heat while plugged in level2 in 2013 S

[BrockWI]

I just got my level 2 evse in last night and it is nice While it was charging I jumped in and turned the heater on and it worked great, nice and warm.

So this morning, it was fully charged, my wife had to run and pick up one of our boys so I "started" it still plugged in and turned the heat to 80F with re-circ on and fan about 1/2 way. Well 10 minutes later I checked the "TED" and it said there was no power flowing to the evse and I thought, hummmm it is already up to 80F, went out and hopped in to find and it was blowing cold air and the cabin wasn't warmer than outside. I then unplugged the car and did the same thing leaving it in park and it started to warm up right away. She ran her errand, and when she got home plugged it back in and I went out and started the heater again, charging at 77% (set to 80%) and sure enough it was blowing warm air.

So my question is, does the heater only work while the car is "charging" even though it is plugged in? Do I have to unplug it to manually start the heater or re-set the charger to 100% while plugged in to start the charging process again so the heater works?

Yes I know I could use the climate control timer, but on the weekends we never know when we are going to run out for an errand, usually to run the kids somewhere or pick them up.

 

[dgpcolorado]

...So my question is, does the heater only work while the car is "charging" even though it is plugged in? Do I have to unplug it to manually start the heater or re-set the charger to 100% while plugged in to start the charging process again so the heater works?

Yes I know I could use the climate control timer, but on the weekends we never know when we are going to run out for an errand, usually to run the kids somewhere or pick them up.

From reports of others, the car does need to be charging for the heater to run when you turn it on:

while charging, power up the car with brake +pwr, then on the climate console press the "auto" button. you can watch this working on the power consumption screen.
You can adjust the desired temperature, but if you adjust anything else (like turning off the AC even though it is freezing outside), air will circulate, but you will not get heat.
the power draw will be limited to the level of charger you are plugged into.

the only time i saw this NOT work is when my charge was at zero bars. I was at a chademo charger and i couldn't get the auto function to give me heat until i had 2 bars.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=11006&start=12

Apparently you can spoof a charge and get it to work from this experience:

Yes, you can actually start the climate control while plugged in. Although its finicky. Simply plug it in, hit charge timer off (if at full charge) and get some blinky blue lights going.

Next, hold the brake, push start, and hit auto. Check energy usage to make sure it went on.

Caution: the harmless, yet startling, to 100% charge time bug causes either the L1 or L2 to increment out of control. Depends on what you are plugged into. Likely due to unplugging the car with it on.

In regards to climate control power consumption, it limits it to your maximum EVSE wattage. Level 1 warms up at around 1KW, level 2 at 3KW. It will never, ever exceed, unless you preheat on battery, which means 6kw is possible!!

Also, with a level 2 preheat, your battery will recharge worse than level 1 until if and when it hits temperature...which is difficult at low temps. I have had a leaf hit good temps at 30F even with level 1, but you need a good half hour!

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=6861&start=18


Try playing around with that to see if you can get it to work. As an experiment, try unplugging the EVSE then putting it back in again. That should get a brief charge session going. Then turn the car and CC system on. Even if the car stops charging immediately the heater might stay on. Just guessing though.

 

[Roadburner440]

The question is this.. did you go out, get in the car, push the start button while the car was plugged in, and then turn the heater on? Cause if you did no power will flow from the EVSE to the car, and the car will give you the "Car is plugged in" message. Also power will be unavailable from the HV battery to run anything. Which is why there is no power steering available at that time, and if you try to put the car in gear it will just default to N and will roll down hill if it is on one. There would also be no power available from the HV battery to run the heater either.

I know having a S model you do not have a lot of the things the rest of us have to preheat. So not really sure how else you would do it other than unplugging the car, and turning it on to run the heat. Cause that is pretty much the only thing that I use the Nissan app for is pre-heating/cooling the car down and checking my charge status. Hopefully another more experienced S owner can chime in with what you can do.. but the above is the technical reason why your heater was not on. Not a defect with the car. It just isolates the HV battery while it is plugged in to avoid damage to you, the car, and the charger when trying to do it that way.

 

[BrockWI]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

So I did it a couple of times to be sure. All I have to do is hit the charge timer overide button (since the battery is full) and then turn the car on and while it is still deciding if the battery is full, then turn the heat on and shortly there after the charger decides it is full and shuts off, but by then I have the heat up and running and it stays running.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

 

[dgpcolorado]

^ A useful trick to know!

 

[jpadc]

So I did it a couple of times to be sure. All I have to do is hit the charge timer overide button (since the battery is full) and then turn the car on and while it is still deciding if the battery is full, then turn the heat on and shortly there after the charger decides it is full and shuts off, but by then I have the heat up and running and it stays running.

Thread revival!

This is my first post, but I've been reading stuff here for a few months now. I recently purchased a 2013 S and now that it has turned very cold (-4 this morning in Indy) I've wanted to get this to work. The climate timer is great, but for just a couple of months to come, some mornings I'll leave at 6:40 am and other days it will be 7:40 am (sadly an easy scenario if I had the SL or SV) so I want to get the heater back on on the days I leave at 7:40. This method, forcing the car to immediate charge (even though it finished at 6 am by timer), works great. This was helpful so thanks to the original owner who discover this method for us S owners. I could not seem in my search to correctly identify said person, but we are all grateful.

 

[BrockWI]

This is my favorite trick It's been below 0F every morning this week.

One of the other things when I did try using the climate control timer it doesn't get that warm. Yes it is warm and the coolant is warm when you start, but when you can hit the re-circulation button and set it for 90 it get a lot warmer in the car in just 10 minutes. We also vary the time we leave by 30 minutes or so, so just manually turning it on has been easy enough.