Feasability of going from gas to only electric

[oil pan 4]

When I rebuilt my LiFePO4 battery I had considered putting reptile heater pads in between some of the AMP20 cells.
But never tried it.

I don't know what year leafs used LiFePO4, but that chemistry falls on its face when it gets that cold and even worse as it gets colder.
Then when you charge the LiFePO4 battery when the battery temperature is below 20°F it permanently damages capacity by losing 20%. Gone forever.
Good news is it only happens once.

[Isaac Zackary]

I'm pretty sure my Leaf has a lithium ion manganese oxide battery. It also has a battery warmer that's only to protect the battery from damage.

[Stubby79]

The Leaf and it's batteries are fine in cold weather. Though don't ask me if they'll stand up to Alaskan cold weather. ;-)

[Isaac Zackary]

I wouldn't think that Nissan would design a car that would kill itself as soon as winter came along. But, I do know that the cold IS affecting battery performance. I usually don't have all the regen and acceleration circles on the dash, which means they are limited. Many times I only have one regen circle even with a halfway or more depleted battery. So I can't regen or accelerate like I did when it was warmer. In fact the amount of regen and acceleration seems directly related to the battery temp gauge. 2 or 3 bars of battery temp only give me one regen circle. For temp bars gives me two or three circles. It has to have five or more battery temp bars to get all the regen circles.

[sendler]

I think you have sub 0F temps forecast for later this week so you can let us know how it does.

[Erasmo]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary

I am thinking I'm going to need a better battery warmer system and a way to insulate the battery. It had warmed up today to 24°F/-4°C outside, and the battery to the fourth temp bar, by the time I put it on the charger at the charging station. I went from 26% to 80% with only 9.1kWh of electricity, according to the charging station. You'd think that it would have been more than 10kWh. Maybe the battery percent reading isn't accurate or my battery is about to lose a battery capacity bar. But my guess is that the cold is affecting the capacity and range.

It does, the cold increases the internal resistance of the batteries. Does your Leaf has preheat?

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by Erasmo

It does, the cold increases the internal resistance of the batteries. Does your Leaf has preheat?

I'm not sure what you mean by preheat. It has an automatic battery heater that comes on at -13°. It hasn't come on yet. But all it does is protect the battery. I can't set it to any temperature before I leave home. I can preheat the cabin, but not the battery.

[Isaac Zackary]

Any suggestions? Let's say I made some lightweight DIY solar panels up to at least 2kW, if not 6kW all together, that could be any size and made as thin as possible (like half inch or less). Where would be the best place to store them and then set them up?

1. All in the trunk (like a few dozen 100W panels).

2. On a trailer so they could easily fold out?

3. On the roof?

[Stubby79]

I'm of the opinion that solar panels are a losing battle...unless you have a good acre of land and plenty of sunshine to set them up on. The startup costs aren't worth it. Not when you're paying 10c a kw/hr anyway. How many recharge cycles at $2/full charge is it going to take to pay off the panels?

If your local electricity is more expensive or less environmentally friendly, then there might be reason to. Or if you're hard core in to going off grid...

[Isaac Zackary]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

I'm of the opinion that solar panels are a losing battle...unless you have a good acre of land and plenty of sunshine to set them up on. The startup costs aren't worth it. Not when you're paying 10c a kw/hr anyway. How many recharge cycles at $2/full charge is it going to take to pay off the panels?

If your local electricity is more expensive or less environmentally friendly, then there might be reason to. Or if you're hard core in to going off grid...

I realize that. But I was thinking of a portable solar charger and the pride of taking my Leaf over mountain passes that no one else would ever think of taking a Leaf. Even 1.5kW might save me from calling a tow truck.

Comparing prices with a portable generator, there's not that much difference except the solar panels only work if there's sun and the portable generator only works if there's fuel. A 5,000W Honda genset costs about $5,000. But so would a lightweight 5,000W solar array. A 5,000W solar array could be made lighter than a 5,000kW Honda genset. But it wouldn't be as compact.