Impact of Turning Off the IMA Battery

[jimepting]

For Darin, et. al.

I was interested in this question, since Darin brought it up, so I consulted "Right Lane Cruiser" my primary Insight 1 mentor over on the CleanMPG forum. This was his response:

"Re: Impact of Turning Off the IMA Battery Switch

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Hi, Jim -- you may not lose DC-DC capability. I haven't tried it personally but I know that Larry did and his battery seemed to be charged just the same.

The car will only start from the conventional starter if you do this.

The biggest risk you run is letting your pack self discharge to a too low voltage or to an unbalanced state. Neither of these is fatal to the pack, but only as long as you don't try to use it. If your pack got to that level and then you wanted to use it you'd have to externally charge and balance to be sure you wouldn't damage the cells upon first use in the car.
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- Sean