Cold sucks (literally)

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

coloradoman

Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2016
Messages
20
Location
Knoxville
I use about 69% more battery when I am driving at temperatures around freezing than when I am driving at 60 degrees f. Does this seem unusual? I park my car outside and preheat before I leave. I also do mainly highway driving. The cold is sucking the life out of my battery. 2019 leaf s here. I can't even charge it enough overnight from a trickle charge to do my commute now.
 
coloradoman said:
Does this seem unusual?
Nope.

"69% more" is high in my mind, but you are parking outside so the battery end up being cold soaked. Preheating the interior doesn't help that. So the trickle charger doesn't supply enough energy to run the preheater, so you are actually using up some battery power while doing that.

(You might also want to update your user profile to include a location)
 
jlv said:
coloradoman said:
Does this seem unusual?
Nope.

"69% more" is high in my mind, but you are parking outside so the battery end up being cold soaked. Preheating the interior doesn't help that. So the trickle charger doesn't supply enough energy to run the preheater, so you are actually using up some battery power while doing that.

(You might also want to update your user profile to include a location)

(I agree with your sentiment. I guess "coloradoman" could actually be transplanted and living in North Carolina!)
 
Use heat seating and hand gloves to reduce cabin heating
Install L2 if you can. The charging problem you are running into is that L1 supplies ~ 1.1 - 1.2 kW to the car while pre-heating can use up to 5 kW. Perhaps more if the defroster is blasting although I am not sure about that point.
 
Even if you only had lowly 12 amp level 2 charging you can get at least 50 miles of range if you only leave the car parked for 7 hours.
 
A 69% reduction does seem rather extreme, I could see 69% of your summer range(31% reduction) but even in the single digits, driving through several inches of snow and a strong blizzard headwind, I only saw about a 50% reduction in my range(from a normal 70 miles to what I'd estimate a 35 mile range with a 24kWh Leaf.
Even in stop and go traffic where you'd use more heat due to a longer commute, you should come out about the same as with such slow driving your Leaf should be more efficient than going 70mph for the same distance.
Don't get me wrong, you'll see a reduction in range but anything more than 50% just doesn't make sense :?
 
Coloradoman needs to update his profile signature to show what he drives. Or at least tell us! I suspect it's a Leaf with resistance heat only - an S or a Gen I Leaf, or 2018+ SV without the All Weather Package that was sold where it shouldn't have been sold.
 
I haven't had that kind of impact at all around freezing temps. We had a few cold mornings so far this fall in the mid 20's and I park outside. The heater appears to drop my efficiency from around 4 miles per kWh to about 3.5. That's with the heater on, seats on and steering wheel on. What is that, about 13% drop in efficiency?

I DO have the all weather package on my 2018.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Coloradoman needs to update his profile signature to show what he drives. Or at least tell us! I suspect it's a Leaf with resistance heat only - an S or a Gen I Leaf, or 2018+ SV without the All Weather Package that was sold where it shouldn't have been sold.

If you notice in my original post I mentioned a 2019 leaf s. It has a resistance heater.
 
jjeff said:
A 69% reduction does seem rather extreme, I could see 69% of your summer range(31% reduction) but even in the single digits, driving through several inches of snow and a strong blizzard headwind, I only saw about a 50% reduction in my range(from a normal 70 miles to what I'd estimate a 35 mile range with a 24kWh Leaf.
Even in stop and go traffic where you'd use more heat due to a longer commute, you should come out about the same as with such slow driving your Leaf should be more efficient than going 70mph for the same distance.
Don't get me wrong, you'll see a reduction in range but anything more than 50% just doesn't make sense :?

I mentioned I use 69% more power. When I left this morning it said I had 77 miles of range. When I arrived from my 27.5 mile commute it said I have 31 miles of range left, just barely enough to make it back home. The 19 more miles used than what was predicted represents a 69% more that what it should have been.
 
gncndad said:
jlv said:
coloradoman said:
Does this seem unusual?
Nope.

"69% more" is high in my mind, but you are parking outside so the battery end up being cold soaked. Preheating the interior doesn't help that. So the trickle charger doesn't supply enough energy to run the preheater, so you are actually using up some battery power while doing that.

(You might also want to update your user profile to include a location)

(I agree with your sentiment. I guess "coloradoman" could actually be transplanted and living in North Carolina!)

Funny thing is I just recently moved from colorado to tennessee. Yep, took that colorado state subsidies and ran.
 
SageBrush said:
Use heat seating and hand gloves to reduce cabin heating
Install L2 if you can. The charging problem you are running into is that L1 supplies ~ 1.1 - 1.2 kW to the car while pre-heating can use up to 5 kW. Perhaps more if the defroster is blasting although I am not sure about that point.

I need to run that defroster or my windows will be foggy and sometimes icy. Its better to use it while its plugged than not is my thought. I use the resistance heater sparingly after that.
 
Any reason you are not installing a Lvl 2 charger?

Or plug? your Nissan charger will work as Lvl2 as long as you have a drier plug or NEMA 50 amp plug.
 
It looks like the 69% calculated power drop was derived using the Guess O Meter. That won't work. If you do want to do it that way, at least use the GOM reading after a mile or more have passed, not the reading at startup. And I did miss the "leaf s" in the original post. Using the lower case tends to make the model designation hard to spot - especially with the S. Anyway, extreme drops in state of charge from using resistance-only heat are why I don't think the S (or the SV without the All Weather Package) should be sold in colder climates. Sure, a big warning sticker would help, but with so many crooked dealerships, people would still be deceived into buying the wrong Leaf.
 
coloradoman said:
gncndad said:
jlv said:
Nope.

"69% more" is high in my mind, but you are parking outside so the battery end up being cold soaked. Preheating the interior doesn't help that. So the trickle charger doesn't supply enough energy to run the preheater, so you are actually using up some battery power while doing that.

(You might also want to update your user profile to include a location)

(I agree with your sentiment. I guess "coloradoman" could actually be transplanted and living in North Carolina!)

Funny thing is I just recently moved from colorado to tennessee. Yep, took that colorado state subsidies and ran.

FUNNIER thing: you still didn't add your update your user profile to include a location. It really does help clarify some issues.
 
coloradoman said:
I use about 69% more battery when I am driving at temperatures around freezing than when I am driving at 60 degrees f. Does this seem unusual? I park my car outside and preheat before I leave. I also do mainly highway driving. The cold is sucking the life out of my battery. 2019 leaf s here. I can't even charge it enough overnight from a trickle charge to do my commute now.

Yeah trickle charging, parking outside, its bam bam bam...

Its all normal. Get a real charger. Sounds like preheating might have to go. That really sucks in super cold climates. I am guessing any more bundling and you won't get your arms close enough to grab each side of the steering wheel.

WTF...You live in TN, preheat and complain you don't have the range to make it to work? STOP PREHEATING. I know it gets cold there but not that cold. I don't preheat and yeah, my car gets into the 40's and lower but I never found preheating to be enough of a benefit when temps are above 25º (actually don't preheat then either) Even resistance heats starts to warm up the car in a few mins after taking off. Now, I know this isn't supposed to happen, but I notice both A/C and heat work faster when the car is moving verses when its parked and "idling"

I say shotgun some hot coffee and bring a mug with you. That should keep you warm enough until the heat kicks in a few mins later.
 
Same here. Anything above about 10F, and it’s seat and steering wheel heat only. If it’s just myself, I forgo any heat even if subzero. Only if windows fog do I run the hvac for safety.

I do enjoy quick charging in winter with the Leaf, as that will but a nice bit of warmth on the battery and a boost to efficiency.
 
Back
Top