Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
Remember most consumer grade backup generators can not run any where near full load continuously.
Typically the wiring in them is under sized for max rated load.
For example my 30 amp generator only had AWG12 wire, typically only used on 20 amp circuits.
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That's something to take into consideration. If a 7,000W generator costs some $4,000, and yet it burns up on your 6.6kW charger, then that would be a big waste of money. But a 10,000W generator isn't going to be very costly nor light weight.
I was under the impression, however, that the Honda EU generators are built to put out their rated power continuously. But then again, I've never owned one so I'm not sure.
But there is that problem I mentioned about generators being hard on electronics. It would be pretty bad to go buy a 10,000W generator and it burns up your on-board Nissan charger! From what I understand, Nissan even warns owners in the owner's manual to not charge from a generator. I know that generators tend to burn up electronic devices. I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps they don't put out a pure sine wave current. Or with any change in RPMs the frequency changes, so it's never really 60hz. Or maybe something else. If you're going to charge by means of a generator it needs to have smooth AC current. The Honda EU generators do have smooth AC current and work with any electronic device. So that leads me to the Honda EU7000 for level 2 charging or the Honda EU2000 for level 1 charging.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
Does anyone even know if the leaf can even move while power is being applied?
It seems to me that would be simple idiot proofing feature to keep some one from driving off with the cord plugged in.
I am sure it can be disabled.
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Yep. You are correct. Nissan designed the Leaf so that when plugged in, you can't go anywhere. Which means that either you have to disable it if you're going to use the on-board charger. Or you're going to have to use another charger. Or like I mentioned, make a DC generator and just charge the battery directly.
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However, here's an idea that just came to me. Let's say you can't figure out how to disable the inter-lock so your only option is to stop and charge. Instead of an already massive and expensive 10,000W generator in a trailer, stack 10,000W of solar panels in the trailer. That would also be massive and expensive. But whenever you stop, you could just pull out your solar panels, prop them up, point them into the sun, plug them in together (parallel), and plug them into your car. If you made +400V solar panels you could plug them into the quick charge port and not have any losses due to the charger. The biggest problem is that you'd need an area that's about as big as three semi-truck parking spaces or more. You could make panels that are 8' x 15' out of about 800 3" x 6" PV cells in a series. Each panel would put out around 1kW under full sun. So if you stacked 10 of these in a trailer you could get as much as 10kW and charge up in 2.5 hours under full sun. You'd need a voltmeter, though, or design a shut off circuit so that when they reach about 400V the thing shuts off. Of course 8,000 PV cells and 1,200 sqft of plexiglass, plus frames, isn't going to be cheap, nor light weight, nor aerodynamic. But neither is the 10,000W generator.