How much Electricity Used

So we took home our 2015 Nissan Leaf S with Quick Charge on Saturday and one of the first questions I had was, how much electricity am I using to charge this thing? I couldn't find it on any of the dash readings and since we have an S we don't have any of the fancy readings on the screen. Any suggestions on how to find that? I pull out my old Killawatt and saw that it is rated to 15 amps, so I plugged my stock EVSE into it (after reading it pull a continuous 12 amps) and let it run for two hours and five minutes - only 2.83 Kwh. It was a continuous 11.56 amps every time I checked it. Is this my only option of knowing how much? Will another EVSE show how much electricity goes though it? Those are just a few questions that I have thus far. I do love the car though!

John

You are correct that the factory EVSE will charge at 12 amps, so that's 1.44 kWh for every hour the car is charging. If you upgrade to a good 30 amp home EVSE, the 2015 Leaf charges at a great 6.6 kWh, which I highly recommend. 240 volt charging is also more efficient, since some energy is wasted running the charger cooling system while charging, so the less time you charge, the less energy wasted.

Thanks for the input, we are definitely getting a 240V system installed. Luckily there is a rebate with our local power company, Consumer's Energy, where they will pay to have 240V run to your garage and the 240V EVSE, up to $2500. They go through Bosch so that is the unit we are considering. Any suggestions as to whether or not they are good units?

We are probably going with this one: http://www.pluginnow.com/power-max2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
unless there is enough left over to get the 25 foot cord version: http://www.pluginnow.com/power-max3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you get the maximum throughput charging station for the S with charging package upgrade, you'll be pulling 27.5 amps (until it starts to slow down as the battery gets full--the amperage will drop off at that point until it's finished).

One of the simplest and least expensive ways to monitor electricity usage "from the wall" is to install a refurbished utility meter. DaveinOlyWA used to have a blog post describing it in detail but blogs seem to have disappeared. Still, it is pretty straightforward and is a DIY for someone comfortable with working on electrical lines and outlets. Or it would be simple for an electrician to install. Refurb "EZ Read" meters can be had for about $50 from Hialeah Meter; you need both the meter and the base it fits into:
Meter
Socket

My installation:





It doesn't have to be hooked up to an outlet like I have, a refurb utility meter like this could be used with any sort of EVSE. And it would make tracking your electricity usage simple.

Another way that does not require any new devices. The Leaf S shows the average Miles/Kwhr in one of the selectable dash displays. Keeping track of miles per month, week, or any period, dividing total miles driven by avg mi/Kwhr gives a rough estimate of the electricity consumed in Kwhr. This could be a few percent lower than what actually goes through the meter because the LEAF calculates the Kwhr used by the motor, not how much was sucked out of the wall when charging. There is some loss in the charging process on the order of 5-10%.

Some of our fellow forum users might weigh in with better data.

dgpcolorado said:

One of the simplest and least expensive ways to monitor electricity usage "from the wall" is to install a refurbished utility meter. DaveinOlyWA used to have a blog post describing it in detail but blogs seem to have disappeared. Still, it is pretty straightforward and is a DIY for someone comfortable with working on electrical lines and outlets. Or it would be simple for an electrician to install. Refurb "EZ Read" meters can be had for about $50 from Hialeah Meter; you need both the meter and the base it fits into:
Meter
Socket

My installation:

It doesn't have to be hooked up to an outlet like I have, a refurb utility meter like this could be used with any sort of EVSE. And it would make tracking your electricity usage simple.

Click to expand...

Or you could get one of these, for $12.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/171306062302?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have a meter for my entire garage. I used to chart it all, but now I don't bother. Just plug it in. I guess I already own the car, and I'm just happy knowing I'm paying a heckuva lot less for transportation since I bought my leaf.

I have a setup similar to pchilds', an old utility meter feeding my Schneider EVSE. FWIW: it figures out to between 3.5 and 4 miles/KWHR. From what I've read, that's pretty common amongst EVs, and especially LEAFs. Unless you're really anal about numbers (like me, I admit!), you could just use that figure and be happy.

If I do a bit of arithmetic, my approximately 750 miles/month costs me about $25.00/month; our marginal power cost is about $.13. As our bill normally runs over $100.00/month, I don't really notice the LEAF's contribution.

A JuiceBox Premium with built-in uLCD can readout the EVSE's real time power output during a charge in killowatts (kW) and the total energy consumed during a charging session in kilowatt-hours (kWH). It also accumulates the latter for display from non-volatile memory after each subsequent charging session and converts it to the amount of money saved in equivalent gasoline based on paying $3.50/gal. The readouts have to be fairly accurate because the JuiceBox EVSE is now being used as a Wifi readable sub-meter for a unique pilot program approved by the CPUC by 1500 would-be EV-B rate payers.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I'll be looking at getting a current transformer set up for this. I think that will be best. I like the idea of using the gauge in the car, but there are a lot of times we are not charging at home, so it wouldn't give us an accurate representation of what we are spending.