220V Charging Absolutely Necessary?

I'm looking at a 2011 Leaf, so I'm trying to sort out my charging options/requirements.

I have a daily 36-mile (round-trip) commute, and I have free charging at work. We probably won't drive more than 20-25 miles on non-commuting trips.

The Leaf will sit in the garage for at least 12 hours every night. We don't have easy access to 220V, and we're in a rental--I'm hesitant to install a higher power outlet here.

So, the real question is: can I get by with only 110V charging?

(Also, which promotes longer battery life: 110 or 220V charging?)

Thanks!

MartinChico said:

I'm looking at a 2011 Leaf, so I'm trying to sort out my charging options/requirements.

I have a daily 36-mile (round-trip) commute, and I have free charging at work. We probably won't drive more than 20-25 miles on non-commuting trips.

The Leaf will sit in the garage for at least 12 hours every night. We don't have easy access to 220V, and we're in a rental--I'm hesitant to install a higher power outlet here.

So, the real question is: can I get by with only 110V charging?

(Also, which promotes longer battery life: 110 or 220V charging?)

Thanks!

Click to expand...

you probably could survive without 220 charging as long as you are able to charge while at work, absent that you would be pushing the limits of your old LEAF

I'll echo AVPGUY. As long as you can charge at work, this should be no problem. You can still probably get away with it without the charger at work, but you will likely find yourself inconvenienced from time to time because you won't be able to take the Leaf out in the evenings because then you won't have time to recharge before the next morning. Charging in 240V in a Leaf is not just marginally faster, it is a LOT faster. if you drive 36 miles you can bet you'll be around 50% battery charge when you get home. Maybe less on cold days. You're going to need the rest of the evening and night to recharge to 100%, probably around 8 to 10 hours. But with a 240V station you could be completely topped off in about 2 hours.

The Leaf will gain 4 miles of range for every hour it charges on 120V (compared to ~20 miles/hr on 240V). 12 hours gets you just under 50 miles of range, so as long you stay under that you're probably okay. Some think charging on 120V is unsafe on older house wiring, so that's something worth thinking about.

MartinChico said:

(Also, which promotes longer battery life: 110 or 220V charging?)

Click to expand...

No advantage either way. 240V charging takes less time so is more efficient (the charger in the car uses the same amount of electricity per hour regardless of whether you are on 120 or 240), beyond that there is no evidence of any difference to the car or battery itself. Initially it was thought that quick charging (480V) would have a detrimental effect on the battery but real life data has shown this to be minimal. Manuals from the 2011 LEAF warn against frequent quick charging - manuals for later model years revised the warning then finally dropped the warning altogether.

And yes, as others have posted you can probably get by with just level 1 at home if you have level 2 at work.

There's plenty of information about Level 1 charging here in the forums.

It's important to remember that while Level 1 seems slow by EV standards, it still represents quite a high load for a 120V household circuit and will be drawing that load continuously for many hours. So it's well worth the time to make sure that the wiring and connections are in excellent shape.

I used Level 1 for about 3 months when I first got our 2012, until I could get the work done for a 240V circuit. Level1 was easily adequate for my 25-30 miles per day. Level2 is faster of course, and more energy efficient. Since it takes less time, that means less time running the coolant pump, for example.

I drove 50 miles, mostly interstate (59 mph) each day with only L1 charging at home for 2 yrs. before we got L2 charging at work. I rarely had a problem with range and topped off each weekend to start the week at 100%.

NOTE: although I only used it 1 or 2x during the 2 yrs., I had much less range anxiety than you would expect because I could always borrow the wife or a kid's car if I needed it.

I use level 1 only and have a 50 mile round trip commute and it has never been an issue. However, my Leaf is leased and limited to 15K miles per year. There have been lots of times we would have liked to use the leaf but could not because of charging or leased miles. If I had purchased mine instead of leasing I would definitely say spend the money for the 240 circuit and level 2 EVSE.

Is the leaf going to be your only car? If you've got a back up you know you can leave it when you need to let it sit 15+hrs and you're doing run around stuff.

