[mpg_numbers_guy]

Turns out that my kill switch for the Meanwell PSU malfunctioned, and was turning 10%-30% of the wattage into heat. Melted a little bit of foam, weakened my ground bolt so that it broke, and dropped my Meanwell charging voltage to <13v, if it was even charging. Also got a burn on my fingers due to touching the bolts before realizing how hot they were....after only a 6.5 mile trip into work.

The switch claimed to be rated for 12v 500a, and I don't even come close to a tenth of that. Ground connections were good, so my guess is that the switch malfunctioned inside, which messed up the connection of the input/output wires on the ground line, which caused it to overheat.

Flipped the kill switch off for my drive back home this afternoon so it wouldn't overheat again, and got 128.5 MPG over the 6.5 miles with the meanwell off, a new record trip. Having the meanwell off definitely does improve economy, but I see no way of driving without it for longer periods of time other than by spending $$$ on batteries....and I removed the IMA battery to avoid that.

Got rid of the kill switch, drilled a new ground hole, and everything's working alright again. Don't want to add a relay to 12V since that seems overly complicated, as well as a reduction in efficiency by around 8W wasted on the relay.

I read on IC that the Meanwell unit has a 100mA parasitic drain, so as long as the car isn't parked for a while I should be fine. I drive the car about 5 days a week during the summer, and when it sits at college I'll just pull the battery cable.