Having just written about the possibility of people going “off the grid”, I’ve decided to put down some of my ideas of where to go with this. Twelve years ago, when I started building Mon Abri, going “off the grid” was not on my agenda, at all. At the time, it seemed so obvious to use the grid as storage instead of expending untold amounts of resources to make batteries made a lot of sense. After all, the grid was already ‘here’, and who knew that the powers that be would be so offended by the notion of giving up their centralised power system? Or that they would spend ridiculous money ‘gold plating’ the distribution system and start charging connection fees?
I first came across Nickel Iron batteries at Geoff Lawton’s Zaytuna farm. That was two and a bit years ago, and still then I was arguing with Geoff about the silliness of not connecting to the grid when it was right outside his gate……. I guess I owe him an apology now. He said the grid was evil, and I replied that only the way it was used was evil. Well, the evil has risen as the devil now. I don’t mind admitting I was wrong, and I will happily swap sides when necessary.
The fact remains of course, that whether we talk grid or off grid, it all takes energy and resources, and fossil energy to boot. My aspirations of becoming totally energy independent (there’s no such thing, really…) are purely selfish, I will admit up front. I, and you who is reading this I suppose, are in the enviable position of knowing what’s coming, and at least in my case, having the knowledge of how to deal with it. Not many people do. To say I am privileged in this regard is a total understatement. But I am here to help, please take away whatever you need to know from my rantings on this humble blog. it’s open source!
Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries
I had forgotten about these Nickel Iron batteries until my Geeveston friend Monte started asking questions about disconnecting from the grid himself, and mentioned NiFe batteries…. I had already made up my mind to use Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, but now I’m not so sure….. note LiFePO
4 batteries only have the Lithium in common with Lithium Ion ones.
These are commonly used in EVs because they are light and will cycle far more times than any Lead Acid battery can. Longevity, for me, is a real issue, because I can see that far in the future replacing these batteries will be nigh impossible as resource constraints destroy industrial civilisation. Some pundits claim that treated properly, these batteries can last 40 years, which is easily double what you’d expect from the competition. Until that is, I started investigating the Nickel iron (NiFe) variety. And what I found literally blew me away. No wonder Geoff was praising their capabilities…..
Thomas Edison with his NiFe Cell
NiFe batteries are truly old hat. Developed by Thomas Edison (yes….. that old hat..!) in 1901, and it is claimed some of these batteries still work….. Originally used as the energy source for electric vehicles, such as the Detroit Electric and Baker Electric. Edison claimed the nickel–iron design to be, “far superior to batteries using lead plates and acid”. And just to prove some things never change, read here about the 100 year old EV that used NiFe batteries, and somewhat younger hybrid cars…..
Edison’s batteries were made from about 1903 to 1972 by the Edison Storage Battery Company in East Orange, NJ. They were quite profitable for the company. In 1972 the battery company was sold to the Exide Battery Corporation, which discontinued making the battery in 1975. I am yet to find out why. Nickel–iron cells were made with capacities from 5 to 1250 Ah. Many of the original manufacturers no longer make nickel iron cells. They are currently manufactured in China, Ukraine and Russia as well as in the US.
I have sourced a supplier whose website is full of information (though one page mysteriously won’t open for me). Their batteries don’t seem any dearer than the competition to me, and the durability is so much better that they could in fact be potentially far more economical. I don’t know if these battery suppliers are just covering themselves, but their durability numbers are far more conservative than those quoted by the numerous enthusiasts I’ve found on the net suggest… I also found this site for anyone interested… and an Australian one here… I’m sure one could find other sources.
Iron and Nickel are not that particularly rare, but of course they need mining, and we all know how destructive that can be….. and of course there is still the niggle we face of Peak Mining as discussed by Simon Michaux.
If you want my advice…… don’t wait for progress or prices getting cheaper, get in now or you’ll miss out.
Good luck……
Damn the Matrix 