Taking delivery today - DFW

Hello,

I'm a happy new lessee of a 2015 fully-loaded black/black SL in the DFW area. After a whole lot of research and calculations, we decided to go for it, and got a good deal on the lease as well.
My new daily round-trip is ~52 highway miles, so in the summer with the A/C, it will likely be pushing the upper end of the range. I'll be able to trickle charge at work, and there is a Blink charger at a grocery store not far away, and there's never a lack of stop & go traffic to exercise the regenerative braking. I'm still investigating the best options for home EVSE, but currently leaning toward the JuiceBox - is this a wise direction? Are there any required permits I should know about in the area?

I'll be replacing my beloved twin turbo 300ZX, so we're hoping everything works out ok.

Thanks,
mnmb

All of the home built style ( JuiceBox, OpenEVSE) lack UL approval. The Juicebox seems to be reliable but if you follow the thread in the EVSE section support is lacking.

Many here like the UL approved Clipper Creek units. They have a full line of current ranges. Levitron is also good. There have been a few reported problems with GE.

As long as UL approval is not important and it plugs in then the Juicebox is fine. NEC stops at the socket.

Check out the EVSE section. There are a few recommended lists there.

Congrats! I believe Nissan is running a "free home charger" program in March. You should call your dealer and see if you can get one that way...

Congrats!!!

mnmb said:

My new daily round-trip is ~52 highway miles, so in the summer with the A/C, it will likely be pushing the upper end of the range. I'll be able to trickle charge at work,

Click to expand...

I don't think you'll have an issue (at least not for a few years) with a 52 mile round trip with A/C in a new Leaf.
Especially with trickle charging at work, but even without..

Although, if you try to drive the Leaf like it's a twin turbo 300ZX, then maybe.. ;-)

Good luck!

desiv

Congrats on your EV purchase! Checkout one of our local NTEAA meetings @ http://www.nteaa.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
We will be at Earth Day in April, but basically we meet the third Saturday of every month.
BTW, that RT commute won't be an issue in Dallas...even in the winter.

GlennD said:

All of the home built style ( JuiceBox, OpenEVSE) lack UL approval. The Juicebox seems to be reliable but if you follow the thread in the EVSE section support is lacking.
Many here like the UL approved Clipper Creek units. They have a full line of current ranges. Levitron is also good. There have been a few reported problems with GE.
As long as UL approval is not important and it plugs in then the Juicebox is fine. NEC stops at the socket.
Check out the EVSE section. There are a few recommended lists there.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I think Clipper Creek was 2nd on my interest list so far. I'll spend a good amount of time reading through that section.

jhm614 said:

Congrats! I believe Nissan is running a "free home charger" program in March. You should call your dealer and see if you can get one that way...

Click to expand...

I haven't seen or heard anything about this, at least around here. I'll be picking it up this evening, so I can always ask.

desiv said:

Congrats!!!
I don't think you'll have an issue (at least not for a few years) with a 52 mile round trip with A/C in a new Leaf.
Especially with trickle charging at work, but even without..

Although, if you try to drive the Leaf like it's a twin turbo 300ZX, then maybe.. ;-)

Click to expand...

My concern was needing to go anywhere else besides home->work->home, being able to charge it some at work will ease that a little. Unless I drive it like the Z.

Stanton said:

Congrats on your EV purchase! Checkout one of our local NTEAA meetings @ http://www.nteaa.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
We will be at Earth Day in April, but basically we meet the third Saturday of every month.
BTW, that RT commute won't be an issue in Dallas...even in the winter.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

mnmb said:

Hello,

I'm a happy new lessee of a 2015 fully-loaded black/black SL in the DFW area. After a whole lot of research and calculations, we decided to go for it, and got a good deal on the lease as well.
My new daily round-trip is ~52 highway miles, so in the summer with the A/C, it will likely be pushing the upper end of the range. I'll be able to trickle charge at work, and there is a Blink charger at a grocery store not far away, and there's never a lack of stop & go traffic to exercise the regenerative braking. ...

Click to expand...

Hi, congratulations! Hope you enjoy your LEAF as much as I have mine.

