How long will the battery heater keep my Li-ion battery warm if I leave my 2012 Leaf SL unplugged, assuming the outside temp is minus 10 Fahrenheit (-23 C)?
I commute to work and park my car in a parking garage at the start of the day with about 7 bars of charge left on the available charge gauge (the guess-o-meter). I have always plugged the car in when it's below -4 F, as the owner's manual recommends, but I'm wondering if that's really necessary. Will I still have a working car when I come out to start it at the end of an 8 hour day?
How many bars will I lose on the available charge gauge if the battery heater is operating for 8 hours? By my calculations, the loss would be about 1 bar. The battery heater uses 300 watts. 300 X 8 hours = 2400 watts, or 2.4 kWh. On a 24 kWh battery, that translates to a 10 percent loss. Can anyone tell me if this is how the Leaf operates in the real world?
I commute to work and park my car in a parking garage at the start of the day with about 7 bars of charge left on the available charge gauge (the guess-o-meter). I have always plugged the car in when it's below -4 F, as the owner's manual recommends, but I'm wondering if that's really necessary. Will I still have a working car when I come out to start it at the end of an 8 hour day?
How many bars will I lose on the available charge gauge if the battery heater is operating for 8 hours? By my calculations, the loss would be about 1 bar. The battery heater uses 300 watts. 300 X 8 hours = 2400 watts, or 2.4 kWh. On a 24 kWh battery, that translates to a 10 percent loss. Can anyone tell me if this is how the Leaf operates in the real world?