Patent ID: 8034494

Claim:
A method of performing maintenance hydration of a fuel cell system serving as an auxiliary power source for an energy-consuming assembly that is disposed in electrical communication with a primary power source, the method comprising: activating the fuel cell system from an inactive condition by initiating delivery of at least a fuel to a fuel cell stack of the fuel cell system, wherein the activating is performed responsive to a start condition, and further wherein the start condition is selected to avoid a decrease in the efficiency of the fuel cell system due to inactivity of the fuel cell system; and supplying power from the activated fuel cell system to satisfy at least a portion of an electrical load applied by the energy consuming assembly while the primary power source is available to at least partially supply the portion of the electrical load being satisfied by the fuel cell system, thereby operating the fuel cell system for power generation and associated hydration while the primary power source is available to satisfy at least a portion of the electrical load applied by the energy consuming assembly.