How to charge ?

Before starting laughing at my stupid questions please take into account that despite my very advance age I never had a car before. Neither electric nor gasoline. Not because I could not afford it but because of my personal believes. I did all my commute by bicycle and due to changing locations and jobs my commute became longer and longer and I was not getting any younger. So lately my daily commute was about 3 hours both ways. However what set me off was a pretty bad crash that ended in an emergency room, and I took it as a wakeup call to finally settle down and buy a car. So I went to a Nissan dealership today and I guess I was an easy pray for the dealers as I left with the new shiny Leaf.
These guys were of course super nice but I understand they had little knowledge about electric cars. They could not explain me how to use L2 charger at home of even if the car I was getting had 3.7 or 6.6 kw onboard charger.
So here we are: It is 2017 leaf S. From what I see it does have a large connector next to the normal charge connector so it looks like chademo option is there. Also on the LCD panel it says that it will take this much time to charge the car at 6.6kw so i guess it ha 6.6kw charger. The only accessory the dealer gave me is a trickle charger.
My question is: I have 220V in my garage but it will not provide me with 6.6kW. It should be enough for 3.7 KW though. Can I still use it to charge the car? What do I need to buy ? I guess some special cable. I was sure it should come withe the car but it did not.

You can get your trickle charger upgraded to work on both 120V and 240V through EVSE Upgrade.

Alternatively, you can buy a L2 EVSE to connect to your "220V" outlet. There are many available. Be sure that the one you get can be set at 80% of the maximum Amps allowed on that circuit.

You'll be getting a lot of more specific recommendations following soon. Thought I'd just get this started.

It would help if you posted where you are located. Assuming you are in the US.

You understand almost enough, actually. You do have a Leaf S, with (happily!) the optional Charge package. This includes both the big DC QC charging port and a faster onboard charger. Depending on the length of your commute in miles, and the weather there, you may not immediately need anything more then the charging cable that came with the car. Just make sure the outlet you plug it into is in excellent shape and doesn't have ancient wiring or other loads larger than a light bulb on its circuit.

Now, on to L-2 charging! Your 240 (the current standard in the US) circuit: is it in the form of an existing outlet for a dryer or welder, or is it just a 240 volt feed to a breaker panel of fusebox? Depending on which, the easiest approach is to either buy a L-2 home charging station and have it wired to your garage breaker box (extra work for fuses) or buy a portable charging station that will plug into the existing 240 volt outlet.

Where do you live (city, state, country)? That info will be helpful.

Sorry to hear about the accident. I love bicycles and probably feel much the same as you about cars, but an EV is pretty good if fueled with clean energy. Is PV (solar) in your future ?

91040 said:

It would help if you posted where you are located. Assuming you are in the US.

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Yes. OP, can you also update your location info via your user name in the upper right > User Control Panel > Profile tab? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

EVSEupgrade would be a decent option for 16a L2 charging, it has the advantage of being able to dial down charge current to as low as you want for your circuit. Other portable L2 EVSEs cost about the same(or even a tad less) as the EVSEupgrade but they are 16a only, no way to dial them down. If your circuit is 20a then a 16a EVSE is the max you could use but it wouldn't leave much left if your 240v circuit also powered other things in your garage. A disadvantage of the upgrade route is you have to mail your EVSE to CA for the upgrade and turnaround time(time from when you mail it to when you get it back) while very impressive can take up to a week and during that time you wouldn't have a EVSE of your own to use.
EVSEupgrade also has the advantage of still working on 120v after the upgrade, many other L2 EVSEs are 240v only so if you only want to carry around 1 EVSE the upgrade is the route to go. If you want to keep one in your trunk for emergencies and one in your garage all the time(so you don't have to keep taking the one out of your trunk) then maybe you'd want to go the separate L2 EVSE route, it's up to you. I personally like to have one in my garage always ready and carry one in my trunk for emergencies, I never leave home without one in the vehicle.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Doesn't EVSE Upgrade void the warranty ?
The funny thing is that the dealers refused to give me advise on home charging saying that even buying aftermarket cable would void the warranty and they did not want to be responsible. But the corporate Nissan website does recommend buying 3rd party L2 chargers from Amazon. Go figure
I will probably buy a 16A version and install in the garage and keep the factory charger in the car.
I would certainly upgrade the circuit to 30A but at the place I live it is a major hassle. When I had the existing 240V outlet installed for my power tools in the garage an electrician did it in two hours and then it took two month of constant scheduling/no show and double money to have it inspected by the city.

