Upcoming 98 mile round trip with wife and baby -- insane??

[planet4ever]

What I didn't do was think that through very well, or check that the car was still charging before I unplugged.

Is there any reason to think that the car was not charging when you unplugged? Is it because of the low SOC (i.e., 1 bar visible) or you had less SOC than assumed when charging started?

Assuming 3.3 kW going into the battery from the charger I should have gained 2.5 kWh in 45 minutes. If, as is commonly believed, each bar is 1.5 kWh, I should have gained 1 2/3 bars. Hysteresis would explain no more than 1 1/2 bar gain with no new bar showing up. But the real reason I suspect a charging problem is that I assume the 'Low Battery' warning will always appear at the same state of charge. It appeared three miles before I charged and again two miles after I charged, so I believe I got only five miles of charge. That was at 45 mph before and 45 to 55 mph after. Five miles on 2.5 kWh would be only 2 m/kWh.

I have a theory for what might have happened. As I said, I parked next to a new LEAF where the specialist was going though the whole training process with the new owner. The new LEAF was actually parked at the AV station. With permission, I pulled the cable over to my car and plugged in. It is possible that, some time after we went inside, the specialist disconnected me for a bit so the new owner could practice plugging in. He didn't know, of course, that I had defined a timer which would have reactivated itself as soon as he disconnected me. He could well have been too focused on the new owner to notice that charging didn't resume when he plugged me back in. (I'm ignoring two other possibilities which would cast his hypothetical action in a more negative light: (a) He might not have known enough himself to recognize that charging failed to resume. (b) He might have realized there was a problem, but failed to do anything to contact me about it.)

Ray

 

[derkraut]

I think some of you people need ceiling fans in your car if your driving with the AC on so low

I avg. 120 per charge in Phx where the avg. outside temp is 110 doing the summer..I keep the AC set @ 79 and I feel very comfortable with it set there...

Humidity levels play a large difference in how high you can set the AC and still feel comfortable. Phoenix where the humidity is low - 20-30% - high 70s is probably OK. Out here near the coast where the humidity is usually 70%+ you need to run the temperature a lot lower to feel comfortable.

I live in San Diego, about 7 miles inland; and I usually set my AC @ 77-78 degrees. It seems very comfortable @ that setting. I must disclose, however, that my spouse likes it warm. In fact, she likes to just run the fan, and crack the rear windows about an inch.

 

[JohnnySebring]

This is where the text notification of "Charging Stopped" is a good thing. I foiled work place pranks and caught other disconnects (breaker tripped) while charging at work with this feature.

What I didn't do was think that through very well, or check that the car was still charging before I unplugged.

Is there any reason to think that the car was not charging when you unplugged? Is it because of the low SOC (i.e., 1 bar visible) or you had less SOC than assumed when charging started?

Assuming 3.3 kW going into the battery from the charger I should have gained 2.5 kWh in 45 minutes. If, as is commonly believed, each bar is 1.5 kWh, I should have gained 1 2/3 bars. Hysteresis would explain no more than 1 1/2 bar gain with no new bar showing up. But the real reason I suspect a charging problem is that I assume the 'Low Battery' warning will always appear at the same state of charge. It appeared three miles before I charged and again two miles after I charged, so I believe I got only five miles of charge. That was at 45 mph before and 45 to 55 mph after. Five miles on 2.5 kWh would be only 2 m/kWh.

I have a theory for what might have happened. As I said, I parked next to a new LEAF where the specialist was going though the whole training process with the new owner. The new LEAF was actually parked at the AV station. With permission, I pulled the cable over to my car and plugged in. It is possible that, some time after we went inside, the specialist disconnected me for a bit so the new owner could practice plugging in. He didn't know, of course, that I had defined a timer which would have reactivated itself as soon as he disconnected me. He could well have been too focused on the new owner to notice that charging didn't resume when he plugged me back in. (I'm ignoring two other possibilities which would cast his hypothetical action in a more negative light: (a) He might not have known enough himself to recognize that charging failed to resume. (b) He might have realized there was a problem, but failed to do anything to contact me about it.)

