Nissan LEAF, the best selling EV on Earth is now 5 Years Old !

Remember: Olivier Chalouhi received the very first LEAF back on December 11, 2010 close to San Francisco
 Source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Redwood-city-man-gets-first-Nissan-Leaf-2453579.php

After 5 years of good services and 3 versions, 200,000 LEAFs have been sold worldwide, making it the best seeling EV ever


Its Battery Pack has held its promises with no incidents, no fire, and better than expected with almost no problems (I think Nissan replaced just a few packs over the 5 years, all covered under warranty); For a first EV, that is pretty good !



Now the latest version has a boosted Energy Density offering 30kWh instead of the original 24, in the same package and weight ...



I received mine among the first ones in France, 4 years ago, and it still is in great condition :) To me, it is a very reliable car, I used it mostly for commuting and going out with the family on week ends in Paris. I never regretted this purchase even if it was the most expensive vehicle I ever got

The future for the LEAf is what you see in this video below (Nissan IDS Concept)

DIY ESS Switched Off during my summer vacation for 15 days

For the 3rd summer in a row, during my vacation, I switched Off my home Energy Storage System, this year for 2 weeks only

Since it is On all the time, day and night, with people at home or not, this year I wondered if I should have left in On for once, but since everything at home is Off, including the high energy consuming water heater, I figured for safety reasons I should turn it off as ususal

Here is the Energy graph the month of August showing this 15 days period where I dumped some surplus solar energy ...



Still over this month half of the Energy used at home comes from Solar & Storage ...

Back last saturday night, I immediatly switched it back On, and it has been performing as usual since

All these graphs are from here: http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit

DIY ESS - Found the metal cabinet & 24V fan

Found it the same day ! 

I found this IKEA metallic cabinet half price yesterday in the exact same neighborhood we were hanging out in, Marais in Paris

We put that in the LEAF and went back home

I chose this model out of all the IKEA cabinets because it seems to be available worldwide, and can hold 5kWh pack and 10kWh pack, so you can upgrade later if you want twithout changing this part

Right after that, I went to an electronic parts store not far and got a 24V big fan to get all the hot air out of this new enclosure for my system; Also got the matching long 4mm screws and bolts, some 2W resistors, and a red long piece of heatshrink

It is pretty configurable, but I think I will remove all the shelves and leave it empty

So all this has to go in there

And all the heat generated by chargers or grid tie inverters, should get out through holes I will drill in the upper part of the cabinet, and holes already exist at the very bottom for air intake

DIY ESS - Looking for a metal cabinet for the whole system

After a discussion on a forum somebody mentionned that all the ESS components should be enclosed in a metal cabinet for safety, and he is right. Actually I had been thinking about this because it is a bit messy in my bedroom ! But this is because I am still experimenting and testing a lot. Also the chargers and grid tie inverters need to breath well :-)

I found these interesting metal cabinet from Ikea at home that could of interest: for a 5kWh system

For a 10kWh or 15 kWh ESS, that would be good

I am getting helped here :-)