Battery gauge at 7 bars (Texas Summer)

[1932highboy]

I live in Wichita Falls, Texas and the outside temp has been over 100+ for over 20 straight days. I see 7 bars every day.

 

[Herm]

Higher temps will age your battery faster but they wont decrease your range at all.. a hotter battery produces more power (not necessarily more energy), the air is thinner, the oil is thinner and so on. Electric racers will heat up their batteries prior to a race to get the most horsepower possible.

Humidity will make the air less dense thus increasing your range, but your batteries will not feel the humidity as heat since they cant sweat.. thus high humidity is good also.

 

[evnow]

They should be saying deterioration 0%, 5%, 10% etc. Not 100%, 95% ...

 

[Herm]

They should be saying deterioration 0%, 5%, 10% etc. Not 100%, 95% ...

Japanese-Engrish translation

 

[tzzhc4]

I also haven't hit 7 bars again since installing the HPWH despite driving daily in 100 degree weather.

I installed my HPWH in the garage last weekend and just finished insulating the garage door, layer of reflectix-airgap-5/8" foil board with any holes, gaps on the sides filled with greatstuff. With just the HPWH running a couple times a day it keeps the garage at 20 below ambient 100 outside and 80 or less in the garage depending on how much hot water we use. Makes a nice place for my wife to work (she is an artist) and a nice home for the Leaf .

 

[Volusiano]

I also haven't hit 7 bars again since installing the HPWH despite driving daily in 100 degree weather.

I installed my HPWH in the garage last weekend and just finished insulating the garage door, layer of reflectix-airgap-5/8" foil board with any holes, gaps on the sides filled with greatstuff. With just the HPWH running a couple times a day it keeps the garage at 20 below ambient 100 outside and 80 or less in the garage depending on how much hot water we use. Makes a nice place for my wife to work (she is an artist) and a nice home for the Leaf .

May I ask what the HPWH is, and what it stands for? Do you also inject some kind of insulation into the walls and ceiling of your garage, too?

 

[LEAFfan]

Our garage hit 109 yesterday, but the LEAFs battery temp stayed on 6 even after charging to 80% for 3 hours. However, when I took it out to drive, it went to 7. It was 111 here yesterday.

 

[gbarry42]

May I ask what the HPWH is, and what it stands for?

You may recall that earlier he talked about getting a Heat Pump Water Heater. Apparently they draw so much heat from the air to heat the water, that the garage gets 20 degrees cooler. Rather remarkable.

I note, looking at the temperature chart, that they present a fine detail above 8 and below 4 bars. This suggests to me that that's where the concern is. The temperatures in between--where there are big jumps--are of little interest to anyone watching for trouble, and just serve as a transition from the cold temps to the warm.

 

[LEAFfan]

I also haven't hit 7 bars again since installing the HPWH despite driving daily in 100 degree weather.

If you don't mind me asking, how much is it for one of those HPWHs? I've never heard of those before. Right now, we have our tank wrapped and use a hot water timer which is only on an hour a day most of the time. If the cost is fairly reasonable, and they don't take up much more space than the present water heater, I may buy one.

 

[nrgrevolution]

Another report from Phoenix. I work a second shift and leave for work at 2:30 PM, Inside the garage (faces North, uninsulated walls & ceiling,but newly insulated alum. garage door,myself) Temp outside 110, inside garage Temp is 104 (gauge is located on west wall 2 feet off concrete) I leave at 6 bars, drive one mile of surface streets hit freeway, drive 19 miles at 55 mph and quickly hit 7th bar, park at work, still on bar 7.
At work, I plug into 110v in the sun, with a charge timer delay to start at 7pm and trickle charge till 2am. Upon leaving work, its still around 85 degrees outside and I crack the windows and cruise at the same 55 mph, lights on, no AC for the return trip, 7 bars all the way ( assuming, just pulling it off trickle charge accounts for the 7th bar).
My question I've always pondered, and would love to hear others feedback on ....
Is Level 1 (110v trickle charging) easier (less heat) on the battery pack than Level 2?
We all know 440v is only allowed to 80%, because of stress (heat?) so can this logic be applied to Level 1 vs Level 2?
My concern as an owner (not a leaser) is the long term life of the battery pack, I wish to drive this car for 10 to 15 years and would be fine with 75% capacity at the end. I believe, at least for me, its all about the battery pack with this car. For what its worth, I'd rather not hear the endless debate about lease vs buy strategy.............. :shock:

 

[Volusiano]

Is Level 1 (110v trickle charging) easier (less heat) on the battery pack than Level 2?

I'm no expert, but I think L2 charging does not cause any significantly more heat than L1 charging that it's worth the effort trying to do the L1 on a regular basis just in case it may prolong the life of the battery for a little tiny bit more, if any.

