The Wilted Leaf - Charging in a Winter Wonderland* 19/11/2024

[loserone]

I quite liked the parking brake.  Higher spec ones are EPB which I dislike though I'm getting used to it in the Zoë.

 

Have to agree though, visibility is poor.  Both Mrs L1 and I had accidents in ours as a result of failing to account for the even bigger than you think blind spots.  

[Datsuncog]

It's heartening to see how much things have come on in six years or so - Northern Ireland still remains a bit behind the rest of GB, but I think the range increase in EVs and apps like the one you describe to help with route planning have made them a much more viable proposition.

My work journeys often took me from base to some fairly rural council HQs - having checked in advance they definitely had an EV charger, I'd frequently rock up only to find someone had parked their ICE vehicle in it ("because no-one ever uses that charger m8"). Back in 2018 there were only about 15 or so rapid charge points across the whole region, and the majority of the standard public charge points were in central Belfast (beside our office). Privately operated ones at supermarkets and shopping centres were still quite rare.

The RFID card to activate charging was actually more of a problem, as it frequently just didn't work - disconnecting and reconnecting the charge cables ten or more times before the card would communicate with the charger and allow the current to flow wasn't uncommon. I never did find out if it was a fault with the card or a fault with the chargers - ESB provided the hardware at that time, and although it was metered the customer wasn't billed for it, making public charging effectively free.

In retrospect, it might have been handy if we'd been given a tour of the car before driving it anywhere, rather than just being handed the keys and trying to learn where the controls were in the half-light of a dingy underground car park. Possibly because of my experiences with the less-than-ergonomic XM foot-activated parking lever (mine was a rare manual version), I thought I had to use the parking brake when moving off on a slope - though at least I never did what my boss managed, and completely blocked a busy junction because he couldn't find the lever to release the parking brake after stopping at traffic lights...

[320touring]

MOAR UPDATEZ

the dash, he says:

 

The Leafspy she says:

Amazing how much closer the readings ger Mid pack.

 

I expect them to diverge again towards the end of the charge

[hairnet]

when is louise aitken walken

jackie stewart

jim clark

the boss

getting a shot again

[320touring]

28 minutes ago, hairnet said:

when is louise aitken walken

jackie stewart

jim clark

the boss

getting a shot again

Ahm no made of money 😂

[320touring]

2:45 update 

[320touring]

3 hours ago, 320touring said:

Hairnet 6.5hrs

Dave_Q 10hr10min 48 seconds

Barefoot 8h 15mins

Datsuncog  9 hours and 23 minutes

Not looking good for @hairnet unless it is done in 7h 15 total or so...

[hairnet]

get yir hamster to pedal a bit quicker ken

[320touring]

Been sitting here deleting emails on my work laptop for the last 40 mins waiting on this thing completely charging ..

[2flags]

With any luck it will be charged in time for you to be able to go down the pub tonight! 😄

[320touring]

Based on Dash readings for %, leaf spy for kWh Started at 17.5kwh 48% at 0845

 

0845-1045 3.8kw added so at 21.3kwh 62% (+14%)

1045-1245 3.7kw added so at 25kwh 76% (+14%)

1245-1445 3.6kw added so at 28.6kwh 88% (+12%)

1445-1709 2.9kwh added so at 31.5kwh 100% (+12%)

 

8h 24mins 

@barefoot is the winner!

[320touring]

Just now, 2flags said:

With any luck it will be charged in time for you to be able to go down the pub tonight! 😄

Unfortunately, it's off out on a food shop😭 could buy beer though😂

[320touring]

It's worth noting that @barefoot is more accurate than the car..

 

This is what it said at 0841 this morning..

[barefoot]

Whoo hoo!

Has anyone seen a rerun of the show? It is utterly fucking dire.

Can I ask why you don't just plug it in every night before bed?

[320touring]

24 minutes ago, barefoot said:

Whoo hoo!

Can I ask why you don't just plug it in every night before bed?

Your prize is an enormous sense of satisfaction...

 

Because 

 

A ) we don't do enough miles for it always to need to be full every day. So far, the average miles per day is around 20,  which means charging every 4/5 days

B )currently charging it with an extension cord through a letterbox. We need a more robust solution before it's something I'd trust overnight/in the rain etc.

[Lacquer Peel]

The only answer is LISTER PETTER DIESEL ASSIST. 

[320touring]

I was unloading some plants and compost from my boot today and got looking at the lines of the MK2 Leaf.

There appears to a fair few design elements that could have been done differently - mainly in respect of improving aerodynamics. 

