The official "I got my Leaf" thread
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EdmondLeaf
Well-known member
congrats, great Christmas gift, can you share your lease deal?
Picked up my 2012 Silver SL (leased) today. Had to drive about 50 miles to get home, and even though I did not use the heat (30F outside...just used seat and steering wheel heat), and went to ECO mode after 15 miles or so, I did not make 50 miles before only one bar. Stopped at a charging station for about 15 minutes to be sure I would get those last 4 miles home.
Then I found out I could not make the trickle charger work on ANY GFCI outlet in our house...would trip the GFCI as soon as the charger kicked in. Ran a cord to inside of the house not GFCI protected (with door cracked open to the cold outside) to get it to work. Pretty frustrating and a bit of a letdown on my "new car day."
Found in the forums that older GFCIs might be to touchy, so ran down and picked up a new one...replaced the one in the garage, and it tripped when the charger started!!! But I reset the GFCI, and it seems to be holding. Whew!
Electrician has already submitted bid to firm who will handle installing the charging station (GE Wattstation was highest power one they carried). That whole thing (up to $2500) will be paid by our local electric company. They will add a second meter with the charger on the time of day rate, to get me to $.04/kWh at night, but rest of house on the regular meter without the time of day rate. That will likely take another week or two, but at least I can charge slowly at home for now.
My workplace has a 120VAC outlet for me for now, with a charging station installation happening in the spring
I really hope this 120V outlet's GFCI is not touchy!
So, love the car...had even put the $99 reservation in, and planned to wait until the MY13 for the heat pump heater improvement, but this lease deal may not be there, and was too good to pass up. Fuel savings will be about $180/month including electricity cost.
Busy mixed emotions day! But LOVE the ride! Getting many looks...not many Leafs around here yet.
Matt
Then I found out I could not make the trickle charger work on ANY GFCI outlet in our house...would trip the GFCI as soon as the charger kicked in. Ran a cord to inside of the house not GFCI protected (with door cracked open to the cold outside) to get it to work. Pretty frustrating and a bit of a letdown on my "new car day."
Found in the forums that older GFCIs might be to touchy, so ran down and picked up a new one...replaced the one in the garage, and it tripped when the charger started!!! But I reset the GFCI, and it seems to be holding. Whew!
Electrician has already submitted bid to firm who will handle installing the charging station (GE Wattstation was highest power one they carried). That whole thing (up to $2500) will be paid by our local electric company. They will add a second meter with the charger on the time of day rate, to get me to $.04/kWh at night, but rest of house on the regular meter without the time of day rate. That will likely take another week or two, but at least I can charge slowly at home for now.
My workplace has a 120VAC outlet for me for now, with a charging station installation happening in the spring
I really hope this 120V outlet's GFCI is not touchy!So, love the car...had even put the $99 reservation in, and planned to wait until the MY13 for the heat pump heater improvement, but this lease deal may not be there, and was too good to pass up. Fuel savings will be about $180/month including electricity cost.
Busy mixed emotions day! But LOVE the ride! Getting many looks...not many Leafs around here yet.
Matt
LEAFer
Well-known member
Congratulations !500VDC said:
And WHERE would that be ?
Congratulations !
And WHERE would that be ?
West Michigan - Muskegon area. Several Chargepoint stations around town, but none in Grand Haven, just south of here. I commute to Holland, which also has many free stations around town (2 Li-Ion battery plants in town).
I have only seen a Leaf once around here, but occasionally see one on my way to Holland (found out that one owned by Holland Nissan dealer salesperson).
dgpcolorado
Well-known member
With experience your driving efficiency will improve and getting down to only one bar on the fuel gauge is no big deal because you have about one and a half hidden bars. The Low Battery Warning is at 17% charge, for example. If you haven't already done so, please take a look at Tony William's Range Chart. (Given that it is winter, note the temperature adjustments in the footnotes. And be cautious when driving in snow until you get some experience with how it affects your range.)500VDC said:
In short order you should become comfortable with how much e-fuel it takes to make your routine trips.
Thanks for the tips, dgpcolorado. Yes, I will just have to get some miles behind me. I am pretty good at doing the "hypermile" thing in our Prius (started with 2002, then 2006 (totaled in accident) and current 2008, but my wife always got those! Pretty familiar with Li-Ion batteries (have worked on series hybrid 4x4), but just need to get used of the characteristics of the Leaf's battery management system.
My main disappointment is that I cannot keep the 120V charger going reliably at my house! The GFCI was tripping when the charger kicked in. Replaced it with a new Leviton one (not the green one...not available in the store), and it works, but last night, was tripping the new GFCI a dozen times before it held.
That makes me wonder if the outdoor outlet they will let me use at work will even function! I have a 32 mile each way commute...temps in the 20's...snow sometimes. Figure I need to plug in at work for some "insurance" to get home. Do not see much discussion on GFCI tripping...but that is the biggest problem for me. Extremely frustrated with this 120V charger for that reason.
