Brammo Owners Forum

General => Off Topic => Topic started by: protomech on July 02, 2012, 06:01:01 PM

Title: 86 year old Edison Nickel-Iron cells discovered, tested
Post by: protomech on July 02, 2012, 06:01:01 PM

PDF link (http://www.battcon.com/PapersFinal2011/DeMarPaperDONE2011BU_21.pdf)

Worth a read in its short 7 page entirety, but here's the gist.

Short version: author finds batteries of unknown make on craigslist that have been servicing a lighting assembly in a cabin in the woods for decades and decades. Travels out, hauls them back, tests them.

Initial tests are pretty poor - the cells would collapse after several minutes at even a light load. After an electrolyte replacement (the acid in a lead acid battery) the cells seemed to significantly recover.

The 300 Ah cell listed in their testing was initially rated for 60 A for 5 hours (discharge down to 1.2 volts per cell, vpc). They tested it at a 30A, 20A, and 14A discharge .. 30A was still too high, but at 20A it lasted for ~5.5 hours, and at 14A it lasted for ~7.5 hours.

So approximately 36% original capacity after 86 years of abuse and neglect. Not too bad.

Title: Re: 86 year old Edison Nickel-Iron cells discovered, tested
Post by: 00049 (AKA SopFu) on July 02, 2012, 09:03:19 PM

Edison cells  ;D  Weren't they the company that said batteries would never matter, while secretly doing tons of R&D to figure out how they could make them work?