Given the Leaf isn't at its happiest during sustained higher speed motorway work, I'm unsure why some of these have not been rectified. (Beyond the obvious "Accountants Vs designers and engineers battle that always impacts design choices)

 

I no particular order, I spotted:

The rear lights could have been designed to follow the line of the quarter panel - giving a cleaner transition off the side to the rear.

The gap at the top of the rear lights unit that is a piss poor fit. 

The door mirrors not being faired in.

The front wipers not being under the bonnet when in the off position.

The gaps around the front lights on the front upper panel and bonnet.

These omissions are things I saw on an old Audi a2 I had years ago as well.

They probably wouldn't make a huge difference individually, but I reckon the cumulative impact could add a small amount to the motorway efficiency at higher speeds.

[hairnet]

scotch pie in the headlight gap?

[320touring]

Since I've had the car, the rear view mirror has been rattling/shaking when driving.

This came to a head last Thursday when I adjusted the mirror after the burd had used the car , and the mirror came off in my hand..

The mount on the mirror was broken. Old one at the top, new at the bottom

It's off a car with auto dim (no povvo spec ones existed on eBay)

It's also a wee bit bigger so a good improvement.

Spotted straight on and seems grand

[cort16]

I think for some reason they wanted the rear lights to reference the 370z.  not sure if that let to a design over practicality decision ?

 

 

[320touring]

2 minutes ago, cort16 said:

I think for some reason they wanted the rear lights to reference the 370z.  not sure if that let to a design over practicality decision ?

 

 

"Let's make it look like a 2nd division footballer's motor"

 

"GREAT IDEA"

[Kiltox]

Is the wiring there for the auto dim? 

[320touring]

6 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

Is the wiring there for the auto dim? 

Not that I could see. Not really an issue tbh

[320touring]

Interesting one with the leaf tonight- have done 93 miles since last charge. 

Today I did a journey that was 26 miles each way. 

Went from 74% to 52% on way out, and 52% to 19% on way home according to the dash.

When I checked leafspy it reported 40% state of charge whilst showing 19% on the dash..

Battery was full at 31.5kwh before doing the 93 miles,

and it was at 13.5kwh when I parked up just there.

@Kiltox suggested it could be due a software update..

This video suggests we should be on version C of the BMS software (battery code 5SH2C)

My car? Looks to be on the original BMS software

Think I will give a dealer or nissan customer service a call and see what the script is.

As my car is over the 100k limit for battery warranty, it may be that I need to pay for a software update..

[320touring]

Well, this tub has turned over 133k miles, so I am over 1000 miles into ownership...

How is it doing? Some observations then some actual hard data!

It continues to be unerringly reliable, and the Burd has grown to have confidence in it for longer trips. She has also found it easy to charge on the 3pin plug, so that's great as it's not just left to me.

Everyone who has been in it marvels at the silence, and is surprised by the straight-line performance.

It still continues to "an car" exceptionally well.

Initially, the use case for the car was around needing to do circa 120miles a week, meaning a charge maybe every 4/5 days.

So far it is doing just that - average is 23 miles a day. The big gap in the middle of the above chart was when we were on holiday.

 

I also was basing most of our use on being able to charge at home. And so it has proven. It does take some thought - mainly remembering to plug it in to charge in enough time to complete charging before use.

£52.93 for 1000 miles is pretty good. That's 5.29p/mile. For the same 1000 miles in the Octavia (52mpg) it would have cost £129.13 (@1.477/L at my local garage)

So that's £76.20 saved.

You can see at the end here where I did some public charging today (whilst having a swim). The cost was 40p per kWh.. so that's made it a bit more expensive.

The economy is pretty decent too - been regularly getting 5.0+ m/kWh since I've got the hang of driving it

All in all its pretty damn good. It's not fun but it's competent.

On to the next 1000 miles then...

 

[rainagain]

Can I ask what sort of journeys you do? My OH has the same model of Leaf but her average is only 3.7 mi/kWh. This is her driving quite normally and using the eco pedal setting 99% of the time. She’s just got it so we’re trying to work out if it’s faulty. The battery health is 100% but due to the lower average she only gets an indicated range of ~135 miles when it’s fully charged. It’s only done 50,000 miles. 

[loserone]

I'm getting 4.5+ overtaking everything 😬

[320touring]

41 minutes ago, rainagain said:

Can I ask what sort of journeys you do? My OH has the same model of Leaf but her average is only 3.7 mi/kWh. This is her driving quite normally and using the eco pedal setting 99% of the time. She’s just got it so we’re trying to work out if it’s faulty. The battery health is 100% but due to the lower average she only gets an indicated range of ~135 miles when it’s fully charged. It’s only done 50,000 miles. 