I have a 90 mile round trip commute and charge at work. When I first got the leaf I was fine on L1 for over a week because we have a second car. I find that being at work for 10hrs I can get just over 50% charge into it and it took me about 39-55% at 62mph most of the way to get to work in the summer.

When it was just below freezing the other night (-3C) I didn't do anything to save range and used comfortable heat and it took me 78%.

If it's L2 at work and you are there for a normal 8-10 hour work day then even if you roll into work at 1% battery you'll get up to full at work. If that's the case then I say there's probably no reason for you to buy an L2 for your place.

Even if it's an L1 at work you can definetly do it for a trial period to see if you need an L2 at home.

Yes, it is possible. I currently only have level 1, and will be adding a level 2 fairly soon. 36 miles even without work charging should be no big deal. If you know you do a lot of mid-week side trips it will turn into one though. If you have a second car for any trips that come up after hours that can be your insurance policy.

Things to keep in mind:

1) Weekends can be a bit of a bummer when you do a trip in the morning, then find that you barely have recharged at all and have to limit yourself for afternoon and evening trips.

2) Cold weather cuts range and having level 2 to pre-heat keeps the battery topped off. You can still pre-heat on 110V, but it is only slowly going to trickle back the charge you burned pre-heating. So pre-heating 15 minutes before leaving can use up a few miles of range and 110V will only put a mile back. Consider a 2012 for heated seats, or a 2013 SV/SL or later for a better charge pump heater if you are in a cold region.

3) Make sure the outlet you plan to use is on a circuit that is not already in heavy use (turn off the breaker and check what other outlets are off). I found out that my garage circuit not only powers the garage doors/lights, but my downstairs work shop (with some industrial sewing machines that pull a lot of power when in use), and my upstairs bathroom circuit (i.e. the wife's hair dryer). So until I get the 220V pulled I have to unplug the Leaf to use my shop, and I have to make sure the Leaf is done charging before my wife dries her hair. If you have any concerns about the outlet it is not a bad idea to open it up (kill the breaker first) and tighten the screws for the wires, or if the outlet feels worn out and wimpy just replace it (just a few bucks).

I commute 40 miles per day, when I get home, I plug in the Leaf. I have the end timer set to 9AM the next morning, so as to catch it just before it hits 100% (this probably doesn't really work).

My 120V ESVE plug lives in a plastic box on my driveway, plugged into a 120 V outlet on the roof of my garage, via a 12 Guage heavy duty extension cord. Not ideal as the cord is in the middle of the garage (no car in there, just tons of kids stuff and junk) and is in the way.

However, I always have a full charge (in my beat up used Leaf ... with only 9 bars capacity) in the morning.

So yeah, a 36 mile commute is no problem! My Leaf has the 3.3Kw charger, not the newer one (doesn't really matter with the 120V cord).

However, I'm having a Clipper Creek LS-20 (15 amp/240V) charger installed by an electrician TOMORROW on the wall of my house near where the car is parked on the driveway for convenience. Tripping over an extension cord that's plugged into the ceiling in the garage and then draped out under the garage door to a plastic box ... is just too ghetto.

That whole setup with install is about $800 but for the convenience of the cord on the driveway is worth it to me.

You CAN live with 120 and the stock EVSE, no problem on a 36 mile commute for sure. That's, what 8 hours of charging? Easily done over night!

Oh, I should also point out that if I had an outdoor 120V outlet near where the car is parked on the driveway, I'd have no problem using the included 120V EVSE every night, and I'd put the EVSE brick in a plastic storage bos to weatherproof it. But since I didn't, I figured I might as well install the Clipper Creek LCS-20 ($395) where I wanted one rather than have an electrician put a 120V outdoor outlet in that place. I mean, for the electrician to pull wire to that location, I might as well have him pull 220/240 and install a charger there for convenience.

I installed the $19 Clipper Creek holster too, just to have a place to put the plug instead of letting it sit on the ground.