Secondhand batteries

Posted on 24/07/2012 by hugh

If anyone needs cheap batteries for an off-grid system, try asking my neighbour Lawrence Buchan 077 37308766.  He has some nice Yuasa endurance batteries in 6-V blocks, 100Ah and 160 Ah sizes.

Yuasa batteries being landed at Scoraig

About hugh

I live off-grid in NW Scotland and have spent my life playing with wind turbines. I also love small hydros. Hands on renewable energy is my thing and I like to learn and to share my experiences.
This entry was posted in products/technical, UK small wind scene. Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Secondhand batteries

  1. Iron Edison says:
    19/12/2018 at 11:17

    Going off-grid or replacing a set of old lead-acid batteries? The Iron Edison Nickel Iron (NiFe) battery will be the last battery you will ever buy. No battery offers a better long-term value for renewable energy storage. Have questions or need help designing your system? Give us a call (720-432-6433)

    Reply
  2. Linda Brackenbury says:
    23/01/2013 at 19:32

    Hi,

    My other half is interested in all this alternative energy stuff, and I told him about your site,
    does your neighbour still has second hand batteries available ?

    Reply
  3. Andrew Drummond says:
    05/08/2012 at 02:29

    Do you know if this is a one-time ‘call now to avoid disappointment’ type of situation, or does your neighbour have a steady supply of these second-hand batteries?

    Those NiFe batteries look pretty interesting, it’s just sad that an industry to supply them is so dead compared to lead-acid.

    Reply
  4. David Simms says:
    27/07/2012 at 01:33

    I guess that the up-front expense is one factor. Also, Excide bought the only surviving Ni-Fe manufacturer in the US, in the ’70s and shut it down shortly thereafter. Ni-Fe has virtually disappeared from our vocabulary but that’s no reflection on their quality.

    Reply
  5. David Simms says:
    26/07/2012 at 01:52

    Just wondering, Hugh, whether anyone you know has tried Nickle-Iron batteries. I’ve just written an article about batteries and these look pretty good. They’ve certainly been proven and the engineering reports corroborate the anecdotal evidence. They may be a bit less efficient than lead-acid but they tolerate abuse that would kill lead-acid batteries. After a good ten years of service, the electrolyte can be changed and the batteries will perform as well as they did when new.
    Here’s a good site linked to some good engineering studies and to the Chinese source.
    http://www.nickel-iron-battery.com/
    I interviewed this guy and he’s a very enthusiastic Ni-Fe user, himself.

    Reply
    • admin says:
      26/07/2012 at 06:46

      I tried nickel-cadmium a long time ago in the days when we used 12-volt light bulbs. My problem was with the range of voltage between charge and discharge. Bulbs blew on charge, and the light was very dim on discharge. I don’t know if nickel-iron has this problem. It’s not such an issue with modern sine-wave inverters but it still reflects a low efficiency.

      Since then I have not used them although I have been involved with installations that used secondhand ones. By the way, the Northern Lighthouse Board are disposing of quite a few as they replace old diesel systems in their lighthouses around Scotland. Or this program may now be finished. Ni-Cd is a more toxic technology than Lead-acid, so these batteries may be expensive to dispose of.

      I wonder why Ni-Fe batteries are not more widely used?

      Reply

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