Anyone know how to build a big battery? - several 100 Ah

[Doug1]

You would be better off making them from 5 gal buckets and connecting them up to your desired voltage so you have a way to isolate some for repair or service.Each bucket with a lid being a single cell. then you can also experiment with different internal mixtures of compounds and electrolites. the compounds from old shorted out batteries (the paste) might even be something you could try to recycle or incorporate. A pool would have to be devided into sections to make a number of cells to reach your required voltage otherwise it will be a single cell at 1.5 volts.
  Construction sites throw out many buckets with lids ,just let them know you want them and ask when thet will are schedualled to work on the sheet rock so you can plan to come by and pick up the buckets at the end of the day for a week or so.

[X00013]

your best battery is wood, coal, gas,. build a steamer/generator and burn as you need power/heat. After all, this is what your local power supplier does, no? and they charge u up the ass as corp.inc.  likes to do, , why not do what they do yourself? I will tell you why, 99.99999999% of people are fuckn lazy involents.

[ivorycelt]

Yeas - Steam generater great.
But when you want a light in middle of the night to go to the loo?
Batteries have their place.
And solar is great, it just sits their and produces current - and in a country where wood is not so easy to come by - Africa Hmmm sensible.
The guy who mentioned buckets - is more on track. The question really, is conventional lead acid? and if so do i need to re juvinate the lead (smelt/clean out impurities? - and what best plate/matrix etc?)
OR - Something more interesting - I have seen a few things on here like lemon juice/ cocanut/ Zinc/ Potasium Permanganate (I think?) - or are they just discharge only?

[CompuTutor]

Making your entire cellar a swimming pool sized battery made me flinch,
that's is unless when the battery is "Gassing" it isn't explosive that is.

Using 5-gal pails makes economic sense.

Most metals are available as rolls of a fixed width.

Choosing two dissimilar metals in rolled form,
adding a porous separator available in rolls,
and rolling a "Yodel" (Hostess snack food...)
similar to the way an electrolytic capacitor
is rolled then packaged makes the most sense
for an economical quantity-based choice here.

Auto-filling with water is easy enough too,
but venting must be considered in all cases...

They can then be buried AWAY from the house,
or grouped above ground with sun shading instead.



Although considering combustible materials as a battery
due to the energy stored in them seems a bit off to me,
it is mostly true I suppose.

But these are not instant gratification processes for sure.

Am I to push the button beside my bed to startup my
"Stanley-Steamer 3000 Fired Generator" and wait until
my wonder device gets up to speed to light my way
to the bathroom many minutes later just to pee?

Batteries have their place is all I'm saying,
and steam does too when appropriate.

Plant a seed, wait for sun, water plant/tree,
wait until fully grown, harvest and cut/split,
store somewhere, pile into a steamer, lite it,
and then wait for steam...

We are already raping the planet for wood enough now,
just like we are of all fossil-fuel/coal reserves as it is.

I'd rather use the above source of energy (Sun)
in any way possible to a storage medium of some kind
that can be used when I wanted for almost no work (Flick a switch).

The lead/acid battery has been the least expensive
for an awfully long time now, but can they be made
as DIY for less money in quantity is the question...

Please people, no (Battery) "Bombs" in the cellar though, OK ?