NiMH battery conditioning
#21
05-13-2008, 11:33 PM
Re: NiMH battery conditioning
What John said 
I'll add that while many people think (at first) that the best thing to do is to USE, USE, USE that "free" battery juice, the reality of it is that the battery juice is far from "free." (It's closer to free if you time it to juice up while going down a long hill.)
Instead of purposely driving in such a way as to deplete and then recharge the battery, you are usually better off (MPG wise, and probably battery longevity-wise), to try only using that "reserve power" as NEEDED. Accelerating from a stop quickly (if needed), or passing someone, or climbing a hill, or entering an interstate on-ramp, etc. There are some exceptions (if you desire to be an extreme hypermiler), and some may disagree with me, but that's what I now think.
Also, the zero to 8 bars meter - this does not represent 0% to 100% battery charge level. It is considerably less than that range (and probably more like 30% to 70%). Honda is controlling how far you can deplete/charge the battery to a minimized range. This is to make the battery last FAR longer, than if we were left to our own judgments.
Don't worry about not seeing 8 bars often. You CAN make it happen, if you want, but it's not a big thing. Better is to try to keep the bars above 4 (to avoid the forced regen).
I'll add that while many people think (at first) that the best thing to do is to USE, USE, USE that "free" battery juice, the reality of it is that the battery juice is far from "free." (It's closer to free if you time it to juice up while going down a long hill.)
Instead of purposely driving in such a way as to deplete and then recharge the battery, you are usually better off (MPG wise, and probably battery longevity-wise), to try only using that "reserve power" as NEEDED. Accelerating from a stop quickly (if needed), or passing someone, or climbing a hill, or entering an interstate on-ramp, etc. There are some exceptions (if you desire to be an extreme hypermiler), and some may disagree with me, but that's what I now think.
Also, the zero to 8 bars meter - this does not represent 0% to 100% battery charge level. It is considerably less than that range (and probably more like 30% to 70%). Honda is controlling how far you can deplete/charge the battery to a minimized range. This is to make the battery last FAR longer, than if we were left to our own judgments.
Don't worry about not seeing 8 bars often. You CAN make it happen, if you want, but it's not a big thing. Better is to try to keep the bars above 4 (to avoid the forced regen).
#22
05-14-2008, 05:41 AM
Re: NiMH battery conditioning
The other day as I changed out cardiac monitor/defibrillator batteries at work I made an observation. Our batteries are NiCad and are frequently charged and discharged, similar to hybrid batteries. At intervals automatically determined by the charging station based on the detected battery condition, the individual batteries are "conditioned" (whatever is involved in that). This does appear to aid in extending their service life. While hybrid batteries are a different material (NiMH) I do wonder if a conditioning device, external or built-in, would make a difference in extending hybrid battery life? Just a thought FWIW.
My Ford Escape Hybrid has had two battery re-conditioning events in 19,000 miles. Another poster in the Escape section mention he has had three battery re-conditionting events in nearly 60,000 miles. The Escape does have an internal monitoring device for this process. The frequency may also depend upon how the vehicle is driven--gentle=less than 10,000 miles hard driven==longer than 10,000 miles.
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