DIY Powerwall Builders Are Using Recycled Laptop Batteries to Power Their Homes

Re:DIY Powerwall Builders Are Using Recycled Laptop Batterie... by askvictor on Saturday August 26, 2017 @09:19PM (#15108486)

If they're from laptops the cells should be safe (as opposed to unknown new cells from AliExpress which may or may not be to spec); albeit not necessarily at maximum capacity. As long as appropriate protection circuitry is used, I don't see how using then hard would make any difference (laptops use batteries hard too).

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Re:DIY Powerwall Builders Are Using Recycled Laptop Batterie... by userbinator on Saturday August 26, 2017 @10:05PM (#15108687)

opposed to unknown new cells from AliExpress which may or may not be to spec

Many of those are actually recycled old cells, likely from laptop batteries, and could still have a lot of capacity left --- often, what happens is that one of the cells in the pack fails/goes out of balance and the protection circuit disables the whole thing, meaning the rest of them are still very much usable.

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Re:DIY Powerwall Builders Are Using Recycled Laptop Batterie... by agumonkey on Sunday August 27, 2017 @06:03PM (#15113066)

Most of the videos on the subject I've seen have a simple idea: depending on the battery, one cell could turn a whole pack off for safety. Pulling them apart, and rewiring them to a new (and probably better) Battery Management Chip, could make the N-1 pack working. They also often charge them a few times individually to assess their stability.

[1] one bad cell could force too much current elsewhere or overheat IIUC

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Re:DIY Powerwall Builders Are Using Recycled Laptop Batterie... by monochromatic on Sunday August 27, 2017 @03:54PM (#15112367)

Laptops catch fire sometimes.

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