SAFT SPL 165 Ni-Cd Batteries

Rkg76

Hey All, anybody know if these batteries would be good for my offgrid 24v system I am planning at my cottage? A friend has offered me quite a number of these for nothing and apparently they are still in very good shape. They were used for rail crossings. My initial plan was to use 6v GC batteries....but for free I may just give these a try if they may work....any thoughts from anyone on these Ni-Cd batteries??
Thanks

westbranch

go for them I have some 40 yr old ones 100 Ah and they still work for my application, need to replace the KOH solution.. I will look up those you have later tomorrow and advise. I also have some other info from the most local rep for SAFT on reconditioning..

BB.

NiCads are very good/rugged batteries.

They can be less efficient cycling (70%-90%) and relatively high self discharge rates:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93cadmium_battery (more about the smaller AA-D cells)

However, they can supply/receive very high levels of current.

Check about how to recycle them... Cadmium has made the government "enemies" list. Properly disposing of NiCad industrial cells may be difficult in your area.

-Bill

westbranch

OK, did a Google search for [h=2]SAFT SPL 165 Ni-Cd Batteries[/h] #1 is probably the most complete doc..

www.saftbatteries.com/force.../SPL_io_en_1013_protected_0.pdf
www.saftbatteries.com/force_download/SPL.pdf
www.saftbatteries.com/force.../SPL_io_en_1013_protected_0.pdf

Rkg76

Thanks for the info...I had seen some of those pdf's already...to be honest it confuses me a little bit...this SPL 165 says it has a rated capacity of 165 AH at a C5 rating...does that mean the 165 AH's is an apples to apples comparison to an GC battery rated at 225AH?? My friend has 16 of these that are pretty much brand new, only were in use for a couple of weeks and I am trying to figure out how many would be equivalent to a 12 GC battery set-up in 24V??

westbranch

NICd batteries are 1.2V per cell, so you need 10 per 12V, 20 for 24V...
the 165Ah C5 rating means they produce 165A for 5 hours, there should be a table on that site SAFT that will show you different ratings for up to 24 hours, the longer the time the more Ahrs produced.
Solar applications use 20 hrs as the standard as that emulates a normal households use pattern.

hth

BB.

At C20 rate, the 165ah batteries will look a bit higher/larger in capacity.

-Bill

Rkg76

So would 20 of these 165 AH batteries be about equivalent to 12 225AH GC batteries at 24 V??

westbranch

No... at 24V @ 165Ah you get 3,960Watt hrs, the other you get 3 strings of 24V @ 225Ahr = 3 x 5400Whrs = 16,200Whrs

Rkg76

Oh ok...so even if I had 60 of these batteries it would not equate to the same amp hour storage capacity....damn....I thought I was getting a hell of deal!!

westbranch

they are very solid batteries , you just have to pick the application to match them...or get 2 24V sets to = ~7920 Watts

BB.

Output current (surge/heavy loads), these NiCad should stomp all over lead acid.

Overall storage capacity, the golf cart batteries will hold more energy (unless you get more nicad).

-Bill

706jim

Rkg76 wrote: »

Oh ok...so even if I had 60 of these batteries it would not equate to the same amp hour storage capacity....damn....I thought I was getting a hell of deal!!

I HAD 60 of these. Maybe 100; I never counted them. Sounds similar: Used on railroad wig wags and "just like new".
Nothing but grief, that being low capacity. wild voltage swings and oozing electrolyte.
Mine were "free" too, but now I'm faced with getting rid of the toxic lot which are located on an island.
Fortunately, our coast guard was disposing of toxic waste and I was able to get rid of them.
You may do better with your free batteries, but I would go with something more conventional if possible.

westbranch

Electrolyte can be made into fertilizer when it is neutralized. They probably needed to be EQed, which is an interesting process of depleting them, hammering them with .5C amps or as much as your charger can give, for 15 hrs and then depleting again , repeat 5 times... removing cells that can not deliver the amps/volts for the 3 hr depletion period...