Collaborate Disseminate
As nation states grapple with the spectre of environmental and economic losses due to climate change, we’ve seen an ever greater push towards renewable energy sources to replace heavier polluters …read more Continue reading Electric Vehicles Could Be The Grid Storage Solution We’ve Been Dreaming Of
With 18650 cells as cheap and plentiful as they are, you’d think building your own custom battery packs would be simple. Unfortunately, soldering the cells is tricky, and not everyone is willing to invest in a spot welding setup just to put the tabs on them. Of course that’s only …read more
Continue reading A Modular System For Building Heavy Duty 18650 Battery Packs
Elon Musk isn’t just the greatest human being — he’s also a great inventor. He’s invented the reusable rocket, the electric car, and so much more. While those are fantastic achievements, Elon’s greatest invention is probably the PowerWall. The idea of a PowerWall is simple and has been around for years: just get a bunch of batteries and build a giant UPS for your house. Elon brought it to the forefront, though, and DIYers around the world are building their own. Thanks, Elon.
Of course, while the idea of building your own PowerWall is simple, the devil is in the …read more
We visited a prolific DIY powerwall builder in Los Angeles, electric car technicians in San Diego, and the University of Michigan Energy Institute to see how our world will be powered in the years to come. Continue reading Watch Our New Documentary About the DIY Communities Designing the Future of Energy
In a departure from his usual repair and tear down fare, [Kerry Wong] has set out on a long-term project — building a whole-house battery bank. From the first look at the project, this will be one to watch.
To be fair, [Kerry] gave us a tease at this project a few months back with his DIY spot welder for battery tabs. Since then, he appears to have made a few crucial design decisions, not least of which is battery chemistry. Most battery banks designed for an inverter with enough power to run household appliances rely on lead-acid batteries, although …read more
Continue reading Battery Management Module Hacked for Lithium-Iron Battery Bank
Every now and then a hacker gets started on a project and forgets to stop. That’s the impression we get from [HBPowerwall]’s channel anyway. He’s working on adding a huge number of 18650 Lithium cells to his home’s power grid and posting about his adventures along the way. This week he gave us a look at the balancing process he uses to get all of these cells to work well together. Last month he gave a great overview of the installed system.
His channel starts off innocently enough. It’s all riding small motor bikes around and having a regular good …read more
