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Dr Jones

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Everything posted by Dr Jones

  1. Therein lies the rub.... the chinese cells you can really only charge/discharge at C/5 or C/10, so you need to oversize your batteries to get the amps out (and in). More modern (and more expensive) NiFe cells can charge at C/2 and even C, but you pay a premium for them compared to the chinese cells. To put it in perspective, try to find a single lead acid battery maker who specs his Ah based on C/5! Mostly it's based on C/20 rates and some even C/100!
  2. It does, but it still reports as energy lost.
  3. Have you taken this efficiency-related energy loss over the system lifetime and compared it to the cost of replacing your lead batteries 4-5 times? Would be an interesting statistic. If you use grid power to charge your batteries, it's a whole different ballgame than only using solar which you already paid for when you bought the system. Also, remember that the NiFe cells are 100% efficient below about 80% DoD. If you cycle your NiFe cells between 30% and 80% you severely minimize your losses. For a lead battery bank this is unthinkable. Gotta go back up to 100% to maintain lifetime. Oh yes, and have you calculated how much energy you have to burn in every lead-acid equalization charge? Lots of electrons converted to hydrogen and heat.
  4. https://powerforum.co.za/topic/871-super-capacitor-batteries/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-18836 This one
  5. Nickel may be abundant, but expensive to extract. The sulphide (smelting) route releases loads of SO2 which is expensive to remove. The oxide route (from laterites) requires loads of H2SO4 on low-grade ore which is also expensive to manufacture / transport and ends up as waste gypsum. The Russians have world domination on the sulphide market (Norilsk and Botswana/Tati). Laterite mines are everywhere, also Madagascar. Furthermore, not only metallic nickel and lead are used, but oxides which must be very carefully precipitated to ensure that Ni(OH)2 and not Ni(OH) is made, and to control the particle size of the resulting oxides. The binders used, or nickel flake (a la Edison) also needs to be produced / procured. Then we get to the plate manufacturing and nickel plating process, both which consume energy and chemicals. KOH electrolyte with a little LiOH. Some manufacturers use NaOH. These days Nickel also competes in the Lithium battery market, so demand is pretty high which raises the prices.
  6. TTT, can you remember where you got those images of the FeNi battery plates?
  7. Like the Germans would say: Jein. (Ja-nein). Cost of materials and cost of production should be considered separately. If one were to automate heavily, the unit labor costs are pretty low, but of course then one needs more upfront capital. I'd like to just start with a few hand-made prototypes. My main problem is having access to a decent battery testing system with accurate current and voltage sensors, and programmable loads. The chemistry can be handled (PhD Chem Eng).
  8. Still interested? Shoot me an email at [email protected] ... perhaps we can talk.
  9. Thank you all for a great job looking behind the smoke and mirrors of the Sirius scam! Did anything come from the FeNi idea that The Terrible Triplett tried so bravely to get started?
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