RegGuheert
Well-known member
Like many here, I have battery life anxiety to go along with my range anxiety!
Unlike most, I have an incentive to charge during the daytime rather than at night. The reason is that our solar array produces about 8 kW during the sunlight hours. There is a long run back to the meter from the array. While the microinverters produce 240 VAC and I used fairly large wire, I think there may still be a percent or so of voltage drop. So the plan has always been to feed the EV and the array from the same sub panel to eliminate losses in both directions. To my knowledge, our electricity provider does not offer time-of-use metering, so I have no incentive to charge at night from that angle.
But some anecdotal evidence I have read here makes me wonder if perhaps charging at higher ambient temperatures may adversely affect the life of the battery in the Leaf. Of course the charger is temperature compensated, but high temperatures do tend to have the effect of making things wear out more quickly.
So my question is this: Is there any reason to believe that I will get more life out of the battery pack by charging in the cool hours of the middle of the night versus during the heat of the day this summer?
A secondary question would be for winter: It does seem likely that charging during the warmest hours of the day would be more efficient than charging during the cold of the night in winter. Is that correct?
Finally, I'm wondering if I will get better battery life if I charge at a lower power. I understand that There is a fixed 100 W draw, so efficiency drops at lower charging power but will it be better for the battery? I will soon have the options here to charge at 120 V @ 12 A, 240 V @ 12 A or 240 V @ 16 A.
Please provide links to specific data for the Leaf battery or at least Li-ion information if you can.
TIA!
Unlike most, I have an incentive to charge during the daytime rather than at night. The reason is that our solar array produces about 8 kW during the sunlight hours. There is a long run back to the meter from the array. While the microinverters produce 240 VAC and I used fairly large wire, I think there may still be a percent or so of voltage drop. So the plan has always been to feed the EV and the array from the same sub panel to eliminate losses in both directions. To my knowledge, our electricity provider does not offer time-of-use metering, so I have no incentive to charge at night from that angle.
But some anecdotal evidence I have read here makes me wonder if perhaps charging at higher ambient temperatures may adversely affect the life of the battery in the Leaf. Of course the charger is temperature compensated, but high temperatures do tend to have the effect of making things wear out more quickly.
So my question is this: Is there any reason to believe that I will get more life out of the battery pack by charging in the cool hours of the middle of the night versus during the heat of the day this summer?
A secondary question would be for winter: It does seem likely that charging during the warmest hours of the day would be more efficient than charging during the cold of the night in winter. Is that correct?
Finally, I'm wondering if I will get better battery life if I charge at a lower power. I understand that There is a fixed 100 W draw, so efficiency drops at lower charging power but will it be better for the battery? I will soon have the options here to charge at 120 V @ 12 A, 240 V @ 12 A or 240 V @ 16 A.
Please provide links to specific data for the Leaf battery or at least Li-ion information if you can.
TIA!