Leafs Over Texas!

EdmondLeaf said:

shay said:

Have you seen Tony's range chart: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=101293#p101293" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

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There is also https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...FN0NEYzRllFSlU2OEh1ZmRFMDRjRXc&hl=en_US#gid=0 by surfingslovak, which will let calculate range according to your mkWh, and very much agree with Tony's chart. I put 3K on my car already, but within relatively short time, so no summer experience.

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I just wanted to make sure you knew about the battery capacity under the low battery warning. Tony's chart shows it. Depending on your heater, you should see much better range during the summer. My miles / kw were much better even during the extreme heat during August.

adric22 said:

I think DF/W needs about 25 QC stations and about 200 or more level-2 chargers before I could say our infrastructure is at a level to really make the EV viable for most people. Right now I think we have 1 QC station and maybe 2 dozen L2 chargers which are almost all in the North-East area of town. We don't have anything in the Ft.Worth area.

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I currently track all the charging station in DFW as part of my work. Currently here is the breakout for DFW:

CHAdeMO: 1 (eVgo)
J1772: 103 (mostly Blink network)
NEMA-5: 56 (majority is the West Irving Public Library, they house 40) - these only included dedicated ports for charging not random outdoor plugs.

The count is for every port available, which condenses into 64 total charging station areas (i.e. one station area might hold 2 J1772's)

Although, you are correct, the majority of the charging stations are centered around the downtown Dallas area extending north, but there are more filling in in the south mid cities and to fort worth.

GaslessInSeattle said:

the car is designed to be used with the prewarming function in the winter time and greater reliance on the seat and steering wheel heating if you have it. don't be afraid to set the prewarming function for a half hour or more before you drive. you can eliminate your climate control heater use with an extensive prewarm and substantially improve your range over the numbers on the charts. I'm getting close to what I got in the summer time relying on prewarming, 80 miles without dipping into VLB territory.

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It really depends on your prewarm and the distance to drive. I found that I would prewarm and not turn on the heater until I got really cold again (this was when the temps dipped into the 20's), which happend pretty quickly on my commute. The downside to his method if you have a long haul, the liquid that is heated up as part of the heater system cools down completely and has to be reheated back up. If you leave the heater on from the start, it only has to maintain the temperature of the liquid, saving energy use.

Short distance, just preheat and go without heater, longer hauls I found i used a decent less not letting the liquid in the heater cool back down again. If you can survive with the preheat all the way to work, it saves alot, if you need to turn the heater back on again, its best to keep it on from the start.

Pipcecil said:

I currently track all the charging station in DFW as part of my work.

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Where is most current list of them. I would like to check QC charger while in Dallas. Maybe should get my Leaf on trailer and try to use QC. Wonder if QC is free or have to pay? What about L2?

Partially interactive google maps atm, but will soon be converting to a GIS based geodatabase or something I can more easily upload to stuff online.

Here is a direct link to the map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211891722519472891922.0004a754eab81f5c0cf11&msa=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The DC charger is part of the eVgo network. You have to be apart of their plan (a per month fee) to have access to it. Majority of the J1772's are Blink, which just require a card, although Blink will start charging for their network probably march/april of this year. ChargePoint require you to purchase their RFID card, and usually, their charging is free, but some stations require payment (you have to tie your chargepoint RFID to a credit card). There are some independent stations (like nissan dealerships), and, as far as I know, no independent station has a cost, card, or membership requirement.

I was getting a good half hour of warmth out of a good prewarm if I turned off the climate control completely, leaving it in foot/defog mode. I've found that circulating fan increases the exchange of outside to inside air, so I don't use it at all if I can avoid it and keep it dowm when I must use it. As for the heater needing to stay on, I haven't found that to be true. After a good prewarm at the beginning of the drive I set the temp to what I like, usually 70, hit foot/defog, then hit the on off button till I actually see "climate control off" on the screen, then I drive until I get cold. Once cold, I simply hit the on/off button again and verify climate control on, it's already set to the temp I like, so it's simple, I leave power defrost off, and keep the fan down to 2 to minimize outside cold air coming in and I just let the climate control do it's thing from that point on. I still see a significant net benefit to not using the CC at all until I have to, even though the fluid in the heater still needs to be heated back up, I only do that once. For really long jaunts I will charge to 80% then prewarm to 100% which raises the battery temp gauge from 4 to 5 bars. it makes sense that warming the battery would help with range and it seems to help but we can't tell the actual battery temp so it's harder to quantify. warming up the frame of the car really helps keep you comfortable for longer and I find it doesn't seem to cost that much more in electricity.

Pipcecil said:

GaslessInSeattle said:

the car is designed to be used with the prewarming function in the winter time and greater reliance on the seat and steering wheel heating if you have it. don't be afraid to set the prewarming function for a half hour or more before you drive. you can eliminate your climate control heater use with an extensive prewarm and substantially improve your range over the numbers on the charts. I'm getting close to what I got in the summer time relying on prewarming, 80 miles without dipping into VLB territory.

Click to expand...

It really depends on your prewarm and the distance to drive. I found that I would prewarm and not turn on the heater until I got really cold again (this was when the temps dipped into the 20's), which happend pretty quickly on my commute. The downside to his method if you have a long haul, the liquid that is heated up as part of the heater system cools down completely and has to be reheated back up. If you leave the heater on from the start, it only has to maintain the temperature of the liquid, saving energy use.

Short distance, just preheat and go without heater, longer hauls I found i used a decent less not letting the liquid in the heater cool back down again. If you can survive with the preheat all the way to work, it saves alot, if you need to turn the heater back on again, its best to keep it on from the start.

Click to expand...

you must be made of sterner stuff than I am. :lol:

Preheat for 25ish minutes in my garage before leaving. In my car for 10 minutes I am cold and by 20 I am downright freezing (granted this was during the extreme cold snap last year when it was in the 20's I am using worse case). I usually have to turn the heater on at that point (somewhere between 10-20 min, usually closer to 10) which ends up spiking kW usage to 3+ easily for the rest of the trip (I set my temp at 69). If I keep the heater on from the get go, it doesn't kick in until about 5ish minutes or so later and rarely peaks above 1.5 kW of usage.

Pipcecil said:

you must be made of sterner stuff than I am. :lol:

Preheat for 25ish minutes in my garage before leaving. In my car for 10 minutes I am cold and by 20 I am downright freezing (granted this was during the extreme cold snap last year when it was in the 20's I am using worse case). I usually have to turn the heater on at that point (somewhere between 10-20 min, usually closer to 10) which ends up spiking kW usage to 3+ easily for the rest of the trip (I set my temp at 69). If I keep the heater on from the get go, it doesn't kick in until about 5ish minutes or so later and rarely peaks above 1.5 kW of usage.

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Have you considered installing seat warmers? I am seriously considering them myself.

while I could still make it to and from work smartly even on bad days @100%, I get to cheat now. my work installed 2 public Level 2's, so i can comfortably make my work trips, which = 80% charge all the time and zipping around like I drive a sports car.

shay said:

Have you considered installing seat warmers? I am seriously considering them myself.

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I thought about it, but how much winter we get here, and in case freezing rain seat heaters are not much help

Pipcecil said:

while I could still make it to and from work smartly even on bad days @100%, I get to cheat now. my work installed 2 public Level 2's, so i can comfortably make my work trips, which = 80% charge all the time and zipping around like I drive a sports car.

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Wonder if that affected your mkWh and what it is?

depending on who you believe (the car or carwings) the car (which I am guessing is more accurate) says I am at 3.9 last time I checked, carwings says I am at 4.8 (seems way off). Most of my driving in almost exlusvely highways so I know that factors in greatly. Plus no one else to haul around besides myself and my wife, we don't make many trips running around town, etc. to help balance out with a lot of city driving.

I got this seat warmer for $15 and it definitely takes the edge off on those cold days: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G7TPQS/ref=oh_o05_s01_i00_details" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; It uses MUCH less battery than the heater. So, with using the prewarmer while plugged-in and then the seat warmers, I get about the same mileage as the summer.

+1
I forgot to mention I'm also using a seat heater. since the heat is direct, it works much more efficiently, I can't even see the draw on the energy screen.

DWrath said:

I got this seat warmer for $15 and it definitely takes the edge off on those cold days: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004G7TPQS/ref=oh_o05_s01_i00_details" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; It uses MUCH less battery than the heater. So, with using the prewarmer while plugged-in and then the seat warmers, I get about the same mileage as the summer.

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So anyone in and around Plano area ..?

mkjayakumar said:

So anyone in and around Plano area ..?

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I live in North Dallas very close to Plano.

I have friends and family in the plano area, does that count? Unfortunately I live opposite in Midlothian, way south...

First Leaf owners in Texas, Jimmy and Christie Sauers of Seabrook, give update on their ownership experience:
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/bay_...cle_f5350838-bd6b-5cab-a8c1-92e3d7a81769.html

And in somewhat related news:
http://transportationnation.org/201...ric-car-drivers-have-a-new-place-to-power-up/

Note the car pictured is NOT the Sauers' Leaf. :lol:

I recently purchased my Leaf knowing I was purchasing a commuter car and I was limited by range. However now that I have two weeks in the car, I want to drive it more! Living in Austin we make the trip to Houston quite a bit so naturally I was wondering how I can get involved to help get level 3 locations installed on high traffic routes. Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, etc.

In my research I came across an effort by the Center for Commercialization of Electric Technologies (CCET). CCET was established in 2005 to "promote the collaboration for the purpose of enhancing the safety, reliability, security, and efficiency of the Texas electric transmission and distribution system"

Here is a link to their Texas Triangle Plug-In EV Project: http://electrictechnologycenter.com/texas_triangle_project.html

They have not posted a project timeline but as part of Phase 2 they will be hosting public forums and soliciting feedback. I realize this is just a study but at least it is a step in the right direction to getting Level 3 chargers.

Another interesting event is EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) is hosting their Plug-In 2012 conference in San Antonio this year. http://www.plugin2012.com