Given your mention of regenerative braking, you might want to check out the following thread for a good discussion about how to drive efficiently in the LEAF when desired, and how regenerative braking fits into that goal. One doesn't necessarily have to use all of the tips, but it's good to know it all works.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5508" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So here's a newbie question: what's the best continuous amperage I should get for the EVSE? From what I've been reading, I think 32A is what I need to take advantage of the 7.7kw charger, is that right?

You need more than 27.5A. A 30A or 32A will do the job. The car charger will take its full current as long as the EVSE offers enough. For example with a 24A EVSE it would draw 24A. With the J1772 max of 80A it would still only draw 27.5A

Some people over buy the EVSE in the forlorn hope it will make the car charge faster. As long as the EVSE's pilot indicates greater than 27.5A then the car is happy.

GlennD said:

You need more than 27.5A. A 30A or 32A will do the job. The car charger will take its full current as long as the EVSE offers enough. For example with a 24A EVSE it would draw 24A. With the J1772 max of 80A it would still only draw 27.5A

Some people over buy the EVSE in the forlorn hope it will make the car charge faster. As long as the EVSE's pilot indicates greater than 27.5A then the car is happy.

Click to expand...

Perfect, thanks.

jhm614 said:

Congrats! I believe Nissan is running a "free home charger" program in March. You should call your dealer and see if you can get one that way...

Click to expand...

You were correct about this, I'm getting a free 240v EVSE! It is a promotion (unadvertised I guess) only for March.

My drive to work took less than 1/4 of the battery this morning (traffic, no A/C), so I'm feeling good so far.

I'm in the DF/W area also (Ft.Worth). You are definitely going to want a Level-2 unit installed with that much daily driving.

This might be another newbie question, so I'm putting it here: My dealership created a carwings account when I picked up the car, I can log in at nissanusa.com/owners and it has all my info there. On the nav screen under carwings, it shows the white car with signal at the top. When carwings actually connects to the server (which has been just twice so far), after I go to sign in with the same log-in info, it says I need a carwings account... Is there some extra step missing?

Additionally, I have not yet gotten to a point where I put in the carwings PIN.

Thanks

Watch out on cold days here in Dallas. 52 miles is exactly the distance from my house to the airport, and with the heater on, it's a close shave. Keep your speed down on the freeway. That might be a hard habit to break coming from a twin-turbo 300ZX.

Re: the carwings problem I was having, I solved it by entering the right password on the nav screen, which is supposed to be the generated one from the portal. That was my error.

aarond12 said:

Watch out on cold days here in Dallas. 52 miles is exactly the distance from my house to the airport, and with the heater on, it's a close shave. Keep your speed down on the freeway. That might be a hard habit to break coming from a twin-turbo 300ZX.

Click to expand...

Do you recharge it somewhere near the airport?

mnmb said:

jhm614 said:

Congrats! I believe Nissan is running a "free home charger" program in March. You should call your dealer and see if you can get one that way...

Click to expand...

You were correct about this, I'm getting a free 240v EVSE! It is a promotion (unadvertised I guess) only for March.

My drive to work took less than 1/4 of the battery this morning (traffic, no A/C), so I'm feeling good so far.

Click to expand...

Double congrats! Glad you called about it!

jhm614 said:

mnmb said:

jhm614 said:

Congrats! I believe Nissan is running a "free home charger" program in March. You should call your dealer and see if you can get one that way...

Click to expand...

You were correct about this, I'm getting a free 240v EVSE! It is a promotion (unadvertised I guess) only for March.

My drive to work took less than 1/4 of the battery this morning (traffic, no A/C), so I'm feeling good so far.

Click to expand...

Double congrats! Glad you called about it!

Click to expand...

They had the claim form ready when I took delivery actually.

Are there any tips on reducing the amount of sound from the speakers that leaks outside the car? The hands-free call audio is extremely audible even with the windows closed. You can't hear the person that is in the car speaking, but you can hear the person on the other end of the call very well.

mnmb said:

My new daily round-trip is ~52 highway miles, so in the summer with the A/C, it will likely be pushing the upper end of the range.

Click to expand...

Unlike with an ICEV, A/C is not a big power drain on a pure electric. Winter will be your challenge, as a cold battery won't hold as much charge, cold air is denser and thus harder to push through, winter bringing driving conditions that will use more energy, and the use of heat, though the SL's hybrid heating system will help extend range. (the base model still uses the less-efficient style heater).