10 week hiatus every summer... charging strategy

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mikenielsen

New member
Joined
Sep 7, 2010
Messages
4
My situation is that I am going to own a Leaf that will sit in my Delaware driveway every summer from June 1 until August 15 for the next several years while we travel 1200 miles to our summer home in Canada. I am wondering if anyone has heard anything about the correct way to deal with this situation. Will this down time have a negative impact on the battery, and if so, is there any way to minimize this problem? Thanks in advance for any knowledgeable advice.

Mike Nielsen
Dover DE
Current Honda Fit owner
One of the lucky 20,000
 
mikenielsen said:
My situation is that I am going to own a Leaf that will sit in my Delaware driveway every summer from June 1 until August 15 for the next several years while we travel 1200 miles to our summer home in Canada. I am wondering if anyone has heard anything about the correct way to deal with this situation. Will this down time have a negative impact on the battery, and if so, is there any way to minimize this problem? Thanks in advance for any knowledgeable advice.

Mike Nielsen
Dover DE
Current Honda Fit owner
One of the lucky 20,000

plug it in, log into carwings once a week to boost charge it for an hour or so. try to maintain SOC at 50-60%
 
mikenielsen said:
My situation is that I am going to own a Leaf that will sit in my Delaware driveway every summer from June 1 until August 15 for the next several years while we travel 1200 miles to our summer home in Canada. I am wondering if anyone has heard anything about the correct way to deal with this situation. Will this down time have a negative impact on the battery, and if so, is there any way to minimize this problem? Thanks in advance for any knowledgeable advice.

Mike Nielsen
Dover DE
Current Honda Fit owner
One of the lucky 20,000

Off the top of my head I'd:

1. Buy a 0.8Ah deltran waterproof battery tender for the 12v battery.
2. Set the traction battery charger to charge once a week to 80% max for about 30 minutes (you might get away with less than 30 min since the 80% would be automatic).

You might not need to do # 1 since I believe the traction battery will keep the 12v battery floating.

As an alternative, you can check the charge status on the web and turn it on via the web when it gets to 30% state of charge. Easy to do.

Malcolm :geek:
 
You should be fine if you charge to 80% and let it sit. I would put a GOOD quality trickle charger on the 12V battery and leave it on the entire time. The models below are good brands and are both reliable and won't damage your battery. I would go with the first one as it is more versatile.

http://www.amazon.com/Marinco-Battery-Charger-2608A-Marine/dp/B000NI1BD4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1299168811&sr=1-1

http://www.batterystuff.com/battery-chargers/12-volt/gel-cell/BM12v117.html


I have used both brands for equalizing Ev packs and have validated their curves for lead. Do not buy a cheap battery charger.

I also use this one but if the power drops it may not default to the SLA curve.

http://www.batteryminders.com/batterycharger/catalog/BatteryMINDer-12-Volt-2-4-or-8-Amp-Charger-Maintainer-Desulf-p-16133.html
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
plug it in, log into carwings once a week to boost charge it for an hour or so. try to maintain SOC at 50-60%

Good idea - though it can be done anpther way. Setup the charging timer for once a week charging to 80%.
 
I would caution using the battery tender brand mentioned above as I have used it before as one failed and the charge curves were are not accurate on the two I checked after testing. The first model I listed is quite durable and works well.
 
Until we've experienced something indicating otherwise I would not get any trickle charger for the 12v. Manual states that 12v battery gets a 5 minute charge every 5 days when the vehicle is not in use.

Additionally, the manual states that they recommend charging the car every three months with the 80% method if it's parked for a long time. So sounds like you could just leave it but if you wanted to be on the safe side you could carwings-charge it sometime in the half-way mark, or maybe carwings-charge it once a month.
 
If you have an SL, and it's parked in your garage, put a 100W flourescent light on a timer, above the LEAF solar panel. Run it for 4 hours/day; that should maintain your 12V battery (at least that's what the Solar Panel's supposed to do).

I have left my LEAF plugged in at 80% charge for just over 5 days. On the 5th day, at an unscheduled time (not 12am timer), my TED system recorded a few hundred Watts of power flowing to the LEAF. I now suspect this was an Aux battery and general housekeeping cycle.
 
mikenielsen said:
"..." while we travel "..." to our summer home in Canada. I am wondering if anyone has heard anything about the correct way to deal with this situation?

Bring it to Canada and do your own LEAF tour. :lol:

People need to see that car driving around up here, but 1200 miles? Yeah, not unless you could tow it, or perhaps let someone else you know drive it for the time being?

The answer you're looking for has been pretty well answered already by many forum members. My guess would of been that it's just a matter of plugging in your 110-Trickle Charger or 220-Home Charger and set the LEAF to charge to 80%. I don't know why others are saying a trickle charger, I suspect that Nissan has made this quite simple and foolproof. As others have said: the LEAF automatically does a charge on the 12v battery, so leaving the car plugged in to maintain that 80% because of the loss from the charge should be all that's required.

