Quote:
Originally Posted by Natalya
I build a grid charger a couple years ago according to the original Mike Dabrowski plans, I still have it. Are you suggesting I plug it into that every day when I'm not driving? Or do you mean like a weaker one? I thought topping off the IMA every day was bad for the battery.
Also, my IMA is dead anyway, I don't get to use it for assist. I can only use it to restart the ICE after forced Auto-Stop. (Actual Auto-Stop, not an injector-kill ICE stall.)
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As a maintenance / prolonging / re-balancing style of usage .. grid charging only need be done (at most) 2-3 times a year .. if you already have the 110VAC power, and already have a charger .. when/if you do such maintenance you could just use the same 110VAC input plug.
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A secondary IMA battery benefit would be a small 20-50w heating system for the very cold weather .. a little bit of IMA battery warming will help it perform better in those colder winter times.
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As for wear/tear if you charged it every single day .. yes-ish.
Fully charging it every day does put a little extra wear/tear/cycles on it , compared to someone who otherwise identical, but charged it less often .. so that's the con you mentioned.
However there are a few possible pros .. exactly where/if they break-even / balance out is up to you and the details of your situation.
A faster rate of charge puts more wear/tear/stress on a battery than a slower rate of charge .. so, if you are going to put the same ~4Ah or so into the same battery .. doing so at a slow like around ~250mA rate is more gentle than around a ~2A , and around ~2A is more gentle than around ~20A , and around ~20A is more gentle than around ~50A.. etc.
If the IMA battery is going to be charged some ~4Ah or so anyway .. it uses less gasoline to do that same ~4Ah or so from 110VAC instead of from the ICE burning gasoline to get it .. Even if you never use Assist or such , the car will still pull from the IMA battery , for starting the ICE, and for DC-DC functions for all 12VDC loads of the car.
If your IMA battery recals your MPG is likely to take a hit while the car goes through the recal .. but the higher the SoC of the IMA battery , the shorter the recal (everything hits the top sooner) .. and if everything is balanced from a slow top balance charge , than recal is less likely to happen at all .. no guarantee there isn't some other (non balance issue) , but it can lower the odds of a recal by reducing one of the mechanisms/triggers.
OEM battery size is not allot of energy directly .. So, I would think the potential benefits of such daily charging would mainly come from those other secondary effects I listed 1st above .. for example : depending on health , maybe around ~400wh usable .. even if charged 5 days a week (M-F) 50 weeks per year .. that really is only likely to directly save some ~10 gallons or so (at most) on a direct energy per energy basis .. over an entire such year .. which isn't nothing .. but for a 'best case' max, it isn't a giant amount either .. what % that might be for you depends on what your yearly total gallon consumption is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natalya
I've never driven a G1 with a good IMA
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The next time we are both at an Insightfest or something .. remind me .. you can do a test drive in mine .. either in OEM mode .. and/or in Li-IMA PHEV mode.