Complicated 120V charging and usable driving range question

[abasile]

On one occasion, in dry conditions, I borrowed a 100' long, beefy 240V extension cord and used it to charge the LEAF with the modified EVSE. Worked great.

 

[smkettner]

Sometimes contractors are looking for the big easy job so they bid the trench, new conduit, 240v subpanel and all the rest just slapped on the exterior. I would try my best to determine exactly what infrastructure you have. How many conductors and what size. Conduit or direct burial. Size and conduit material. Then attempt to engineer your own plan. If anything seems workable then get a bid using your plan or abandon the plan and make do with what you have.

 

[Navin]

We've had our Leaf since the middle of June and have driven 3500 miles or a little over 1000 miles per month with only 120V charging using 80% during the week and 100% on weekends. We seem to get 5 miles per hour of charge, so Tony Williams's calculations look good to me. I think it depends on the length of your daily commute which I didn't see here.

Here in El Paso we've had a hot summer too with many days over 100 degrees so I run the A/C all the time in the Leaf. I drive 60 on the freeway (sometimes I don't notice and hit 65) and in ECO all the time. I try to drive the car efficiently in the city anticipating red lights and coasting to slow down instead of using the brake and am getting between 4.5 and 5.0 miles per kwh on the Leaf dash. If your commute is shorter than 45 miles you'll be fine. If you have a second car to use in a pinch on the weekends it's a no-brainer.

 

[Herm]

Like someone mentioned, just run a temporary 240V extension cord to the garage. Use a suitable grade of romex to make that extension cord... no it wont be flexible.

 

[LEAFfan]

If you leased the car, you don't care.

Sorry Tony, but I strongly disagree. If they KNOW they are going to give it back, then maybe it's true. But how many of us lessees really know what we are going to do after the lease expires? I won't know until that time comes, so I've been babying the battery pack. Maybe other lessees just haven't given it much thought, but if they abuse it now, they may be sorry later.

 

[LEAFfan]

On one occasion, in dry conditions, I borrowed a 100' long, beefy 240V extension cord and used it to charge the LEAF with the modified EVSE. Worked great.

If he is leasing, he isn't going to be able to do Phil's EVSE upgrade because the original can't be put back without incurring more costs. That's one reason I've waited for a less expensive option and Jwallace may be able to offer us an upgrade to 240V for around $20 or so without permanently changing our Nissan EVSE so we can return it after the lease if necessary in original condition.

 

[davewill]

If he is leasing, he isn't going to be able to do Phil's EVSE upgrade because the original can't be put back without incurring more costs. That's one reason I've waited for a less expensive option and Jwallace may be able to offer us an upgrade to 240V for around $20 or so without permanently changing our Nissan EVSE so we can return it after the lease if necessary in original condition.

Silly reason. There's any number of forum members who would be happy to trade an unmodded EVSE straight up for your modded one, plus Phil promises to do such a trade if you can't manage to arrange it yourself. Personally, if I find myself in that boat, I'll simply show up at the next LEAF owner's meeting and likely have the swap done before I can sit down.

 

[adric22]

I would love to see some pictures of the electrical setup of this detached garage, particularly how it is wired into the main house breaker panel. I think if it were my home and I had a buried cable that could not easily be replaced, I'd go ahead and switch it over to 220V using the ground wire as the neutral. Somebody else mentioned that possibility as well. The key is to know the gauge of wire being used and what limits you will need on amps. I don't think a garage door opener or lights is likely to pull a lot of amps. But you could always use an amp meter to make sure. I would try to limit amps on the little neutral to 6 or less to be on the safe side. Only the 110V devices would be drawing on the neutral anyway. Now, depending on the gauge of the other wires, you'd have to determine how many amps they can carry. If they can't support full L2 charging, then you could get a modified L1 EVSE and use the one that limits you to 220V at 12 amps. That should be safe to use and charge at least twice as fast as regular L1.

However... that being put aside. If your commute mileage is very low, say 20 miles or less, then L1 should be perfectly adequate for your needs. You could in theory do 40 miles per day or more, but there wouldn't be any room left over for evening trips to the grocery store.

Just as a side note. When I installed my 220V EVSE on one side of my garage, I also added another regular 110V on the other side should I ever need to plug in over there or if we ever get an additional plug-in vehicle. It is on its own breaker. My idea was that if I ever needed to, I could move the wires and convert that plug to a 220V plug and use a 12-amp EVSE there.