Practical use of a quick charger

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pluginmax

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
15
Hi,
I am considering leasing a leaf and plan to charge it on a L2 charger at work (40 miles roundtrip commute), and might install a L2 charger at home. I was wondering if there is any point in going for a quick charge option. I believe the Leaf can be charged from 0-80% in 30 minutes, but where do you find such chargers. Has anyone been able to justify investing in a QC.

thanks
 
pluginmax said:
Hi,
I am considering leasing a leaf and plan to charge it on a L2 charger at work (40 miles roundtrip commute), and might install a L2 charger at home. I was wondering if there is any point in going for a quick charge option. I believe the Leaf can be charged from 0-80% in 30 minutes, but where do you find such chargers. Has anyone been able to justify investing in a QC.

thanks

I could never justify L3 at home. I think it would require upgrading my home's service.

In addition, my L2 EVSE handles the 6.6 kw max of my Leaf on-board charger, and gives me about 36 miles per hour of charging until it tapers off approaching full charge.

Glen
 
ksstathead said:
I could never justify L3 at home. I think it would require upgrading my home's service.
Unless you had some super crazy configuration in your house, you definitely could not do it. Potentially even your entire block would need an upgrade.

pluginmax said:
I am considering leasing a leaf and plan to charge it on a L2 charger at work (40 miles roundtrip commute), and might install a L2 charger at home.
If you get free charging at work, you could potentially skip charging at home entirely. My commute worked out such that I could do it like that. I only charge at home on the L1 when I make rare trips out of town.
 
If you get free charging at work, you could potentially skip charging at home entirely

Please don't do that. Please don't be a charger hog. Your employer is providing those facilities presumably not for you to save pennies on electricity, but to provide you the ability to commute without any range anxiety. So start with a full charge everyday from home and then top it off at work, so you start with a full charge from either ends. This way you can maximize the charger usage with multiple folks in your facility.
 
mkjayakumar said:
If you get free charging at work, you could potentially skip charging at home entirely

Please don't do that. Please don't be a charger hog. Your employer is providing those facilities presumably not for you to save pennies on electricity, but to provide you the ability to commute without any range anxiety. So start with a full charge everyday from home and then top it off at work, so you start with a full charge from either ends. This way you can maximize the charger usage with multiple folks in your facility.
I didn't say leave your vehicle plugged in all day every day. I also didn't say he should only do that. Only the potential was there to minimize his needs to speed another ~$1000 installing an L2 at home. Some work places, like mine, list it as an employee benefit. Should the OP not be able to take advantage of something like that as well, just because he has a shorter commute?

I charge up every other day, and I move it as soon as it's done charging (sometimes before, just because the last hour provides very little SOC). I'm not hogging anyone's spot. Even if they started charging a nominal fee, I probably wouldn't change my habits. If they charged $0.55/kWh, as many places seem to, I would need to recharge ~100 times to justify the $1000 installation of a home L2. At my current commute, that comes out to about 13.25 months.
 
I don't think the OP was asking if he should get his own QC charging unit, but if it was worth it to get the QC charge option *in the car*. That depends on the location, if any, of QC chargers in your area. I have zero in mine, so I think I did well getting an SV without QC, but with Premium Package, for less. So do your homework, and please put your location in your member listing here.
 
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I was talking of buying the QC option on the car. I will not be a hog at work. The office charging rate if 50c/hour for 3 hours and then 5dollars/hour after that :)
 
What are you considering? If you are getting the S then definitely get the charge package because it has a bigger on board charger too. That is REALLY handy. If you are getting the sv, then you already have the larger charger, but if you get the chademo port you get led head lights and fog lights I believe. If I got the sv, I definitely would have paid for it. The money is not just going down a rat hole. It makes your car worth more as well.
 
mctom987 said:
mkjayakumar said:
If you get free charging at work, you could potentially skip charging at home entirely

Please don't do that. Please don't be a charger hog. Your employer is providing those facilities presumably not for you to save pennies on electricity, but to provide you the ability to commute without any range anxiety. So start with a full charge everyday from home and then top it off at work, so you start with a full charge from either ends. This way you can maximize the charger usage with multiple folks in your facility.
I didn't say leave your vehicle plugged in all day every day. I also didn't say he should only do that. Only the potential was there to minimize his needs to speed another ~$1000 installing an L2 at home. Some work places, like mine, list it as an employee benefit. Should the OP not be able to take advantage of something like that as well, just because he has a shorter commute?
Quite a presumption. I have free charging at work and there are no strict rules governing how the free charging should be used to charge employee EVs/PHEVs.

It's also not pennies in places w/expensive electricity, like PG&E-land. See these:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=155519#p155519" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=378936#p378936" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=235977#p235977" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

mkjayakumar, feel free to list a typical winter and summer monthly kWh usage amount (and the month) w/associated cost for your house pre-EV/PHEV and after. I could tell you what they'd cost based on the E-1 schedule (http://www.pge.com/tariffs/ERS.SHTML#ERS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and my allotted tier 1 baseline.

From what I've gathered, it seems to be more of a benefit/perk for mine. We have no significant issues w/utilization, hogging at my work or charging etiquette (people free up spaces and handles upon request w/the help of an internal list w/license plate #, car and owner's name) despite our informal, self-governed system. Also, we have EV valets who have 6 dedicated J1772 handles for their use.