I believe the L1 charger should be left alone in the trunk for the cases where you may need to do emergency charging to have it available. If people have an L2 charger in there garage, but use the L1 charging because they think it's less stress on the battery, they'll end up being lazy about taking the L1 in and out of the trunk all the times, and will end up leaving the L1 in the garage permanently and not have it when they're out and about and need it for an emergency charge.

I also believe in using the L2 to top off the Leaf to 83% asap when you're back home, in case you ever need the range for some emergency trip and you don't have it because you're trying to do L1 charging overnight.

Nissan has designed the L2 to be the regular charging mode, and due to the benefits of using the L2 that I stated above (convenience and readiness), I think it makes no sense to try to do L1 charging at home if you don't have to, just so you can think you may help prolong battery life while you may not after all.

If anything, I think L1 charging is not as efficient as L2 charging in terms of converting as much of the energy from the outlet into the battery pack, just because it takes so long to charge that the overhead waste of energy due to inefficiency is multiplied by the much longer charge time. For example, if both L1 and L2 are 80% efficient (just an example here, don't really know if it's truly 80% or what), at least the 20% efficiency loss on the L2 is only for 7 hours, while the 20% efficiency lost of the L1 is stretched out to the whole 21 hours.

 

[Herm]

NGR, both L1 and L2 are very gentle methods of recharging the battery... I would not hesitate to use L3 charging either, but perhaps not in a Phoenix summer.

 

[nrgrevolution]

Appreciate the feedback. I've always felt that Nissan all along has been EXTREMELY paranoid about folks running themselves out of juice and ending up on the 6 o'clock news dead on the freeway with a tow truck hooking up. And rightfully so IMO, and the exact reason they discourage L1 charging, for those not in tune with the mileage they need + some for a detour.

If anyone is interested in insulating an aluminum garage door yourself, here is a shot of mine (nearly done) with some 1 1/2" foam insulation board from HD. Also, I haven't ran into a photo of a set of Coverking Leather seat covers (front) on a leaf, so I got brave and got some. Both photo's can be seen here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/113111...authkey=Gv1sRgCIbW-cSsi87svQE&feat=directlink

 

[tzzhc4]

Do you also inject some kind of insulation into the walls and ceiling of your garage, too?

HWPW is a Heat Pump Water Heater. I had purchased two of them last year and had to reorganize the garage to install them. And yes we did have foam injection in our walls last year and added another R30 of insulation to the attic and a radiant barrier the year before. The cooling from the HPWH really depends on how much hot water we use. On a moderately heavy use day (showers, dishwasher, cleaning etc) with the garage door closed all day we see 20 degrees difference in the garage. On an average day with the door open a couple times it is more like 15 degrees differnt (more data points as time goes on) but still makes the garage a much nicer place to work and also much nicer for the Leaf.

 

[tzzhc4]

If you don't mind me asking, how much is it for one of those HPWHs? I've never heard of those before. Right now, we have our tank wrapped and use a hot water timer which is only on an hour a day most of the time. If the cost is fairly reasonable, and they don't take up much more space than the present water heater, I may buy one.

I picked up two Geyser HPWH last year for 800 a piece. They are retofit units and I have them a table I built in front of our old electric water heaters which are now just used as storage. In the future when the old steel tanks fail I will replace them with stainless steel tanks. So what I have takes up about double the space. I know Rheem and a couple other companies have all in one units that are just taller then normal water heaters. The placement of my tanks just didn't permit me switching to those since I didn't have room for sufficient circulation. The Geyser HPWH are similar to the chillers I have had on my reef tanks for a long time, just stainless instead of titanium and obviously heat flow is opposite

 

[EdmondLeaf]

6 bars all time now for about a month

 

[DesertDenizen]

Here in Tucson it has been hovering around 100 and I always seem to be at 6 bars. I don't drive much, short trips on secondary roads. I charged to 100% exactly once, just to check it out.

 

[leafwing]

It has been in the 90's since I got my Leaf and the 100's started earlier this week. After driving (nothing strenuous just around town and a little bit of highway) the battery temperature gauge was showing 7 bars. Given what the manual says that puts the battery temperature between 98.2 and 121. When not in use and charging the Leaf is in our garage out of the Sun.

What are people in other hot (Arizona, Texas and Southern California) seeing?

Last summer was seven bars too; all summer long (when the temp. was over 90). It is normal in Texas, I guess.

 

[LEAFfan]

I just talked to one of the ECO techs who owns or leases a LEAF, and he told me he used to let his sit out in the sun during the whole day and the ambient temp in the car hit 125F. He also charged during the day and then precooled before going home and was at ten bars (one before the red), but was only allowed to drive 25mph max. He said Turtle didn't shut it down, but it behaved as if in Turtle as far as limiting his speed. When he arrived home, he shut it off, then back on and it was normal again.
He also said that after taking the car to the dealer (wouldn't charge after the EVBS light came on), he left with 11 capacity bars, but in a few minutes, it went back to 12.