Two questions

[Berlino]

Is it better to let it discharge down to 20-30 miles (several day's driving) left on the GOM, or plug in every night up to 80%, regardless of state of charge?

According to http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/in...apacity_Loss#Minimizing_Battery_Capacity_Loss it's best to keep the battery charged in the 30-40% range, in your case I'm guessing that would it would be best to charge to around 45%, perhaps a bit more in winter, especially if it's less than 10F.

 

[planet4ever]

Can someone please explain to this "newbie" what the EVSE upgrade, or L1 upgrade is? I just purchased a 2012 Leaf and use my L1 only in garage each evening.

EVSE Upgrade (follow the link) is a beautiful enhancement to the L1 "trickle charge cord" that came with the car, allowing it to charge at either 120v or 240v. It was designed, and is built and sold, by "Ingineer", a very valuable member of this board. Thousands of us have them, and use them every day. But you have to have access to 240v (or at least > 200v) electricity to get fast charging via the unit. With a 10 mile commute you may not need faster charging at home, unless you want to use the car a lot on weekends.

I charge only to 80% b/c I have only a 10 mile round trip commute each day. Is it better to let it discharge down to 20-30 miles (several day's driving) left on the GOM, or plug in every night up to 80%, regardless of state of charge?

My recommendation would be somewhere between what you are doing now and what Berlino suggested above. Not only is it harder to stop it at something like 45%, but I like to have at least a 30 mile or so range available in the morning, so I wait until the battery is no more than half full and then charge to 80%. In your case, "no more than half" might mean about 35% to 50% in the battery, and charging to 80% might take 6 to 9 hours. If you needed it before the 9 hours was up, no problem. You can make it up the next time you charge.

But don't rely on the GOM to tell you when you are at 50%. In your 2012, five charge bars is about 50% -- i.e. my scheme says charge it if the top of the "electron pump" picture is above the top charge bar displayed. [Incidentally, for anyone reading this who has a 2013, you have a more precise charge level you can look at, but on your car 6 bars is about 50%.]

Ray

 

[evphreak]

Thanks, Ray & Berlino for the quick replies! I sure appreciate the information.
Chuck

 

[Reddy]

Is it better to let it discharge down to 20-30 miles (several day's driving) left on the GOM, or plug in every night up to 80%, regardless of state of charge?

According to http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/in...apacity_Loss#Minimizing_Battery_Capacity_Loss it's best to keep the battery charged in the 30-40% range, in your case I'm guessing that would it would be best to charge to around 45%, perhaps a bit more in winter, especially if it's less than 10F.

I've said it many times before, so you can search my name for similar replies. With a short daily use (mine is also around 10 mi), I set my timer to charge for about 2 hr (summer) or 3 hr (winter) with a maximum of 80%. Then, 90+% of the time I keep my battery around 4-5 bars, plugging in most, but not all, nights. From what I've read, this is the best treatment for the battery. Since I purchased, I want this thing to last 20+ yr (just like my "new" ICE).

I also bicycle to work most of days through the spring-fall, so that changes the calculus. When I need more miles (visiting one of the surrounding towns), I can plan that a couple of days in advance, and my charge slowly creeps up from around 5 bars to over 8 or 9. If I need it quicker, I can always override before going to bed, and the car will usually reach "close to" 100% in 10-12 hr. This is typically my preferred method. Also, in the summer time I park inside during the day and outside at night (we have pretty decent radiative cooling here in the desert) so I can keep my battery at 5 temperature bars most of the time, except the month of August I saw a mix of 5's and 6's.