Our general split of journeys in is

20% below 5 miles (e.g. runs to the station/local supermarket etc) this is town driving 

30% 5-10 miles (round trips to the local out of town shopping centre/local pubs etc) mainly a/b roads between 40-60mph speed limits

50% 10-60 miles (round trips to parents, mainly motorway)

 

Based on my limited experience, the e-pedal is only good in stop start town conditions - it better for the car to "roll" more if possible - so it decelerates over a longer distance.

I'd use the e-pedal on heavy town traffic or stop start stuff on the motorway.

For all other driving I use either D or B mode.

D mode lets the car roll the furthest when you lift off the pedal so the regen braking is softer but lasts longer. I'd use that on motorway/sweeping a/b roads.

B mode is good for normal town driving/heavier traffic on a/b roads and anywhere where you are slowing then accelerating repeatedly (e.g. lots of roundabouts etc).

Another thing to note is the Leafs can be a bit power thirsty at motor speeds - I usually use cruise and do a GPS 55-60mph.

 

Hope that helps

[320touring]

I got bored this evening and decided to see if I could work out a case for installing a 7kwh charger at the house. 

 

This has a couple of advantages -

1. Significantly faster charging than the current 3pin granny charger we are using

2. With the addition of a smart meter I'd be able to unlock cheap charging Vs current costs..

I currently pay £0.22/kWh at home. The vast majority of charging is done here.

Public type 2 charging (6.6kw) is £0.40/kWh. I've only used this once so far ,but it's useful if going to a destination that is more than a full charge return trip

Rapid Charging (Chademo) is £0.79/kWh. This will only really be used for road trips where we need to charge from low % up to 80%ish to complete another leg of the journey. It means the fastest charging and can be built into planned stops on road trips so I don't mind paying that for it 

If I had a type 2 7kw charger and smart meter at home I could get a tariff that was £0.075/kWh. This is time limited (X hrs per night) but applies to all consumption during those times. So I could run the dishwasher/washing machine/charge devices etc at the same time to get best value.

However, the time period available may not be enough to go from a low state of charge to full before running back into the higher tariff. So to avoid this I'd need to get into the habit of charging most nights.

A smart meter and 7kw charger would cost about £1200 to have supplied and installed. Ours may not be straightforward due to the distance between the house and where the car is parked, so may cost more.

That £1200 would buy about 5450 kWh at £0.22/kwh, which is about 24,500 miles (34900km) at 4.5miles per kWh...

That's about 3 years mileage at current useage

If I can get a second hand charger the cost would drop significantly - I'll need to do some digging.

 

For the meantime I think ordering a better extension cord with waterproof plug and a letterbox connector could be a significant improvement for much less cash.

[EyesWeldedShut]

6 hours ago, 320touring said:

I got bored this evening and decided to see if I could work out a case for installing a 7kwh charger at the house. 

 

This has a couple of advantages -

1. Significantly faster charging than the current 3pin granny charger we are using

2. With the addition of a smart meter I'd be able to unlock cheap charging Vs current costs..

I currently pay £0.22/kWh at home. The vast majority of charging is done here.

Public type 2 charging (6.6kw) is £0.40/kWh. I've only used this once so far ,but it's useful if going to a destination that is more than a full charge return trip

Rapid Charging (Chademo) is £0.79/kWh. This will only really be used for road trips where we need to charge from low % up to 80%ish to complete another leg of the journey. It means the fastest charging and can be built into planned stops on road trips so I don't mind paying that for it 

If I had a type 2 7kw charger and smart meter at home I could get a tariff that was £0.075/kWh. This is time limited (X hrs per night) but applies to all consumption during those times. So I could run the dishwasher/washing machine/charge devices etc at the same time to get best value.

However, the time period available may not be enough to go from a low state of charge to full before running back into the higher tariff. So to avoid this I'd need to get into the habit of charging most nights.

A smart meter and 7kw charger would cost about £1200 to have supplied and installed. Ours may not be straightforward due to the distance between the house and where the car is parked, so may cost more.

That £1200 would buy about 5450 kWh at £0.22/kwh, which is about 24,500 miles (34900km) at 4.5miles per kWh...

That's about 3 years mileage at current useage

If I can get a second hand charger the cost would drop significantly - I'll need to do some digging.

 

For the meantime I think ordering a better extension cord with waterproof plug and a letterbox connector could be a significant improvement for much less cash.

Would Octopus not do you one of their fancy EV tariffs just on a granny charger/smart meter? Wouldn't cost anything to get that setup https://octopus.energy/ev-tariffs/ and you'd get some cheap rate overnight