My car park looked just like yours a few weeks ago. But then I sold my Prius.baumgrenze said:
My car park looked just like yours a few weeks ago. But then I sold my Prius.baumgrenze said:
thankyouOB said:very much interesting stuff in this series of posts.
BRAVO.
i wish we had actual data from Nissan about this, instead of our educated guesses.
My basic conundrum is whether to charge beyond 80% at work, where it is free. We have both L1 and L2 available.
Basically, I could charge only at work and go back and forth.
To save 50 cents a day (charge to 100%) seems like a bad bargain. My round-trip is 50 miles, and DWP rates are about 8.5 cents a kWh.
So, I typically charge to 80% at home (10 bars), run down to 6 bars going to work and recharge to 80% for the trip home.
It's all a guess, but here are some educated guesses from an old thread that suggest that 30% depth of discharge may be significantly better thank 60% depth of discharge for preserving battery capacity over time:thankyouOB said:do all the gearheads agree that charging to 90% is as harmless to the battery as charging to 80%--that due to the updated firmware?
Stoaty said:It's all a guess, but here are some educated guesses from an old thread that suggest that 30% depth of discharge may be significantly better thank 60% depth of discharge for preserving battery capacity over time:thankyouOB said:do all the gearheads agree that charging to 90% is as harmless to the battery as charging to 80%--that due to the updated firmware?
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5331&p=125835" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Read through most of the page, paying special attention to posts by surfingslovak and ericsf.
Leaves me with one conclusion: until I know different, I want to go as easy as possible on the battery without sacrificing needed functionality.
My understanding is that the best for the battery is to shallow cycle it and keep the charge from getting too high or too low. So for a 30% cycling, 40-70% would be the optimal range. We know that charging fully (especially at high temperature) is less than optimal, and also that fully discharging the battery isn't optimal either.thankyouOB said:so, I found depth of discharge definition via google.
given that, DOD de-optimization would seem to indicate that if you are going to use 5 bars, you get a shallower DOD if you charge to 90% and run from there to 6 bars, than charge to 80% and end up with 5 bars left.
Why wouldn't 35%-65% be even more optimal? Based on Tony's chart, which I trust, 36% to 66% would be 3 bars to 7 bars. Here's the way I look at it for optimal cycling:Stoaty said:My understanding is that the best for the battery is to shallow cycle it and keep the charge from getting too high or too low. So for a 30% cycling, 40-70% would be the optimal range.
Just because it's "free" to you, does not mean that it's that's the best time to charge. Charging at work during the day (especially in the afternoon) means charging when electricity rates are highest and the least efficient power plants are running. Personally, I would just charge to 80% at both work/home with a 24-hour charging time frame and forget about it. This gets you charged back up to 80% before lunch when grid loads are low and minimizes depth of discharge for your driving.thankyouOB said:My basic conundrum is whether to charge beyond 80% at work, where it is free. We have both L1 and L2 available.
Basically, I could charge only at work and go back and forth.
To save 50 cents a day (charge to 100%) seems like a bad bargain. My round-trip is 50 miles, and DWP rates are about 8.5 cents a kWh.
So, I typically charge to 80% at home (10 bars), run down to 6 bars going to work and recharge to 80% for the trip home.
That is getting to be too much work, even for me. Also, remember that it is time and temperature at higher charge that is less than optimal for the battery. I charge to 80% starting at 4:30 AM to a bit after 7:00 AM. When I get to work I am down to about 60% charge, so the higher SOC is only about 1.5 hours, and this also occurs when temperatures are lower. Cycling between 80% and 35% by the Gid-o-meter for my normal work commute also leaves me additional wiggle room in case I need to go somewhere else, and for about 20 hours per day the battery is in the range of 35-65%. On weekends, I don't charge to more than 8 bars, since I don't drive as much. This plan is:planet4ever said:Why wouldn't 35%-65% be even more optimal? Based on Tony's chart, which I trust, 36% to 66% would be 3 bars to 7 bars. Here's the way I look at it for optimal cycling:
30% - 7 bars to 3 bars
40% - 8 bars to 2 bars
50% - 9 bars to 1 bar
65% - 10 bars to Low Battery
80% - 11 bars to Very Low Battery
planet4ever said:Here's the way I look at it for optimal cycling:
30% - 7 bars to 3 bars
40% - 8 bars to 2 bars
50% - 9 bars to 1 bar
65% - 10 bars to Low Battery
80% - 11 bars to Very Low Battery
dgpcolorado said:I also do a variation on a partial charge: when I come home almost empty I want to charge a bit to put the battery pack back into the middle range, so I just charge via override for an hour or hour and a half by setting a kitchen timer. Then I unplug/replug and allow the car to go back to the 80% timer set for midday, so that I can use my solar power directly on sunny days (or middle of the night if it is cloudy). If I am already in the middle of the battery pack and don't need the range I will skip charging entirely.
I'm going to have to remember Stoaty's 25 minutes-per-bar rule-of-thumb. That's helpful.
planet4ever said:Personally, I aim for a 60% range: 80% charge (9.7 bars) to 20% charge (shortly below Low Battery). In my car, Low Battery comes pretty reliably at GOM=8, so I try to get home with one bar still showing, and before GOM drops to single digits.
paulchurchley said:I have taken the view that I bought the car from Nissan and trust that they have built the car to look after the battery as much as possible so I just charge when I need to. I realise that I might get a bit more life out of the battery over a number of years by following the kinds of charging strategies mentioned here but I feel that the savings are minimal at best and I have better things to think about than worrying about when to charge, stop charging etc.
I set the timer to stop at 80% and it charges everyday unless I didn't use the car that day. If I know I have a longer trip next day I charge to 100%. If I need to fast charge, even several times a day, then I do but I do keep an eye on battery temps.
I have had the car a year and done 11,000 miles and so far range has not reduced any noticable amount.
Enter your email address to join: