the 2013 nissan leaf has a known issue with its 12 volt battery either by lack of charging or vampiric drains, i just got a 2013 leaf and found my 12 volt battery at 4 something volts a couple weeks after i got it. carmax replaced it but what they replaced was not the original battery. the battery they replaced was only a month old and i don't know how many batteries this 2 year old EV has used in its 10,000 miles of life.
i'm considering hooking up a solar charging unit to the battery. i've been using solar charging systems on my 12 volt systems as their only power source for 10 years now on my homemade EVs, however, this is a little different, since it supposed has a DC/DC system. the options i've pondered include: 1. add an unregulated trickle charge [but with diode: 1-2 watts] to existing battery 2. add a regulated [charge controller: 10-20 watts] to existing battery 3. add a regulated [charge controller: 10-20 watts] to a deep cycle [that is larger than existing battery, maybe about 30% larger] #3 is what i've been using very successfully for 10 years, but again this is different situation, eager for other folk's suggestions i realize this might void some or all warranty issues, please don't respond if that is your only contribution, thanks harry Albuquerque, NM current bike: http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1179 current non-bike: http://evalbum.com/1000 _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
