Battery idea, yes or no?

LishFish

New member
Joined
Apr 16, 2017
Messages
16
Hi everybody,
I just had an idea and thought Id ask first before going ahead with it.
Could you use phone batteries and just tab it all together
Figured you could use them and you'd be able to pack more power in for a smaller area. Plus with the crazy amount of phone repair places around Im sure you could get batteries all the time

Would this idea work to power you house from solar or has no one tried/thought of this and im treading into new area?

TIA
LishFish
 
Of course it works... But:

Its pouch cells and they are generally not as safe as 18650 itself.

So i would not even consider it. Unless you have endless free of new such cells. :)
 
I was having similar thoughts about Chromebook batteries. There are tons of them on eBay. I just saw a Listing the other day for (30) New11.4v 3990mAhPrismatics for $100 with free shipping. I can't find anywhere locally to get laptop packs for 18650s, and the prices on ebay are too damn high.
 
Droid: I did a posting on Craigslist and was able to get several ppl contact me with batteries. The first guy had like 50lbs or so. The second guy had 220lbs! I'm still plugging away with that batch (I'm slow at the processing stages). And a third guy who still had my info contacted me recently with about 5lbs (though, 1/2 of those are probably gonna be junk; but I figured to go ahead and take the small batch as it will encourage him to seek me out to sell more good ones)

All my posts have expired on Craigslist now, so I can't show you a posting. But I posted an ad in several locations aside from the obvious computers and electronics sections. I also posted in the tools, general, and even in the community sections.

So you might try that route. Even post ads in neighboring cities to get some bites out there. I started off with $1.50/lb to get some bites. But now I'm gonna drop down to $1.25/lb and see what happens. I'm willing to drive 45mins or an hour to pick up a good size load if need be. Fortunately, they all came to me ;)
 
This is a reasonable idea ....I have experimented with some old phone batteries and they still hold a lot of power ...soldering on the tabs is tricky.
18650's are nice unit to work with ...plenty available ...phone batteries come in all different sizes , so unless the phone cells are cheap , or 18650's are not obtainable ,it might be better to stick with 18650's .... the end result with phone cells might be messy and inelegant

This safety concern is non issue in my opinion...billions of people use these batteries in their phones daily without getting blown up!!!

Just treat them with respect , and they should be fine.
 
Note that its not about blowing them up in the first place i would say. With proper voltage and current controll it wont happen.

For me its "when" it happens. They are more likely to actually do something stupid compared to 18650 that are pretty safe due to its CID and container.

But as you said. Respect them and they will give you some energy back in return :)
 
I doubt the mobile phone batteries can supply much current.
Biggest reason I can see for not using them, is 18650 cells are just easier to mount together. Easy to buy or 3D print holders for 18650's as they are a consistent size.
 
I'm starting to experiment with them. The trick is to get the highest. Voltage pack available. These will be made up of the highest number of pouch cells. I don't want to waste my time with single cell packs that are 4.xx or 3.xx. Volts. Unless they are new, when these cells go bad, they are completely spent. A higher voltage pack probably has only one or two bad cells and the rest are still functioning. Again if you can find new packs, you are starting with good packs.

Controlling the temperature in the powerwall is key to long life of the batteries. But with the high number of cells in parallel, you absolutely must fuse the cell. A dead short will catch the whole pack on fire without fusing.

Lastly, design the pack with a low discharge/charge rate. If it is a 1000 mah pouch cell, use something way less than 0.5 C. It will prolong the life. I'm designing my packs to have only .1 amps discharge rate. Or .1 c with a 1000 mah cell. They will not get hot and you can pack them tighter. They will take a long time to discharge.
 
So in order for this to be somewhat usable could you fuse wire everything in series at nominal 12v and put those series ones in parallel, thus keeping it at nominal 12v but giving it more amps that could be used at any one time?
Then to offset the heat could either heat sink every single battery or use an aluminium sheet on the whole lot of batteries.
Could you also charge a "dead" phone battery (not recognized to hold charge in phones) if you were to get them from phone repair places?


Droid126 what chromebooks are you referring too? Seems every company has that title now days
 
I am in Madagascar. I tried buying old computer batteries and all I got was 800mah cells and heaters. They all were scrap.
People spend about 50% of their disposable income on phone communication here.
I am trying to buy Lifepo4 cells from China but expect that they will not be shipped because of dangerous goods policies by courier companies for this country.
I am now researching which phone battery is the most easily obtainable here.
Since lithium is superior and less expensive than lead-acid lack of access to this technology is really a developmental hindrance for African countries.
 
Back
Top