Hi from South Australia

Bob Muster

New member
Joined
Feb 11, 2017
Messages
25
I stumbled upon DIY Powerwalls and using 18650 cells when looking for stepdown buck converters to use with my 24v solar charged lead acid battery system. I'vehad this LAsystem running LED downlights in my house for a number of years but recently decided to expand it to run our internet equipment and weather station PC which uploads my weather data to a website.

My interest in building a powerwall was sparked by the fact the old LA batteries are nearing the end of their life span, so it occurred to me that a powerwall could be the answer. I do have some experience with LiFePO4 systems in our caravan and as an auxillary battery in our4WD (200ah and 100ah 12v packs respectively).

I'm currently trying tobuild up contacts for a steady supply of laptop batteries with some success. Time will tell. I'm currently surrounded by approximately 100 individual cells and have started testing cell capacities. It's great to be able to draw on the expertise of people on this forum, the FB group and those who have put up YouTube videos.

Long term, I intend to install a large system to allow us to move off grid. It seems so wasteful to be sending our rooftop solar power back to the grid for a pittance when we could store it and use it at night.I've always thought that I would use a LiFePO4 bank, but 18650 cells may well be an option. I guess it depends on the success of my first powerwall (7SP60) to replace the LA system I described above.

Bob
 
welcome to the forum :)
 
Ah good someone else from SA.
Might send you a PM later, see if you can help me with something.
 
station240 said:
Ah good someone else from SA.
Might send you a PM later, see if you can help me with something.

I was thinking I might be all alone, although I did find out that someone else had enquires about used laptop batteries at a school I'd also approached.

Look forward to your pm.

Bob
 
I think there are quite a few from SA here given some of the 'issues' they have with the " People in Power" lol
 
hbpowerwall said:
I think there are quite a few from SA here given some of the 'issues' they have with the " People in Power" lol

Mostly a Federal Government beat up. Any power grid would collapse with 22 or more high voltage towers being twisted to the ground, trees coming down over a wide area of the distribution network.

To blame alternative clean energy for this natural disaster is a joke.

The most recent outage would not have occurred if those that manage the national grid had not been so focused on making a huge profit out of the shortage of powerand had given the go ahead to turn on our natural gas power station.

Bob
 
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