Happy New year to Trevor and all.
Thanks for getting back Trevor on the 12 volt charging question.Of course I agree with the Leaf “Gimmick” question,although it is surprising how many members of the green public have asked why the car has no Solar panel.The answer of as you know is Watts=Amps x Volts. Maybe it has some PR value.
Perhaps it may be worth looking at the possibility, on a hot Summer day,of say connecting a 50 Watt 12v panel,not carried with the car, too big, but only costing say £100. A simple plug in to the cigar socket may do,although this is not always live.In theory this would supply up to 4amps to the lead acid 12 volt battery which I guess runs the radio,lights wipers etc.This battery is I think charged from the 400v Li-on pack of 100 4v cells in series,(A discussion for another day)So 4 amps in this thought experiment costing £100.
On the other hand to charge the 400 volt 24 KWhr? pack at 4 amps with Solar panels in a car port or house roof, with inverters, in phase mains stuff etc, very expensive and perhaps a bigger “Gimmick” Don’t get me wrong,I have worked with PV for over 40 years,some folk think it heats the water,and I love the Zoe,but perhaps we should not confuse putting in Solar to run the house, with charging the car.
Having said that, I believe the day is not far off when the car will help to supply the house with power,as in China and the US, and the Leaf TV ad.
To summerise. 12 volt 4 amp solar panel 48 watt, into cigar socket at home,£100.Lead acid battery only.
400 volt 4amp 1600watt, major grid setup, roof panels say 32 x 50watt panels,guess £3k or £4k?
Just a thought.
On another related topic,Pauledg mentioned the 10amp brick charger. I ordered this at £400 from Renault dealer, It was never supplied and I believe withdrawn, by Renault ,no raeson given, although the Van has one.
This had a 13amp plug and would have been very useful in emergencies.

I note that the Renault smartphone app indicated charge ceased at 100% with 65.5 miles range and a finish time of 14.02 where the Renault email stated 67.1 and an end time of 14.28. Very strange. Renault must have two ZX81s.

You are putting too much faith in the car’s ability to determine battery SOC. It is a multi-factorial calculation fraught with uncertainties. After the full charge and a dwell, the battery cells will have ‘settled’ and the car then decided to top it up a little more. Perfectly ordinary. Though, I would not seek to explain why you get two messages to that effect.

donald – I’m not sure I understand your question. If you are generating electricity from your roof it goes into your consumer unit, then gets used around the house (or to charge the car). So long as you use less than this amount it is free – your electricity meter will not register that you are using any power. If you go over this amount then some will come from the grid, and it will cost you proportionally (e.g. if half comes from the grid then a charge will cost you half what it would without solar). Since Eco7 is so cheap, it can be cheaper to charge overnight than to use some of your solar plus some grid to charge during the day.

reboot – it’s hard to see how a small PV panel is worth having, it just isn’t cost effective. The pricier versions of the Nissan LEAF have a solar panel to charge the 12V battery, but a LEAF owner told me last week he thought it was mostly just a gimmick.

Are you turning the unit on then plugging in, or plugging in then turning on? Generally, you should use the former method.

Out of interest, is yours a tethered lead, Paul, or did you get a socketed unit and use the Renault lead?

(FYI: In any case, some of the FCI leads that Renault supplied with early Fluence/Kangoo are faulty. I recommend you take it back and ask for it to be checked. There is a technical note issued by Renault about this now. Seems like I was the one that pointed out the fault to them.)

Yep, I can easily get mine to give only 50 miles with high heat and driving style. Now imagine when the battery drops to 80% capacity and gives only 40 miles, and Renault say ‘nope, we don’t have to swap it out until it drops to 75%’.

I was wondering if anyone looked at the possibilty of using a solar panel,say 20volt o/p,(off load) at around 20watts to charge the 12 volt battery,these days amorphos panels seem the way to go,and the panel could travel with the car.
To consider an expensive home system,feeding into the grid through an inverter in order to charge the 400v LI-on car battery seems to me to workout at nearly the price of another car and I think keep it simple.
It may be foolish to mess with the 12v battery system without permission from the manufactures,almost certainly invaladating the warranty though?

Hi, ElectricDream and Merry Christmas to you. Theoretically your solar array almost exactly matches the current the 10A “brick” cable supplies so your charge rate would be similar. What you have to consider, however, is whether having the car on charge for 7 – 8 hours DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS to replenish a threequarter used battery would be feasible – unless you work nights – or, like me, you don’t use the car for a daily commute.