[LINK] Batteries again

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of David Boxall
> Sent: Wednesday, 18 May 2011 9:50 AM
> To: link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Batteries again
> 
> 
> On 16/05/2011 5:00 PM, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>  > ...
>  >> The WMRC's Battery Recycling Programme collects used household 
> batteries (A, AA, AAA, C, D, button, 9V and 6V) and sends them for 
> recycling...
> Which emphasises the scope of the issue. What proportion of mobile 
> 'phone batteries are recycled, for example? At what costs? What about 
> all those appliances with internal batteries that aren't readily 
> replaceable? And the list goes on.
> 
> On 16/05/2011 6:12 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:
> > My concern is that when we decentralise the battery UPS out of the 
> > Telstra exchanges is that making sure they have a proper system to 
> > monitor and replace them is much harder.
> >
> > In other words, after a few years we get an outage and all the 
> > batteries are dead. ...
> Which exposes the futility.
> 
> With the rise of battery-powered transport, the problems will 
> get worse. 
> Are batteries the foundation of humanity's next great 
> blunder? Or is it 
> a current blunder, the severity of which we've not yet recognised?
> 


Unfortunately the weak link is the battery, therefore we either need to
move to CNG powered on demand Fuel Cell (or a small gas bottle is only
$6.00 to recharge and should last a couple of weeks) or ... 

I've never understood why CNG isn't used to generate electricity on a
distributed basis per home... Much cheaper than that grid stuff...

That said, I picked up some real cheap 2000 AH 48 Volt beauties from a
battery recycler ex exchange backup... (for $180 each - the value of the
lead-). Telstra were swapping out the Lead acid versions for sealed
cells an OH&S issue....

Bravo OH&S...

TomK