Lithium Batteries, who has them?

[cvtripper]

This is what I'm looking forward to seeing...
http://www.sciencealert.com/new-technol ... five-years

It'll be interesting to see how well they work in house systems.
I'm not sure of the charging logistics - something tells me that recharging 700AH in a few minutes is going to need a whole lot of current - not sure where that will come from!

[T1 Terry]

What is it these days with Universities putting spin on their press releases? from the article

"After one full charge this car should be able to run up to 500km - similar to a petrol-powered car and more than double the current limit of an electric car,” said Jinzhang Liu, a materials engineer who also worked on the supercapacitor, in the release.

A Tesla "S" and "D" already have a range of 450km so it's no biggie to stretch that another 50km..... and then the claim is an "up to" anyway. the new series 3 chargers Tesla are installing now give an 80% capacity recharge in under 20 mins, doing the sums that should put 360km of fuel in the tank. Think about how long you really take refilling the car on a trip, fuel in, pay the cashier, everyone has a trip to the bathroom, maybe a cuppa and something to eat..... if you get in and back out of the servo in under 30 mins it feels like you did a Bathurst style pitstop and you certainly feel more drained than refreshed by the experience. So driving in to a charging bay and parking utilising the new transfer pads that are already on the market, so no plug in required, wander off to do all those things you normally do when refuelling, back in the car after 30 mins or more and you have another 360km plus fuel back in the battery pack. the grid plate knows who you are and what account to debit, so the trip to the cashier is also eliminated.
There is no way known in todays technology of transferring the required amount of energy to power a vehicle for 500km in 5 mins, so that is just nonsense, the nanotech Lipoly cells can already accept a 15C charge rate and 65C discharge rate, so a 100Ah cell could theoretically accept a charge current of 1500 amps, way beyond anything possible as it is, so there is nothing really new here on offer besides a claim of super light weight and building the battery into body panels.... as if, can you imagine the added problems in a vehicle accident and can you imagine the authorities allowing something with that much energy storage anywhere within the crumple zone?
As I say, nothing but spin, so why do they do it? looking for investor $$ perhaps????

[slowhand]

This is what I'm looking forward to seeing...
http://www.sciencealert.com/new-technol ... five-years

It'll be interesting to see how well they work in house systems.
I'm not sure of the charging logistics - something tells me that recharging 700AH in a few minutes is going to need a whole lot of current - not sure where that will come from!

David, the advances in technology are very fascinating and rarely come out as claimed, however been following this form of research for a number of years and they are very close to what they are claiming.

Already they have lifepo4/super capacitor storage systems in operation and grapheme combined with the advances made in carbon fibre technology, will mean using paneling for charge storage and charging via impregnated solar cells, will come about in time. They may even make solar cells which are also super capacitors and solve a number of problems at one time.

Unless they discover a new form of propulsion and energies storage, this will come about, just as the experimental vehicles having very lightweight strong constructions which have solar cells impregnated in them and have ranges of 500-1000klms are now running around.

Like aircraft, motor vehicles will become very light and carbon fibre, graphene as other new substances become the norm. As with all technologies, we think they are all there is, but then someone comes along and everything changes, including the supposed established physics involved. The unfolding truth of our universe shows how fallible our primitive scientific understanding really is.

When you consider the huge amount of electrical energy powering our planet, the time may come when we will take the energy from the earth electrical fields and maybe harness the suns energy production in a much better way. Tesla did claim he could get all the energy he needed by putting up a couple of poles with connecting wires and tap into the earths electrical energy fields.

[SteveW]

I've seen the movie - Back to the Future.

[Mrcoolabah1au]

Forward to the future and beyound?

[Izabarack]

I am now in a situation where I will install a battery and charge setup from scratch. Need to do some measuring of space but I intend for something in the 100 AH range and the real estate available in half a VW transporter roof for panels (probably about 2x180 Watts max). Just blew up a PL20 during play time (smoke came out and don't have a funnel small enough to pour it back in) but do have a D250S and alternator charging a 40AH DIY LiFePo battery.

Suggestions please, for what to hang off the panels and before the battery terminals. I am, of course, concerned about achieving balanced cells at the top end and something to protect the battery against too low a discharge. I have a blank page here, so to speak, and want to keep it as simple as possible. I have no problems checking things several times a day so am not after set-n-forget arrangement.

Iza

[dapope]

How did you manage to kill a pl20?

[Mrcoolabah1au]

With 240 volts?

[campingnut]

I saw this on the web site of an RV mob selling LIFEPO4 -I thought they excelled at staying charged (even at 50 percent) and not being used for some time?

Battery management requirements for using LiFePO4 batteries in caravans and RVs
Typically, caravans and other RVs tend to be used only part of the year. The batteries are therefore idle for significant periods. This cycle of constant use followed by dormant periods requires specific management of the State of Charge (SoC) of the battery otherwise the health and life expectancy of the battery will be reduced. Solar 4 RVs is currently investigating how to meet this need. If you would to discuss this further or be kept up to date please contact us.

Nothing about battery management at all really

[PeterM]

Nothing about battery management at all really

Nothing much to do really. Just be sure battery is half charged - not fully charged - and disconnect it from everything. Will be happy for many months!

Peter