The 2nd most popular plug-in at my work is the Volt. We've also got an increasing # of Fusion and C-Max Energis along w/PiPs. Should they not be entitled to charge? I've started sessions for Model Ses and a recent one pulled down over 16 kWh. Another I plugged in many months ago (IIRC) sucked down over 24 kWh. I don't think any of the Model S owners have very long commutes.

I've spoken to several PHEV and EV owners at my work who have no ability to charge at home.
 
mkjayakumar said:
If you get free charging at work, you could potentially skip charging at home entirely

Please don't do that. Please don't be a charger hog. Your employer is providing those facilities presumably not for you to save pennies on electricity, but to provide you the ability to commute without any range anxiety. So start with a full charge everyday from home and then top it off at work, so you start with a full charge from either ends. This way you can maximize the charger usage with multiple folks in your facility.

Your entitled to your opinion and maybe you have that issue where you are at. Most of the time that's not the case in most places. It's use not ab.use. Usually there are 2 spots available when I arrive and sometimes other spot is empty when I leave after 2-3hours of charge..
 
LeftieBiker said:
I don't think the OP was asking if he should get his own QC charging unit, but if it was worth it to get the QC charge option *in the car*. That depends on the location, if any, of QC chargers in your area. I have zero in mine, so I think I did well getting an SV without QC, but with Premium Package, for less. So do your homework, and please put your location in your member listing here.
It doesn't just depend on location. I depends on your traction pack's AGE too. Try owning a Leaf with a 50,000 mile pack . . . down a couple bars, and needing to get around. Once your pack no longer holds the same charge it did when new, you'll LONG to have QC capability (or, you'll have to palm your ride off on someone that doesn't drive as far as frequently). Irony of irony ... Q C'ing diminishes capacity. But once your capacity is diminished, you'll likely NEED to QC more and more and more. Nissan's PR spin is that capacity loss is non-linear, making you think the loss will slow. Yet (and it's something Nissan didn't tell you) that is not true if you need to QC just to get where you need to be on a much teenier capacity.
 
I would definitely get the QC option. Even if your area doesn't have any yet, it probably will soon, and let me tell you once you have use of them you will become addicted. They are wonderful for extending your range. If there was one option I would suggest for all leaf owners it would be to get the QC option.
 
johnrhansen said:
What are you considering? If you are getting the S then definitely get the charge package because it has a bigger on board charger too. That is REALLY handy. If you are getting the sv, then you already have the larger charger, but if you get the chademo port you get led head lights and fog lights I believe. If I got the sv, I definitely would have paid for it. The money is not just going down a rat hole. It makes your car worth more as well.

I'll give a +1 to this comment. having owned a leaf with the 3.3 kW onboard charging and no QC, and then having upgraded recently to a 6.6 kW charger and QC option, it really improves the versatility of the car. In fact, for us I think we get more benefit from the 6.6 kW charger because it means the car is charged up quickly at home and can be used for more driving throughout the day. But even when using a public L2 station, you get 20 miles of range in an hour.
 
Pipcecil said:
I would definitely get the QC option. Even if your area doesn't have any yet, it probably will soon, and let me tell you once you have use of them you will become addicted. They are wonderful for extending your range. If there was one option I would suggest for all leaf owners it would be to get the QC option.

So it's like a drug (Truly kidding) once you try it and get hooked you are in and can't get out? :lol:
 
Just cause it was mentioned.
I think when it comes to an L3 charger we're talking about 480 volts. Which would be 3-phase power as opposed to your residential single phase power(120/240). So for your residence you would have to hope that there is a 3 phase bank for some commercial site next to your house.
 
Only the potential was there to minimize his needs to speed another ~$1000 installing an L2 at home

Hold it right there. I didn't say anything about L2 or L1. If you have a plug in your garage, maximize the usage of that plug and not the one your employer provides. The only reason one would skip plugging in at home at L1 (or L2) is to save some money by consuming the free juice your employer provides. There may not be strict rules that you should not hog the charger space, but if you were to sit there for only one hour a day instead of 4 hours, that means 3 more hours of free charger utilization for someone else.

This is not a question of my opinion or your opinion. I consider this as basic charging etiquette. It is like holding the door open when you see someone walking with stuff in their hands. There is no rule to enforce.
 
I can make it to work and back charging only at home, but I need to charge to 100 percent in the morning and only have 30 percent when I get home. No I don't need to charge at work, but I'd like to. My battery would live a healthier life and I could do errands on the way home if I needed to.. There's another good reason for being able to charge at work.
 
Charge to 100% in the morning at home and then charge to 100% in the office. But don't start with 50% from home and then charge from 20% to 100% at office. That is about two hours of not charging at office, but you still have the same range remaining when you reach home.

.. but I realize we are way OT now..
 
+1 on getting the QC package on a S. The 6.6kW charger makes sure you can charge in off peak hours at night. For me with PG&E's EV rate, there are off peak hours during the day on weekends. I've used my car in the morning to run 30 miles worth of errands and then plug in at home at my L2, and be able to get a decent amount of charge to go out in the afternoon, before peak rates kick in.

The CHAdeMO came in handy a few times (because I don't have access to L2 at work) and needed to "top-off" after work before visiting a friend 20 miles a way. Plugging in at 440v for 15 minutes was able to get me enough charge to drive the extra miles and get home, not much longer than it would take to pump gas. Though, since the OP can plug-in at work... I'm not sure the CHAdeMO would come in as handy.

And I'm not sure i'd do the QC package on an SV, since you would already have the 6.6 kW charger, unless you see DCFC stations near you that would extend your range.
 
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