Hello From New York

Hi Everyone, I recently found out about DIY powerwalls when I was researching solar battery options. I'm a K-12 IT director in a 1 to 1 School District, I have access to what seems like never ending broken Chromebooks. Can the pouch cells recovered from them be utilized, they say they are 14.7wh? I feel as if I'm 4 years late on collecting 18650's from laptops.... I recycled 3000 just over 4 years ago! Anyway, I'm excited to be here and to learn from you all.

Welcome, yes recycle the batteries into a powerwall
You can read about what others have done with the many different forms of lithium cells.
later floyd

Welcome! Too bad they're not 18650. My take on pouch are they're difficult to put together. Not impossible, but pretty darn hard. You can put together one for small projects but any larger may be time consuming. They're equivalent to about 2 18650s each. A 2400mah 18650 would be 2.4*3.7=8.88wh. Are they individual cells (3.7V each) or prepackaged in series already at higher voltage? I typically see them in 3S and 4S configurations.

They come in 3S but are pretty easy to get to with a good pair of flush cutters. I was hoping 50P-75P would be straight forward, maybe not. I have tried calling around, looking for an 18650 source but everyone shoots me down. I was able to get some from other districts recycling equipment but pretty much anything made in the past 4 years are using pouch cells.

CountMacula said:

They come in 3S but are pretty easy to get to with a good pair of flush cutters. I was hoping 50P-75P would be straight forward, maybe not. I have tried calling around, looking for an 18650 source but everyone shoots me down. I was able to get some from other districts recycling equipment but pretty much anything made in the past 4 years are using pouch cells.

Click to expand...

>I was hoping 50P-75P
Pouch cells need physical constraint so they are held flat during charge/discharge else they will 'puff up' and fail rapidly after that. I would figure out the box/container you plan to use to keep them flat and that will affect your design.

CountMacula said:

Hi Everyone, I recently found out about DIY powerwalls when I was researching solar battery options. I'm a K-12 IT director in a 1 to 1 School District, I have access to what seems like never ending broken Chromebooks. Can the pouch cells recovered from them be utilized, they say they are 14.7wh? I feel as if I'm 4 years late on collecting 18650's from laptops.... I recycled 3000 just over 4 years ago! Anyway, I'm excited to be here and to learn from you all.

Click to expand...

hi friend
do you have any excess inventory of broken chromebooks ?