Once my charging station gets installed, less of a problem. But, how do people "opportunity charge" at friend's houses if this setup trips GFCI's so easily?
My main disappointment is that I cannot keep the 120V charger going reliably at my house! The GFCI was tripping when the charger kicked in. Replaced it with a new Leviton one (not the green one...not available in the store), and it works, but last night, was tripping the new GFCI a dozen times before it held.
That makes me wonder if the outdoor outlet they will let me use at work will even function! I have a 32 mile each way commute...temps in the 20's...snow sometimes. Figure I need to plug in at work for some "insurance" to get home. Do not see much discussion on GFCI tripping...but that is the biggest problem for me. Extremely frustrated with this 120V charger for that reason.
Once my charging station gets installed, less of a problem. But, how do people "opportunity charge" at friend's houses if this setup trips GFCI's so easily?
dgpcolorado
Well-known member
Your experience with GFCI outlets tripping seems unusual. There are a lot of people here who use 120 V charging routinely with no such issues. I've charged at friends' houses and never had an outlet trip. So, I don't know what to suggest. Perhaps something is not quite right with your Nissan/Panasonic EVSE. If you got it upgraded by EVSE Upgrade it might be more stable when using the 120 V adapter than it is now. (But that's just a WAG.)500VDC said:
DownUnderLeaf
Well-known member
I forgot to post in this thread...
We took deliverey of our Blue LEAF here in Melbourne, Australia, on the 21st December.
Loving it. Can't hardly beleive we finally have one!!
We took deliverey of our Blue LEAF here in Melbourne, Australia, on the 21st December.
Loving it. Can't hardly beleive we finally have one!!
Publius
Well-known member
I picked up my cayenne red Leaf (SL) last night. So far I absolutely love it. I've been charging it in my driveway with the Level 1 EVSE. A GE WattStation is sitting in my kitchen waiting to be installed, but I might try to go with the Level 1 for now because I may be moving to a new house in the near future.
So far I absolutely love it. I've been charging it in my driveway with the Level 1 EVSE. A GE WattStation is sitting in my kitchen waiting to be installed, but I might try to go with the Level 1 for now because I may be moving to a new house in the near future.cwerdna
Well-known member
Not sure if you saw my other post, but I'd personally return the GE Wattstation for another make of EVSE or not use it until Nissan releases their software fix to prevent the onboard charger of the Leaf from being blown. Without it, you might be inconvenienced...Publius said:I picked up my cayenne red Leaf (SL) last night.
Some folks have blown multiple OBCs.
Publius
Well-known member
cwerdna said:Not sure if you saw my other post, but I'd personally return the GE Wattstation for another make of EVSE or not use it until Nissan releases their software fix to prevent the onboard charger of the Leaf from being blown. Without it, you might be inconvenienced...Publius said:I picked up my cayenne red Leaf (SL) last night.
Some folks have blown multiple OBCs.
I didn't until just now. Thanks for commenting again. Bummer, I picked the GE WattStation because it seems to be a good durable outdoors station that didn't look bad. I liked that the plug (that goes into the car) is protected from the elements when not in use, unlike some of the other stations that just hang the cord like the air pumps at gas stations. Maybe I'll send it back. My electrician said it's going to be more expensive to install than others because of the wire and plug required for a 40A breaker. Well, back to the drawing board... maybe I'll just wait until we move to purchase another one.
Vuman
Well-known member
Hey Publius,
I would take a look at the Simens Versicharge going for $850 on homedepot.com. It has up to 7.2kW output to future-proof your EVSE and it has flexible wiring options. It can be hardwired or it can just plug into a 240V outlet. Thus you can easily take it with you when you move.
Vuman.
I would take a look at the Simens Versicharge going for $850 on homedepot.com. It has up to 7.2kW output to future-proof your EVSE and it has flexible wiring options. It can be hardwired or it can just plug into a 240V outlet. Thus you can easily take it with you when you move.
Vuman.
cwerdna
Well-known member
Re: the Wattsation, if you haven't looked at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=7996" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, check it out. Maybe skip to the last few pages.Publius said:cwerdna said:Not sure if you saw my other post, but I'd personally return the GE Wattstation for another make of EVSE or not use it until Nissan releases their software fix to prevent the onboard charger of the Leaf from being blown. Without it, you might be inconvenienced...Publius said:I picked up my cayenne red Leaf (SL) last night.
Some folks have blown multiple OBCs.
I didn't until just now. Thanks for commenting again. Bummer, I picked the GE WattStation because it seems to be a good durable outdoors station that didn't look bad. I liked that the plug (that goes into the car) is protected from the elements when not in use, unlike some of the other stations that just hang the cord like the air pumps at gas stations. Maybe I'll send it back. My electrician said it's going to be more expensive to install than others because of the wire and plug required for a 40A breaker. Well, back to the drawing board... maybe I'll just wait until we move to purchase another one.
