Saturday's meeting, or are we pretty much going to be standing around and looking at each other's Leafs? I am looking forward to attending either way, in large part to accomplish my longest distance drive away from the comfort of my home charger. I will be happy to bring donuts for our crew.

 

[evenoelle]

Was looking at the Plugshare app on my iPhone yesterday and saw a few more chargers pop up in Miami. Since we live within walking distance of Baptist Hospital, we went over to check it out. The good news? They do indeed have a working charger there. The bad news? It's situated near a parking space that is not dedicated to EVs so there was a nasty air polluting gas guzzling car in the space. We checked to see if we could pull the cord far enough if we double parked but to no avail. I guess it's a start.

 

[Brightonuk]

Do we have any agenda for Saturday's meeting, or are we pretty much going to be standing around and looking at each other's Leafs? I am looking forward to attending either way, in large part to accomplish my longest distance drive away from the comfort of my home charger. I will be happy to bring donuts for our crew.

I think the first meeting is just to put a face to everyone’s handle.
As I have done some mods to my Leaf, I will be happy to explain how I did them. I think future meetings we can offer clinics if anyone wants to attempt something they see on mine or do on theirs, most of my mods are P&P (Except the speaker upgrade and HID upgrade) all fairly easy and can be done on site.

 

[spike09]

Did anyone else tint their windows (besides Brightonuk - I remember that he did 30%/20%)? My husband is taking mine to get it done but I have to tell him beforehand what percentages to do. I was thinking 35% on all the windows to eliminate the different tints on the fronts vs. the back windows but was wondering what everyone else did.

Just got mine tinted 20% all around. Legal is 15% on rear and 28% on front. If I get caught I will need to lighten up the front windows to 28%. I am using Chachy's Auto Tint, the same local shop who did my last tint a few years back. Thet did a good job and they only charge $65 for premium tint with a 5 year warranty.

 

[Brightonuk]

Hello fellow south Florida LEAF owners! I just joined the site today (well, I guess "yesterday" would be correct now), but have enjoyed reading posts in some of the forums during the past few months while awaiting delivery of my EV.

Welcome to our growing tribe of LEAFs in the wild in South Florida.

So far we have the following for our get-together on the 1/14. Keydiver and Weatherman, we need a thumbs up/down from you... ;-)

Confirmed:

• LTLFTcomposite
• spike09 (needs charge)
• N1ghtrider (needs charge)
• BrainDonor
• Brightonuk (needs charge)
• JupiterLEAF (may need a charge)

Unconfirmed (yet):

• keydiver (probable)
• Weatherman

Unable to make it (this time):

• evenoelle
• Now7grandkids

Spike, can you check with our new friends at the Gold Coast EAA to see what their charging needs/policies are? I'm sure they want to meet us, but we shouldn't monopolize the charging stations. Perhaps we should take N1ghtrider's lead and join the chapter. Thanks!

How many do we as of today is Weatherman and Keydriver going to meet?
Any others??

 

[Weatherman]

I won't be able to make it this weekend.

My job frequently requires me to work on the weekends, and I never know more than a few days in advance whether I'm going to have a Saturday or Sunday off (which is why I've been slow to respond). Just found out today I'm working on January 14th and 15th.

 

[keydiver]

I will be there.

 

[BrainDonor]

I will be there.

Excellent, so our roster looks like...

Confirmed:

• LTLFTcomposite
• spike09 (needs charge)
• N1ghtrider (needs charge)
• BrainDonor
• Brightonuk (needs charge)
• JupiterLEAF (may need a charge)
• keydiver (may need a charge)

Unable to make it (this time):

• evenoelle
• Now7grandkids
• Weatherman

Spike, I think we should check with the Gold Coast EAA folks to make sure that those who need juice can share the chargers. Thanks!