If you don't mind me asking; where in Canada do you call your summer home?
 
sparky said:
If you have an SL, and it's parked in your garage, put a 100W flourescent light on a timer, above the LEAF solar panel. Run it for 4 hours/day; that should maintain your 12V battery (at least that's what the Solar Panel's supposed to do).

I have left my LEAF plugged in at 80% charge for just over 5 days. On the 5th day, at an unscheduled time (not 12am timer), my TED system recorded a few hundred Watts of power flowing to the LEAF. I now suspect this was an Aux battery and general housekeeping cycle.


That is not going to be effective at all and horribly inefficient.
 
JasonT said:
Until we've experienced something indicating otherwise I would not get any trickle charger for the 12v. Manual states that 12v battery gets a 5 minute charge every 5 days when the vehicle is not in use.

Additionally, the manual states that they recommend charging the car every three months with the 80% method if it's parked for a long time. So sounds like you could just leave it but if you wanted to be on the safe side you could carwings-charge it sometime in the half-way mark, or maybe carwings-charge it once a month.

It is better to use a trickle charger on the 12V battery, it will keep it from cycling via the DC/DC. It will not harm it, there is far too much thought going into this.
 
Trickle charge would raise the 12v system to ... almost 14 volts?

What voltage does the LEAF's DC-to-DC (12v nominal) system actually provide?

MAYBE the "12v" battery & system are designed to stay under 12.5 volts?
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
plug it in, log into carwings once a week to boost charge it for an hour or so. try to maintain SOC at 50-60%

Oddly and annoyingly, with the iphone app you can 'start' charging but you can't stop it. I'm not in a position to confirm right now whether the same is true of the web portal interface but my vague recollection is that you can't do it there either - hopefully I'm wrong (or will be at some point in the future when they improve the software).

For the topic in this thread, once a week timer would work (or, as suggested, have a friend/relative drive it once a week or so and charge it up, I think that's what I'd do), but let's say you are at a location where you need some L2, but not a full charge (maybe the electricity is really expensive, or you just don't want to exceed 80% since you don't need to...or you just want to be polite and make it obvious that someone else can switch to their car since yours is no longer charging)...but you're not able to go back to the car to unplug it...you should be able to toggle the charger off with the phone.
 
The OP says that Leaf will be parked in a driveway for an extended period of time.

If the car is equipped with a solar panel, the sun should be able to provide whatever trickle charge the solar panel is supposed to supply - if it really does do anything.

I'd guess the OP doesn't want to have the Leaf plugged in while it sits in the driveway for 10 weeks. I wouldn't.

Sounds like checking SOC with CarWings will work in this situation. If the SOC gets too low - maybe best to have a neighbor come over and plug in the car for long enough to get it charged back up. I'd guess that's what the OP is after - will the car last without being charged for 10 weeks, or should he be thinking about making arrangements to have someone come over and top it off.
 
EVDRIVER said:
It is better to use a trickle charger on the 12V battery, it will keep it from cycling via the DC/DC. It will not harm it, there is far too much thought going into this.
Indeed, too much thought.... If it's in the driveway, charge it to 80% and leave it alone. I'd forget about the trickle charger; the solar panel is supposed to keep the Aux battery charged under these conditions. and per the User Guide : While the vehicle is not in use:
When the EV (Electric Vehicle) system is off, the 12-volt battery charges automatically for 5 minutes every 5 days.
So, you may come home and find 70% charge on your traction battery.
 
Dont put a trickle charger on the 12V battery, we dont know exactly what type of lead-acid battery it is.. probably not a normal starting type but an alarm type deep cycle.
 
Herm said:
Dont put a trickle charger on the 12V battery, we dont know exactly what type of lead-acid battery it is.. probably not a normal starting type but an alarm type deep cycle.


Its a normal car battery. And a PROPER charger like the ones I listed have a proper charge curve and then hold at the proper voltage. Everyone stop speculating, this is not complicated. Deep cycle 12V SLA and AMG batteries charge the same it's not a flooded battery for god sakes!
 
sparky said:
EVDRIVER said:
It is better to use a trickle charger on the 12V battery, it will keep it from cycling via the DC/DC. It will not harm it, there is far too much thought going into this.
Indeed, too much thought.... If it's in the driveway, charge it to 80% and leave it alone. I'd forget about the trickle charger; the solar panel is supposed to keep the Aux battery charged under these conditions. and per the User Guide : While the vehicle is not in use:
When the EV (Electric Vehicle) system is off, the 12-volt battery charges automatically for 5 minutes every 5 days.
So, you may come home and find 70% charge on your traction battery.


Solar, indoors, if outside don't rely on the silly solar panel? If you store the car use a trick charger, a PROPER one, done. They have proper regulation. The Nissan folks were even doing this and you could even start the car up if you remove the 12V and apply one or two 9v batteries- EV 101 folks.
 
Guys - no need to worry about the 12V battery. The car tops it off once a week from the main battery when the car isn't turned on.
IMO - plug it in with it charged between 50-80%. Weekly monitor state of charge through carwings - if low (below 40%), give it an hour of charge or so or just charge it back up to 80%.

If you start out at 80% I doubt it will self-discharge down past 40% in 10 weeks.

Just don't store it with a 100% charge.
 
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