Hello from St Louis, Mo

The wife and I bought our 2013 Leaf SV back in June and are loving it. It only had a little over 3,000 miles on it and we got it for $15,000.

We both have short commutes, mine is 25 miles, round-trip. Her's is about the same although some days she has to drive around more. She drives it most days and I use our first car (2009 Ford Escape Hybrid) unless she needs to drive past the range of the Leaf, then we switch.

I've been keeping track of our energy usage and comparing that to our ICE/Hybrid car--comparing kWhs to gasoline. So far we are saving money and reducing our CO2 emissions (even factoring in Missouri's heavy reliance on coal for elec. generation).

We just use the trickle charge EVSE overnight and that works well for us. We usually just charge it to 80%, only occasionally charging to 100%, since that is supposed to be best for the battery. Question: How often should I charge to 100%? Right now I'm just doing it about once a month.

We charge it outside in our drive-way. I had dedicated 110-volt and 220-volt circuits installed (in case I ever choose to go with L2 charging). Question: I would like to install an LED motion-activated overhead light above the outlets and I was hoping to tie it in to the 110 circuit. The fixture I have has 29 watts-worth of LED lights. Would this be safe?

Thanks!

Charging to 100% once a month should be fine. As far as the LED lights, while the Leaf's L1 EVSE technically uses the maximum allowable continuous amperage for a typical 15 amp residential circuit, I personally don't see the additional 29 watts (vs. the Leaf's maximum 1440 watts) causing a problem.

That said, since you already had a 240 volt circuit put in, why not take advantage of it? Not only will you have faster charging, but if your electric utility has off-peak pricing, you're more likely to be able to fully charge your car during the off-peak window vs. using L1. You can have your existing OEM EVSE upgraded to dual voltage for around $300. If you want a dedicated 240 volt EVSE, these can be had for under $400 nowadays, including the Clipper Creek LCS-20 (15 amp) and the GE DuraStation from Home Depot (30 amp).

Thanks for the reply, RonDawg.

Yes, I think I will be getting the EVSE Upgrade and start using the 220. Especially since we will start using the remote climate control via Carwings during the colder weather, and it seems like the best way to get the power drawn from the house rather than the car battery is through the 220.

One question I had about using Carwings remote climate control: does the car actually have to be charging, or is it enough that the car is just plugged in, for the climate control to draw juice from the house? I have been using the charging timer to charge and it is usually finished charging to 80% by the time I would use the remote climate control to pre-warm the car.

DvdKirtley said:

One question I had about using Carwings remote climate control: does the car actually have to be charging, or is it enough that the car is just plugged in, for the climate control to draw juice from the house? I have been using the charging timer to charge and it is usually finished charging to 80% by the time I would use the remote climate control to pre-warm the car.

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The car will turn the charging system (EVSE) back on while using climate control (either through CarWings or via the built-in timer). It will only pull the amps from the EVSE needed to operate the climate system if the battery is charged to the set level.

DvdKirtley said:

Yes, I think I will be getting the EVSE Upgrade and start using the 220. Especially since we will start using the remote climate control via Carwings during the colder weather, and it seems like the best way to get the power drawn from the house rather than the car battery is through the 220.

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Yes if you need to preheat L2 is much better. Preheating using L1 becomes ineffective say below say 40 F and would not have enough power to run both the heater and charge the car simultaneously regardless of temperature.

One question I had about using Carwings remote climate control: does the car actually have to be charging, or is it enough that the car is just plugged in, for the climate control to draw juice from the house? I have been using the charging timer to charge and it is usually finished charging to 80% by the time I would use the remote climate control to pre-warm the car.

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It just needs to be plugged in.