What began 9 years ago as a simple plan for a DIY project laid out on an internet forum is now being hailed as a monumental achievement, both from a sustainable energy standpoint and from the perspective of battery recycling. Second Life Storage user Glubux spent years collecting laptop batteries and connecting them to solar panels to become completely self-reliant in terms of electricity.
“I already produce a part of the electricity that I need. I have 1.4 kw of solar panel on the roof, an old 24v 460AH forklift battery, a Victron MPPT 100/50 charge controller, a 24v to 12v Victron voltage lowerer, and a 3KVA Victron inverter,” Glubux wrote in November 2016. “The plan is to build a shed to put all the batteries and the charge controller/inverters. I started to collect laptop batteries a few months ago, I have around 650 for now.”
But that was only the beginning for this driven DIY enthusiast. Over time, he amassed more than 1,000 secondhand laptop batteries that he ended up installing in a separate warehouse, about 50 meters from his home. In the beginning, battery discharge rates were uneven due to differences in the cells, causing some to drain faster than others, so Glubux started taking apart the laptop batteries and arranging the cells into custom racks.
Scienceclock reports that Glubux’s ingenious setup has been running continuously for the last eight years, and not a single battery cell has failed since. That is a remarkable statistic, considering the DIY nature of the project.
Over the years, Glubux’s energy production capacity has increased from 7 kWh to 56 kWh, with the addition of several solar panels, but it’s his storage system that impressed a lot of DIY enthusiasts. It’s extremely efficient and a great example of how to limit electronic waste.
Man Powers Home for Eight Years Using Over 1,000 Laptop Batteries
