I am new to the forum and have tried to find the answers to my questions but I think our situation is a little more complicated so I can't seem to integrate all the answers.
Our current situation is as follows:
We have a ford cmax energi and are on the E9 program. I commute 90 miles round trip three times a week and my husband commutes 22 miles round trip every day. I use the cmax those three days to commute as the stickers shortens my commute considerably. Obviously with an approx 20 mile limit on cmax, it doesnt nearly cover my commute. My work is saying they will put in a charging station is late spring so that will help some. When I don't drive, my husband takes the cmax and gets to and from work on the one charge of the cmax and uses the stickers to get across the bay bridge rapidly so that is ideal. We need a new car and given price reductions, the leaf is looking very tempting. Until my work adds charging station, my husband would likely use the leaf and so will only use about 1/3 of charge a day (at least by the estimates that are listed on this forum). The differences between the S and SV are a bit confusing but in terms of charging it seems that the improved charger on the SV would be nice to have to speed up charging. Although technically we could probably charge adequately with the 120 volt 3.3 charger on the S model. However, if my work does put in the charger then I would probably take the leaf to work and with that would be able to use electric both directions which would be very nice. So far so good but our situation gets a little more complicated because we want to install solar. We have had solarcity come by and pitch their PPA agreement and give us a price to pay for the system up front (We believe we can afford the whole cost up front too). They calculated we needed a 5.5 KW system for the existing set up (cmax energy, no leaf). They said that adding leaf would not be too big a change and we could use the system (5.5kw) they designed for our use without changing it as charging would be at night. Not sure that is really the way we want to go. They said the E9 system was the best one to use with solar in our circumstances. The last bit of information to give you is that we have one 220 outlet in garage but I think it is 20A not 30A. Here is a picture of it:
Have read on the forum about the EVSE upgrade ($270) which is added to existing cord from vehicle. Not sure it would be compatible with our existing plug amps and whether we need that.
So my questions are as follows:
1) Is the SV the way to go in terms of models? There are also several other features on the SV that we like (cruisecontrol, heater).
2) Do you agree that the present solar design should not be increased upwards for adding the leaf? Is the E9 program the way to go for a dual electric vehicle home?
3) Should we get the EVSE upgrade given our current 220 amperage? Is it worth upgrading that to 30 A?
Thanks for your patience in this very long thread but I find that sometimes its better to just put it all out there up front to give people the most information possible.
Lori
Our current situation is as follows:
We have a ford cmax energi and are on the E9 program. I commute 90 miles round trip three times a week and my husband commutes 22 miles round trip every day. I use the cmax those three days to commute as the stickers shortens my commute considerably. Obviously with an approx 20 mile limit on cmax, it doesnt nearly cover my commute. My work is saying they will put in a charging station is late spring so that will help some. When I don't drive, my husband takes the cmax and gets to and from work on the one charge of the cmax and uses the stickers to get across the bay bridge rapidly so that is ideal. We need a new car and given price reductions, the leaf is looking very tempting. Until my work adds charging station, my husband would likely use the leaf and so will only use about 1/3 of charge a day (at least by the estimates that are listed on this forum). The differences between the S and SV are a bit confusing but in terms of charging it seems that the improved charger on the SV would be nice to have to speed up charging. Although technically we could probably charge adequately with the 120 volt 3.3 charger on the S model. However, if my work does put in the charger then I would probably take the leaf to work and with that would be able to use electric both directions which would be very nice. So far so good but our situation gets a little more complicated because we want to install solar. We have had solarcity come by and pitch their PPA agreement and give us a price to pay for the system up front (We believe we can afford the whole cost up front too). They calculated we needed a 5.5 KW system for the existing set up (cmax energy, no leaf). They said that adding leaf would not be too big a change and we could use the system (5.5kw) they designed for our use without changing it as charging would be at night. Not sure that is really the way we want to go. They said the E9 system was the best one to use with solar in our circumstances. The last bit of information to give you is that we have one 220 outlet in garage but I think it is 20A not 30A. Here is a picture of it:
Have read on the forum about the EVSE upgrade ($270) which is added to existing cord from vehicle. Not sure it would be compatible with our existing plug amps and whether we need that.
So my questions are as follows:
1) Is the SV the way to go in terms of models? There are also several other features on the SV that we like (cruisecontrol, heater).
2) Do you agree that the present solar design should not be increased upwards for adding the leaf? Is the E9 program the way to go for a dual electric vehicle home?
3) Should we get the EVSE upgrade given our current 220 amperage? Is it worth upgrading that to 30 A?
Thanks for your patience in this very long thread but I find that sometimes its better to just put it all out there up front to give people the most information possible.
Lori