 

[Brightonuk]

Wow seven..... one more and we can have a game of Polo :lol:

 

[evenoelle]

The Nissan Drive Electric Tour is coming through Miami at the end of the month...

https://drivenissanleaf.com/Event/EventDetails.aspx?eid=27

Might be fun to drive over there

 

[BrainDonor]

The Nissan Drive Electric Tour is coming through Miami at the end of the month...

https://drivenissanleaf.com/Event/EventDetails.aspx?eid=27

Might be fun to drive over there

Sounds like a good excuse for our 2nd meet-up, this time in Miami Beach. ;-)

 

[Brightonuk]

We can ask the reps lots of questions then correct them when they offer some inaccurate reply.

I was hoping Nissan would offer something the 7-10 owners here in South Florida to show up, you would think having real world drivers would be a +

If people had questions we could offer honest answers (That is if Nissan feel that their product is everything they say it is)

 

[evenoelle]

We can ask the reps lots of questions then correct them when they offer some inaccurate reply.

I was hoping Nissan would offer something the 7-10 owners here in South Florida to show up, you would think having real world drivers would be a +

If people had questions we could offer honest answers (That is if Nissan feel that their product is everything they say it is)

They did in San Diego...
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6041

 

[Weatherman]

We can ask the reps lots of questions then correct them when they offer some inaccurate reply.

I was hoping Nissan would offer something the 7-10 owners here in South Florida to show up, you would think having real world drivers would be a +

If people had questions we could offer honest answers (That is if Nissan feel that their product is everything they say it is)

They did in San Diego...
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6041

I wonder if there's a way to contact a representative for the Drive Electric Tour and offer to be ambassadors for their product. I would think they would want real, live South Florida LEAF owners to show how wonderful the car is.

 

[spike09]

The Nissan Drive Electric Tour is coming through Miami at the end of the month...

https://drivenissanleaf.com/Event/EventDetails.aspx?eid=27

Might be fun to drive over there

Sounds like a good excuse for our 2nd meet-up, this time in Miami Beach. ;-)

Definetly

 

[spike09]

I will be there.

Excellent, so our roster looks like...

Confirmed:

• LTLFTcomposite
• spike09 (needs charge)
• N1ghtrider (needs charge)
• BrainDonor
• Brightonuk (needs charge)
• JupiterLEAF (may need a charge)
• keydiver (may need a charge)

Unable to make it (this time):

• evenoelle
• Now7grandkids
• Weatherman

Spike, I think we should check with the Gold Coast EAA folks to make sure that those who need juice can share the chargers. Thanks!

No problem. They understand some people need power to get home and give them priority. They normally show up a little early at the Dunkin Donuts is across the street.

 

[spike09]

Here is the Gold Coast EEA email invite:

There will be a Gold Coast EAA Meeting on Saturday January 14 2012 at 10 AM.

We will meet at the Delray Beach Community Center, at 50 NW 1st Ave., 33444,

continuing our same tradition and routine of meeting for 2 hours, from 10am to noon.

The Banker's Row Parking Lot charging stations are on the northwest corner of the intersection of NE 1st Ave. & NE 2nd St.

We will be continuing discussions about the charger project we started last month. I will present some thoughts and look for people with specific interests.

We started a web page for the project http://osevproject.com/index.php/fo...s/3-gold-coast-eaa-high-power-charger-project.

Several Leaf owners will be bring their cars so we can get some firsthand information on them.

There will be time for general discussion at the end.


Photos of Festival Flea Market Car Show are on the web page at http://www.goldcoasteaa.org. There is a link for photos of all the cars even gas ones at the bottom of the photos.


I have added a group of construction and safety documents for conversions to the left menu. Take a few minutes and look through them.


There is also an event getting set up in Tampa Bay February 21-23. They would like vehicles and people. They hinted they may help with hotel costs and vehicle transportation.



David Kerzel

 

[N1ghtrider]

I joined the EAA and paid my dues (with a bonus to the Gold Coast Chapter) , so I don't feel hesitant to come early and plug in. I will bring the donuts.