People Are Using Recycled Laptop Batteries To Power Their Homes (vice.com)

New submitter gooddogsgotoheaven writes: DIY Powerwall builders from around the world are harvesting old laptop batteries and turning them into powerful batteries capable of supplying energy to their entire homes. "It's the future. It's clean, simple, efficient and powerful," Jehu Garcia, one of the most popular powerwall builders, told me. He and people like him are deciding for themselves what the future of alternative energy will look like, instead of waiting for technology companies to shape it for them. "The end result is being able to rely on something I not only built myself but understand the ins and outs of to power some or all of my electricity in my home. That is inspiring," Joe Williams, another powerwall builder, told me.

Comments

IDTS

[Frosty Piss]

Jesus. Nope, nope, nope. Dying in a fire isn't my preferred way to go.

Re:IDTS

[Captain Splendid]

Meh, you build yourself a little block shed separated from your house. Problem solved.

Re:IDTS

[sycodon]

I have had more than double the number of batteries for my laptops than I have had laptops.

Battery lifetimes seem to be about a third of the computer.

Where are they getting perfectly good batteries that are "recycled"?

Re:IDTS

[Athanasius]

That was also my first thought, before I read TFA. Searching on 'safe' in it I find these quotes, and it's not all the hits:

Gathering enough batteries is only the first step to building a DIY powerwall. Every cell then has to be tested—not all are safe enough to be used, several hobbyists told me. Lithium-ion batteries have a limited lifespan: Some laptop batteries harvested end up having too little capacity to be used.

Most hobbyists I spoke to said they don't keep their powerwalls inside their homes for safety reasons or to comply with local regulations.

One of the most frequent topics that came up in my conversations with powerwall makers was safety. Fusing together hundreds of recycled lithium-ion batteries is dangerous, and could cause a fire if done incorrectly.

On the DIYpowerwalls forum, there are dozens of threads dedicated to preventing these massive, homemade electronic devices from catching ablaze. YouTube too is littered with videos warning powerwall builders that their projects are unsafe.

DIY powerwall makers often aren't engineers or electricians. Most, including the most popular—like Jehu Garcia—lack formal training altogether. But they remain mostly unfazed by safety concerns, and said that more recently, makers have pushed each other to engineer more safeguards into their rigs.

So, there is definitely some caution here, and awareness that such pre-used batteries may not be useful enough due to low charge levels.

Re:IDTS

[AmiMoJo]

Laptop batteries are made up for several individual cells. Often only one or two cells die, and the rest are fine. Take the pack apart, test each cell and discard the duff ones.

This happens because cheap cells have variable quality, and because heat kills batteries but tends to be very uneven in a laptop, mostly on one side where the CPU is.

Between old laptop batteries and old power tool batteries, and even written off cars, you can get a nearly infinite supply of very cheap/free LiPo cells that just need disassembling and testing.

Not that I know about electricity

[keith_nt4]

But this seems to be a really, really bad idea. Just on the face of it.

Other sources of cheap batteries

[Andrew Lindh]

I think there's a huge stash of "almost new" Samsung Galaxy Note 7 batteries that aren't being used now.

Re:Other sources of cheap batteries

[93 Escort Wagon]

I think there's a huge stash of "almost new" Samsung Galaxy Note 7 batteries that aren't being used now.

I've got a few crates of them stored away for winter. It's gonna slash my heating bill by 70%!

Lithium batteries are not to be taken lightly

[stikves]

They are very power efficient, and also very dangerous:

- Overcharge it too much: boom
- Drain it completely, and then try to charge: boom
- Puncture: boom
- Overheat: boom
- Make your own battery with cells you found around, and not use a good controller: boom, boom, boom

Of course it is possible to use lots of cheap batteries, with a very good controller system. This is what Tesla does for its current cars. However the system needs to monitor each cell and pack, and have safety precautions to disconnect them if them become faulty.

Basically, do not try this at home.

Sounds good on the surface but

[burtosis]

The problem with using laptop batteries is not the batteries, the tesla uses them. The problem is the smart battery circuitry needed to monitor currents and voltages, balance cells, thermally monitor strings (or ideally individual cells), gas gauge, and safely disconnect problem cells from the system. The major advancement in the tesla is the amazing cooling/heating system and the ability to rewire itself to stop using problem cells. Simply wiring up a bank of unmonitored cells is a disaster waiting to happen. The vast majority of home hobbiests lack the knowledge and wherewithal to implement proper battery safety. The packs in the stock photos, if lithium cells, are a disaster in the making. Disclaimer: have designed smart battery circuits for lithium batteries used in actual products.