Turning climate on while plugged in still uses battery

I just leased a new 2015 Nissan Leaf SL. In my old Leaf when I remotely turned on the heat in the morning while still plugged in from a night of charging, it would say (in the iPhone app) that the climate was turned on a running on power from the charger. In my new Leaf, it always says it's running off Battery Power ... even though it's still plugged into the charge.

Anybody know how to fix this? I've tried a couple of things like not unlocking the car before turning on the climate. I've looked for a setting but nothing. Thanks.

AZMerf said:

I just leased a new 2015 Nissan Leaf SL. In my old Leaf when I remotely turned on the heat in the morning while still plugged in from a night of charging, it would say (in the iPhone app) that the climate was turned on a running on power from the charger. In my new Leaf, it always says it's running off Battery Power ... even though it's still plugged into the charge.
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Nothing to fix.
When preheating or precooling while plugged into the EVSE the HVAC has always been running off the battery.
If the on board charger power output is greater than what the HVAC is using then there is no net battery loss.

TimLee said:

AZMerf said:

I just leased a new 2015 Nissan Leaf SL. In my old Leaf when I remotely turned on the heat in the morning while still plugged in from a night of charging, it would say (in the iPhone app) that the climate was turned on a running on power from the charger. In my new Leaf, it always says it's running off Battery Power ... even though it's still plugged into the charge.
...

Click to expand...

Nothing to fix.
When preheating or precooling while plugged into the EVSE the HVAC has always been running off the battery.
If the on board charger power output is greater than what the HVAC is using then there is no net battery loss.

Click to expand...

Then I guess the message on the app has changed. My old Leaf it would say on the iPhone app if it was running off battery power or the charger. Also, I notice that when I start the app up, there are a number of predicted miles range. When I get in after it's been heating for a while, the range is a few miles less.

What happens if you also start charging with the app? Then, all the power for heat should be coming from the onboard charger, not the battery. Of course, that will only last as long as the Leaf is still charging.

AZMerf said:

Then I guess the message on the app has changed. My old Leaf it would say on the iPhone app if it was running off battery power or the charger. Also, I notice that when I start the app up, there are a number of predicted miles range. When I get in after it's been heating for a while, the range is a few miles less.

Click to expand...

Is a bit surprising that the range would drop.
Old LEAF was 2011 with 3.3 kW on board charger. 2015 SL is 6.0 kW into the battery on board charger.
So charger should always have more power than heat pump heater needs.

2015 does always charge to 100% and they do much more cell balancing at last hour.
But it should run the charger to match the HVAC load plus what it needs on charging / balancing.
May just be a quirk of inaccurate range estimates.

On our 2013 SL the 240v EVSE supplies more electricity that the climate control uses, so we get more charge. We almost always have it set to 80% but we have gotten as much as 85% while the remote heating is in operation.

AZMerf said:

I just leased a new 2015 Nissan Leaf SL. In my old Leaf when I remotely turned on the heat in the morning while still plugged in from a night of charging, it would say (in the iPhone app) that the climate was turned on a running on power from the charger. In my new Leaf, it always says it's running off Battery Power ... even though it's still plugged into the charge.

Anybody know how to fix this? I've tried a couple of things like not unlocking the car before turning on the climate. I've looked for a setting but nothing. Thanks.

Click to expand...

If you are charging on 120 volts, this, including some loss of charge, is normal.

Graffi said:

On our 2013 SL the 240v EVSE supplies more electricity that the climate control uses, so we get more charge. We almost always have it set to 80% but we have gotten as much as 85% while the remote heating is in operation.

Click to expand...

I have also observed that on 2011 when precooling.
The LEAF control of the charger must not turn down far enough or has imprecision so some battery charging does occur.
Range loss on 2015 could be similar precision issue.

My 2015 SV is plugged into a 30 amp level 2 at home and show 98% charged when I get into the car after turning on the CC for about 10 min. It was 100% charged before turning on the CC.

tvbi said:

My 2015 SV is plugged into a 30 amp level 2 at home and show 98% charged when I get into the car after turning on the CC for about 10 min. It was 100% charged before turning on the CC.

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That's happened to me when the car is not even turned on. Not sure what the jump from 98% to 100% means. It seems very inconsistent. Leaf Spy always shows that more current is going into the battery than is coming out when I have climate controls on while plugged in.

tvbi said:

My 2015 SV is plugged into a 30 amp level 2 at home and show 98% charged when I get into the car after turning on the CC for about 10 min. It was 100% charged before turning on the CC.

Click to expand...

Does running the Climate control on shore power automatically kick on the battery heater? If so, and if that heater were capable of warming the battery's temperature sensor in a mere ten minutes, then maybe the reduced apparent state of charge is a reflection of increased battery capacity at warmer temperatures.

Levenkay said:

Does running the Climate control on shore power automatically kick on the battery heater? ...

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No. On and off based on battery temperature if status of charge greater than 30%.

My question still stands: If the car is plugged into a 240v charger, should it be running on battery power or pulling electricity from the charge when you set the car to preheat from the iPhone app?

AZMerf said:

My question still stands: If the car is plugged into a 240v charger, should it be running on battery power or pulling electricity from the charge when you set the car to preheat from the iPhone app?

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There is no wired path to run the heat directly from the EVSE cable. Thus the heater *always* runs from the battery, with the EVSE usually replacing it all in real time, plus adding charge, on L-2 charging.

Not sure if this is relevant

my 2012 also loses a "tiny bit" when I preheat. not much. maybe half a kwh or so.

it used to lose more. I found a setting (can't remember if in car in in app) where I could tell it to "prioritize charging" or "prioritize HVAC"

I told it to prioritize charging and now I only see the tiny drop.

if charge is low almost no power goes to heating

My 2013 has a setting for prioritizing timers (charging or climate control). I'm not sure if it does the same thing as yours. I have climate control set as higher priority, IIRC.

AZMerf said:

My question still stands: If the car is plugged into a 240v charger, should it be running on battery power or pulling electricity from the charge when you set the car to preheat from the iPhone app?

Click to expand...

On the 2011 LEAF with 3.6 KW charger plugged into 240 VAC I charge to 100% starting at midnight and finishing after 2AM. When I turn on the LEAF climate control later that morning, the charger draws 4KW AC from the 240 volt AC but the heater in the 2011 will draw 5KW of DC power as it heats the water system and the car. The extra power needed by the heater is taken from the high voltage DC battery. The battery and the 3.6 KW charging system and the heater are all connected to the same high voltage DC battery point. As the heater warms the car, it needs less DC power and the 240 VAC charger will be able to supply both the heater demand and have some extra power to recharge the battery. As the battery recharges to 100% the 240 VAC charger will only be supplying the power that is needed by the heater.

I figured it out ... at least what was causing my problem.

When I was turning on the climate control in the morning before work, I was doing it in the app - before the app had updated. My hypothesis is that because the app wasn't updated, it assumed it wasn't plugged in and ran the climate on battery. If I let the app update and then turn on the climate control, it says it's running off charger power.

Problem solved.

I may be wrong, but I think it doesn't matter whether an app knows if the car is plugged in or not.

I notice my car will charge to 100%, then sho 98% on the dash later. This happens whether or not I use climate controls. Leaf Spy says the car is sucking in more juice than it is using when I am on climate control. And, if I am not at 100%, I actually see the battery percentage increase. I think the battery meter is not quite so reliable between 98-100%. Maybe that's because it is balancing cells or something.