EVSEupgrade.com also sell a variety of plug adapters
http://evseupgrade.com/?main_page=index&cPath=7&zenid=cuujci081gjpc1umlvn36k4r65

Congrats on your new Leaf!

I used my trickle charger alone for a few months, but for Xmas I bought myself a Level 2 charger and had electricians install a new dedicated 240 circuit. I LOVE IT! As others have pointed out, this arrangement lets you charge nightly with the faster charger, and keep the trickle charger in your car in case of emergency.

I consider myself a careful driver but recently found myself in a VLB situation, where the "miles left" display went to "--" ... very disconcerting! Fortunately a friendly convenience store night manager was quite interested in my electric car and allowed me to trickle charge (running the cable from behind the counter!) long enough to get back home, while we yakked about the merits of EVs. I highly recommend keeping a cable in the car, even if you think it could never happen to you...

One option you may consider--if you already have a 240 outlet, perhaps all you'd need would be to have an electrician install a new receptacle? That might not require a permit (it wouldn't in my locality). An adapter is another option, although I think that would increase wear-and-tear on your current receptacle. Just a thought.

While going the EVSEupgrade might void the warranty, it would only be on the EVSE not the car and I believe Phil(of EVSEupgrade.com) warranties his work so you should be good there. Now if your leasing what many people do when they turn their Leaf in is to post here on MNL to swap their upgraded EVSE for a similar non upgraded model. Some people just charge shipping for the exchange some ask for a nominal fee and some ask what they think they can get and some list their upgraded unit on Ebay although in that case I'm not sure what they turn back in with their car. I paid Phil for the upgrade on my '13 and couldn't be happier, I exchanged my OEM EVSE on my '12 for someone here on MNL where he just asked for his shipping(generally <$10 if using a USPS prepaid box) and I also gave him a bit extra for the trouble, he just said he was paying it forward and suggested I might do the same if the time ever arose. Of course you could also get a ~$299 simple 16a portable EVSE, it's up to you and as it sounds like your 240v outlet is dedicated so either route would be fine for a maximum of 16a.
Phil sells outlet adapters for $25 I believe, if you get a EVSE off Amazon or other places try and order one with the correct plug, there are lots to chose from and more than likely you'll be able to find one with the correct end already attached. If not you could also do what I did, cut the end off my Ebusbar and wire on the end I wanted(<$10 from Amazon for a plug) and while this might void your EVSE warranty it will in no way effect your Leaf warranty, no matter what the noobs at your local dealer say. If you have issues(which you won't) just don't tell them you used anything other than the OEM EVSE, simple as that and really shouldn't be necessary but it is an option

I suggest you get a Clipper Creek home charging station that has a model number corresponding with your 240 volt circuit's rating. If it's 25 amps, go with something like an HCS-25, which will provide 20 amps of power to the car. (The EVSE has to provide no more than 80% of the circuit's full rated power, because it is considered a constant use device.) Clipper Creek makes reliable, inexpensive units that are US-made and have a 3 year warranty. You should be able to order the one you need with a plug for your 240 volt outlet installed at the factory.

