Assault on batteries

I am (slowly) recovering from the fact that the battery on my netbook has half-died - it won't charge beyond 49%, and a 'battery test' app from HP tells me one of the cells is done.

Less than two years into its life.

A replacement costs $167, so guess what? A new netbook is in the offing.

Why would I spend half the cost of an all-new, fully-warranted product just for a new battery?

Yes, it's a Lithium-Ion battery, the sort which:

(a) blew up in the Mac computer in the flat of a tenant of my daughter's, and almost burned the entire house to the ground;

(b) some car makers seem to feel will be a major source of automotive power in the near future.

Hmm-mm...

Add to that the massive power outage in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, caused by overloaded circuits due, apparently, to heavy use of air conditioning during the heat wave.

So, if the Toronto electricity grid had, say, 35,000 electric cars plugged into it as well, what then?

OK, maybe most of them would be plugged in at night, and the a/c demand is mostly during the day.

But does no-one else have severe doubts about the ultimate capacity of our electrical infrastructure to support even a limited number of plug-in electric cars?

Or the ultimate cost-effectiveness/lifespan/safety issues of this technology?

Comments

[Darren]

Highly disappointed Jim ... the blackout wasn't caused by a lack of power as reported in the very paper you write for.

"Alexandra Campbell, the spokesperson for the Independent Electricity System, said the outage had nothing to do with lack of power available.

“In fact, we had plenty of power available to meet demand today. This is quite likely completely unrelated to the fact that it was hot,” she said."

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/832275--toronto-s-baby-blackout?bn=1

[Greg H]

Regarding the electric car charging, my hope is that it could play out like this:

When you park your car (and connect the charger), you set a time that you're going to next need the car (like the time you leave work for the day). Car begins charging...

Oops, Hydro notices that a peak demand is going to occur over lunch due to A/C use. Hydro sends a signal to the cars plugged into the grid to start FEEDING the grid instead of drawing power to charge. Blackout is averted...

Peak period passes, and cars are again signaled to start charging, which replaces the power they gave up to support the grid during the peak.

Of course, this process only occurs for the cars that said they wouldn't be moving again for hours.

Why we we want to help with Hydro's peak? Because they'll recharge our cars for free if we help out during their peak. Electricity is so expensive to them during the peak, that they're selling it to us at a loss to recharge out cars anyway. I think they'd rather have that recharge load off the grid during the peak, then to make the puny revenue from one recharge cycle.

This sort of stuff is trivial with today's electronics. It'll just take people to accept it.

[Brian Boyes]

Jim, I've been a fan of yours for a long time and I also work for an HP-Authorized repair and sales vendor in Ancaster. I'd like to see if I can help you out either with the battery or a replacement. Let me know.

[Peter]

Jim, the difference in cooling technologies between laptop batteries and the ones being developed for automotive applications is immense.

http://cleantech.com/news/5293/tesla-motors-taps-dana-heat-exchang

[Richard]

You can probably find a battery on ebay, kijiji etc. for less that an official HP battery.

Even better, try www.batterybuyer.com (a Canadian company, located in Buckhorn, Ontario). I've bought from them before with no problems. I see HP netbook batteries for ~ $60. ~ is for approximately, by the way.

Feel free to not post this comment since I've added a link that could be considered advertising, however, I am in no way affiliated with batterybuyer.com

As an aside, I drive a hybrid (Lexus RX400h) and have not experienced any problems with the battery. Vehicle currently has 140000KM on it and is a 2006 that went on the road in early 2005. I'm the second owner. The battery is NOT lithium ion.