Ray

 

[johnr]

This is where the text notification of "Charging Stopped" is a good thing. I foiled work place pranks and caught other disconnects (breaker tripped) while charging at work with this feature.

But how do you get this notification? I've tried, I even activated every notification in carwings, and it still would not tell me when charging stopped.

 

[DaveEV]

This is where the text notification of "Charging Stopped" is a good thing. I foiled work place pranks and caught other disconnects (breaker tripped) while charging at work with this feature.

But how do you get this notification? I've tried, I even activated every notification in carwings, and it still would not tell me when charging stopped.

It has to be enabled both in the car and on the website.

 

[LEAFer]

These personal tales are instructive. Thank you.

And I am not talking about the technical stuff ... I am talking about "how to handle the spouse unit" (Did TonyWilliams coin that term?). Is that unit also carbon based ? From Venus ? :lol:

Slow down a little, you'll get there faster ... if that's what you want. And if you bring the spouse unit, you'll be married longer. ( If that's what you want. )

 

[hill]

Our Orange County to Sand Diego County trip this last week end was 150 miles R.T. - and when we left Del Mar (120v charging for several hours - down to under 20%) to head back home that evening (all Nissan dealers closed), we were only back up to a 69% charge! Still had 8 miles left, with the low battery light just coming on when we got home. Deliberately running on e fumes can be nerve racking for some ... but after 4 months of driving - you kind of get a feel for what you can /can't do.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Deliberately running on e fumes can be nerve racking for some ... but after 4 months of driving - you kind of get a feel for what you can /can't do.

Exactly why I ran the car to turtle 3 times in a row (and once earlier, for a total of 4).

I was driving with my spouse unit and two munchkins from downtown SD last night. I have the Guess-O-Meter covered with a sticker, in part, so she isn't constantly second guessing the actual range.

The warning popped up that said "unable destination" (or something like that), and of course, she was immediately into an ePanic. I kept the speed at 70 mph on the freeway, knowing that I'd be lucky to even hit "Battery Low". We did, with about 3 miles to go. I just showed her my hard earned data (two of my turtle modes required a bit of towing) that said I could make 10 more miles at the same speed, or as many as 22 with some herculean efforts.

She's getting more comfortable with verifiable data (and the fact that I don't get very excited about it any more, either).

 

[Herm]

She is very impressed with your E skills

maybe..

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

She is very impressed with your E skills

maybe..

But you'll notice she does emit green house gasses on occasion, probably still worth keeping though...
G

 

[planet4ever]

It is possible that, some time after we went inside, the specialist disconnected me for a bit so the new owner could practice plugging in. He didn't know, of course, that I had defined a timer which would have reactivated itself as soon as he disconnected me.

This is where the text notification of "Charging Stopped" is a good thing. I foiled work place pranks and caught other disconnects (breaker tripped) while charging at work with this feature.

Ah, good point. I suppose one of these days I'll have to join the 21st century. My wife and I are both well past 70, and we don't text, so our cell phone plan doesn't include text messages. Yes, we can receive them, but they cost $0.25 apiece, so I wouldn't want the LEAF sending them on a regular basis. And, no, of course we can't access the internet from our cell phones.

In the future I believe I will go into the timer menu and turn off the timers when charging away from home. It's a bit more work than pushing the override button, but I can see now that it will be more reliable. Over on another thread Ingineer (Phil) had a good suggestion for Nissan. Since the nav unit knows where the car is, why can't we define timers that apply only when we are at home?

Ray

 

[mark13]

Sorry,I never think about the humidity factor when comes to cooling a car ..August is normally the only month I really feel the humidity..
It will be interesting to see how people do with their trips fall..

Im currently at 4500 miles and avg. 5.7 KW @ the dash in Phx AZ..