Is there anyone who does NOT charge their Leaf at home?

[TangoKilo]

I charge less than 50% at home... One year and 18,000+ miles... Still going strong!

 

[dgpcolorado]

I do charge at home (no public charge stations here) but, as I've mentioned elsewhere, usually during the day so that I can use my solar power directly and because midday is off-peak for my local power co-op. I am charging right now—12:30 PM—because it is sunny and a good solar day.

I don't have to worry about overloading a neighborhood transformer because the power co-op gave me my own when I built my house. Things are different out in the boondocks.

 

[Jagular]

Is the EV parking permit specific to San Jose residents?

Here is the application form. The vehicle must have been purchased from a dealer located in San Jose: http://bit.ly/sjparking (PDF)

Correct. Although the chargers across from the courthouse, on Santa Clara, are free (ChargePoint) and the parking spaces are free, even during the week. You don't need a permit for those. During the week, there's a three hour parking limit, though.

 

[GoingGreener]

Thanks! 3 hrs is a good amount of time to charge while exploring on foot and finding some good eats if available nearby.

 

[Brentster]

I've never charged at home in the time we've had our Leaf. 99% of the time I charge up at work for free. The other 1% of the time we use a local Blink charger that is less than 2 miles away. It can be done

We rent our apartment/quadplex and there are no electrical outlets whatsoever in our garage or outside of the house. It's not practical at all to charge at home since that would involve running an extension cord out the window to the driveway. When we bought our Leaf I e-mailed the property management company to ask the owner to run electricity to our garage but never got an answer, hence charging at work all the time...

 

[aqn]

I was talking to someone the other day who was claiming that EV charging would bring down the power grid in places like California. He said that since people needed 50 kilowatts to charge their cars quickly...

Did you ask him for proof of that?

Here's your proof that he's full of ****:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/chevy-volt-sales-surge-blows-leaf-away-in-march/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Nissan sold about 10K LEAFs in 2011 alone. GM sold about 4K Volts up to March 2012.
Both LEAF an Volt has 3.3 kWh charger:
http://mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battery,_Charging_System" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://gm-volt.com/2010/10/06/gm-announces-chevrolet-volt-240v-charger-pricing-and-installation-service-provider/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Those are not "50 kW" draws.

By comparison, as many have already pointed out, there are several big electricity-consuming appliances in a house: dryer, electric stove, air conditioner. For example, a 5-ton whole-house a/c unit probably uses about 20 kW. In Texas, that a/c unit can run as much as 50% of the time on a hot night. That's still 10 kWh. Compare that to the LEAF's 3.3 kWh.

that any EV sales success would be quickly followed by blackouts, people stranded unable to charge etc. I told him "well, most people charge at home at night when the grid's not stressed; they don't rely on daytime charging most of the time." He said "you have no proof of that! That's green BS." (plus the usual anti-EV stuff)

So did you ask him for proof as to why what he said is true and what you said is not? Why what he said is not ignorant BS?

But, as davewill has have also pointed out, you won't win with guys like that no matter what. Do your blood pressure a favor and just look at him with a pitying look, shake your head, and walk away.

So my question is - is there anyone out there who does NOT charge their Leaf at home/overnight?

Not me.