Route AC over battery

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FWIW, I left my Leaf outside overnight to get the battery cooler. I moved it in around 10:20 am. It was at 5 temp bars. Average battery temp sensor reading was 68.1 F.

I wish I could find the post from DaveinOlyWA from years ago, but I remember once he said he didn't want to charge because the outside air temp was above 55 F! :shock: My reply was along the lines of why I was rather dismissive of his battery degradation findings in his mild climate vs. mine, esp. considering how we've many miles we've seen cars get up to and still have 12 bars up there. Most recently, someone with a 9/2013 built '13 Leaf hit 100K miles with all 12 bars.
 
I'm at 67,000 miles, on my second battery and expect the 12th bar to drop before 2020.
Edit:
Went out to the car this morning, 60f outside and 5 batt temp bars . Hottest July on record my ass.
Definitely hotter last year. By the 3rd week of July last year I had already avoided driving the leaf at least 3 times because of the 8th bar.
Haven't seen the 7th bar yet in 2019.
 
Oilpan4 said:
Went out to the car this morning, 60f outside and 5 batt temp bars . Hottest July on record my ass.
Definitely hotter last year.

Perhaps in your back yard on July 24th. I'm sure we will hear from you when the temperature hits a record high in your back yard.
Sure.
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
Any results on running the ac via duct over the battery. Much net cooling?

It's been a cooler wetter July than normal.
Now I'm hearing that people to our north Cimarron red river area and up around 12,000ft had frost on their cars and grass this morning.
Last week I thought for sure I was going to see 7 bars, then it rained and was overcast for a few days.
Have not seen the 7th bar at all this year.
By the 3rd week of July 2018 I had seen the 7th bar numerous times and didn't drive my leaf due to the 8th bar at least 3 times, either because I got in the car and turned it on and had 8 bars showing, or got home was at 8 bars after driving, so I didn't plug in and couldn't use the car later when I needed it.
There 2 or 3 other times when I didn't charge due to the 8th bar, let it cool off for several hours, charged late at night and all that didn't interfere with my vehicle use because I didn't work and didn't have anywhere I needed to be.
If this goes on and I can't get the 7th bar to show I will wait till there is a 100'F+ day, plug in leaf spy and see what happens with an hour or 2 of ducted A/C on the battery.
The rollabout ducted garage based A/C is ready, just haven't needed it.
 
To buy an actual ducted A/C they run like $800. Mine is more like a $380 unit I bought slightly returned and steeply discounted at lowes.
Then I removed the louver vent and put a duct on there.
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
I was more curious if running a duct from the car AC to the battery would help during fast charging to minimize temp gain.



The problem with doing that with the car parked is that the heat the A/C removes from the cabin air is exhausted too near to the battery. Better to, if possible, use a portable A/C unit 15+ feet away. That doesn't apply while driving, of course.
 
I saw on another post that if you open the hood it can help let some of the heat dissipate during charging. Have any of you tried this. If this worked, you could then look to possibly run the AC flow over the battery (via the rear hump, which might allow for more longer charges in summer. (not really an issue in winter).
 
Ok, tested the airflow under the seats with those ducts. It might be ok with some gentle heat, but completely ineffective with AC.

I tasked my 17 year old son (who thinks noon is still the morning) to figure out something to help get a better draw.
 
With all this record setting heat I resorted to using my toy chademo twice in 1 day before 1600L to try to get to 7 temp bars. No luck.

Using a real chademo that makes like 50kw I too would juat open the hood.
Let the heat up and out instead of letting it get trapped under the vehicle.
Plus all that heat from the A\C has to go some where.
 
Well this week it dipped down to nearly 60F this week.
The peak of summer has passed.
I never once encountered 7 or 8 bars for 2019.
In 2018 I didn't drive the leaf at least 8 or 9 times because of 7 and 8 temp bars.
I put 1,600 miles on the leaf in July this year so it wasn't because "I didn't drive it".
My garage is a construction zone so not parking in there, I didn't park in there summer 2018 either.
I also used my 10kw chademo, which I didn't have last year.
 
DougWantsALeaf said:
Is a home 10KW Chademo expensive?

Yeah they are about $3,400 new last time I checked.
Got mine "for parts" all in $800 and fixed it.
But, on a leaf and it's 360 to 400v batt voltage the 10kw chademo peaks at about 8kw, averages 7.2kw charging up a 2 bar battery and automatically turning off at 90%.
So not much advantage if you have a car that can level 2 charge at 6.6kw.
Huge improvement for slow level 2 cars like mine.
 
Oilpan4 said:
Well this week it dipped down to nearly 60F this week.
The peak of summer has passed.
I never once encountered 7 or 8 bars for 2019.
In 2018 I didn't drive the leaf at least 8 or 9 times because of 7 and 8 temp bars.
I put 1,600 miles on the leaf in July this year so it wasn't because "I didn't drive it".
My garage is a construction zone so not parking in there, I didn't park in there summer 2018 either.
I also used my 10kw chademo, which I didn't have last year.

Where are you that you think the "peak of summer has passed"? :D
 
I'm in new mexico and I looked up the last 100 years of so for highest summer temperature and the hottest days of summer here fall between last week of July and first week of august.
 
^I'll second that observation. Here in Boulder, CO the night temps have started to drop into the high 50's at night. It's 93F right now but forecast low is 57 for tonight. Our house is in a sort of 'frost pocket' at the edge of town (less heat island effect) so we will certainly see 57 tonight.

The lower temps at night really let the battery pack cool off and I've stayed at 5 temp bars all day even with the high temps in the 90's a few times lately. Before when the lows were around 70 I would often be at 6 bars when I arrived at work. I know that isn't precise information so it's FWIW.
 
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