bocaspbx said:I also installed a L2 station (Clipper Creek HCS-40, 32A) last week for my 22 day old leaf and I can hear the same high humming sound.
I found a youtube video of a 2013 doing the exact same thing. It does sound like a fan (cooling maybe?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKGXzWLNmqs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Awesome find! Mine is exactly the same. Listening carefully, I can hear the distinct sound of the little diaphram pump for the coolant separately from the charger whine. Hopefully if others stumble across this thread it will give them some peace of mind.
hill said:6.6? is this new? I thought the newer leafs charged at 6 kW's
Nissan quotes it at 6.6kw (for the SV and SL models, S is 3.3kw). 240v @6.6kw is 27.5amps which is about what I saw when I tested it at the panel. Since chargers run at ~85% efficency, the remaining 15% or ~990 watts is going to heat. That's the equivalent of one of those cheap ceramic heaters people use to heat a room. 990whr is 3378btu which is a BUNCH of heat. Good news is my garage is insulated and holds heat pretty well so it will be nice and toasty leaving in the morning (summer time might get charged outside).
http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/leaf/versions-specs/version.sv.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Here is an interesting study on charging efficiency.
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/posting.php?mode=quote&f=30&p=395583" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
johnrhansen said:well, yes this is a way an evse would make a difference. If you plug in a 30 amp EVSE, obviously the charger in the car is going to make more noise and heat than when it is connected to a 20amp EVSE. It is working harder! Doesn't mean the amount of heat put out at full charging power is not normal.
Yeah the heat didn't surprise me, it was the noise. Since it didn't start making the noise until after it got hot, it turned into one of those paranoia things. I think after the inlaws visit next weekend, my next project is going to be an openevse build so I can dial the power down for most days and have the option to step up the power if I want. I'm still kind of surprised the clipper creek evse came with 10ga wire (when it calls for a 40 amp breaker and sustains almost 30 for hours). But they broke a hammer and a bat over one so I'm assuming they've load tested it. Would love to see them wire up a TIG welder and weld some 1/2in aluminium through it as another torture test!!