Lots of great advice already so you're probably spinning around. Let me add a little more to think about. Since you were bicycling 3 hours, I will guess about 40 mi RT commute which is highly impressive. I've bicycled to work/school for nearly 40 years, so I know your aging delimma intimately, but I've never had to go more than 20 mi RT. If your daily mileage is less than about 50 mi, you "can" make the L1 trickle cable work with a standard 120V-15amp plug, which gives you 4-5 miles per hour of overnight charging. If home and charging for 14 hours, you might be able to get 50-60 miles of charge in your moderate climate (San Diego). In general the L2 240V charging is much more convenient, but it's not absolutely required. I've been L1 charging for nearly 6 years and it works just fine for me, even at 0 F temperatures, but my commute is 8 mi RT now. If you go this route absolutely make sure the receptacle is high quality, mount the L1 brick so it doesn't pull weight on the receptacle, don't have other items pulling electricity on the same circuit (or while you're charging) except maybe a low power light. I also recommend the evseupgrade folks. Way back they were the only option below $400. Now you've lots of options. Also, nobody has mentioned www.plugshare.com for finding charging stations in the outside world.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on an amazing commitment to your beliefs. I bicycle to eliminate fossil fuel use and waited over 20 years to purchase my 2011 Leaf. When I was the only person to arrive by bicycle to an anti-war protest (Iraq-Kuwait), I thought maybe I was the only person crazy enough to be this way. Thanks for letting me know there are others in this world with greater conviction.

Thanks Reddy,
It is only 28 miles round trip, however with rather steep elevation changes. Part of the route is offroad across the canyon so I had to forego my road bike and switch to the mountain bicycle, which slowed me down 4 mile per hour.
Naturally the Leaf does not like ascends either. Uses the charge almost twice as fast as it guesses it would. So if I start at 100 miles estimated charge by the time I am at work it is already at 78 or so.
We have charging stations at work. I thought these were L2 charging stations but they appear to be regular 110V slow chargers. Leaving the car for the whole working day plugged in just replenish the charge I use to go to work and back, so I think I am covered commuting to work unless I want to go somewhere else.
I noticed in the manual that Nissan does not recommend using L1 charger all the time, It makes no sense to me but I guess Nissan engineers know something I do not.

karamba said:

Naturally the Leaf does not like ascends either. Uses the charge almost twice as fast as it guesses it would. So if I start at 100 miles estimated charge by the time I am at work it is already at 78 or so.

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Those are not all miles lost. It is a revised estimate assuming you continue to climb.

L1 is fine and will never hurt the vehicle. Nissan recommends L2 so that you will have increased ownership satisfaction. For instance L1 may not fully charge the vehicle overnight leaving you short on range. If L1 works for your situation it is just fine.

karamba said:

...I noticed in the manual that Nissan does not recommend using L1 charger all the time, It makes no sense to me but I guess Nissan engineers know something I do not.

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There have been numerous threads on MNL.com over the years on this very topic, so you might search for them and review. Quick summary: It's probably a risk/legal thing.

Most people don't understand electricity, and especially high current running for 10-12 hours, so Nissan recommends an electrician and having a dedicated L2-240V station installed. It isn't right or wrong, but more of risk. There have been a few reports of "fires" or melting receptacles when using the L1 cord improperly. Personally, I put in a new high-quality receptacle, have my L1 cord mounted on the wall, and leave it there permanently except for a few rare out-of-town trips over 50 mi. I'm pretty comfortable with electricity so I know that it is relatively safe, plus I don't normally charge more than a few hours at a time (except in the winter when it's really cold). Also against Nissan recommendations, I even ran a 50 ft extension cord last week when the freezing rain didn't allow me to get up my steep driveway. I wrapped everything for snow/water protection, and since it was below 25 F, I wasn't worried about over heating.

Finally, using L2 allows for much faster charging, hence turnaround time to refill miles. I have a friend with a 2013 with 6.6 KW charger and a 5-something KW charging station at home. His commute is 45-50 mi which fits perfectly. One day he had to return home over lunch to be available for some repair work. He charged for an hour so, and was able to drive 90-100 mi that day without even worrying about range. I wouldn't be able to do that with my L1 (or even with my 3.8 KW charger). Since you purchased a 2017 with QC package, you live in an area with more driving, and public charging stations, I would recommend installing a 240 V station, at the maximum current that your garage will allow. That will allow you the ability to travel greater distances. Once I got an EV, it opened up a whole new range of activities for me that I wasn't able to do with just my bicycle.