Electric Car Future

Tesla Megapacks are giant lithium ion batteries used in power plants for backup. One recently caught fire at a California power plant and a shelter in place order was issued. Burning lithium batteries are pretty darn toxic. There’s some serious downsides to lithium ion batteries.

Fortunately they don’t catch fire everyday. Then again, almost all electric cars on the road use some version of lithium batteries. The thing about cars is that there are lot of them on the road and on any given day a significant number of them crash. The thought of electric cars on fire sounds pretty scary. To me they are no more scary than gasoline cars.  People don’t realize how dangerous gasoline actually is and we manage to deal with gasoline car crashes. 

Right now there are some serious issues with lithium powered cars. Two big ones are the rising price of lithium and the limited supply. One would think that would put the brakes on transportation electrification. 

In the long run it won’t. Lithium is a big deal now, but it won’t be forever. There are plenty of potential alternatives. Many of them use cheaper and more common elements in their construction. It’s only a matter of time before the better ones get commercialized. 

It won’t be that hard to transition to better batteries. Electric cars and trucks will become more common. Personally, I won’t buy one until they are available fairly cheaply on the used market, but that’s just how I roll. Normally I prefer someone else to take the depreciation. Not only that, by then we’ll have a pretty good idea which batter technology will go the distance.

-Sixbears

100 Year Old Battery Technology

Lead acid batteries have been around for over a hundred years. So how come with all the new lithium batteries out there are they still in common use? Odds are very good that the battery in your car is a lead acid battery -unless you drive a Tesla. There are good reasons a gas or diesel vehicle has a lead acid starting battery and a Tesla has lithium.

In short, price, weight and energy density. The battery in a fossil fuel vehicle has one major job, to start the vehicle. A lithium battery could do the job, but why spend the money on a much more expensive battery? Lead works. A Tesla has a huge battery bank. Lead acid is heavy as . . . well, lead. It also lacks the energy density of lithium. For electric cars to make any sort of sense at all a lighter and more energy dense battery is the way to go.

Lithium works great in power hand tools. The power and light weight make sense in something you have to lug around all day. Who wants to use a 50 pound cordless drill? Cell phones and other electronics benefit from compact and energy dense batteries. 

For a while Elon Musk’s power wall was going to be the big thing for off grid houses. You don’t hear that much about it lately. One model was discontinued and they’ve been tweaking the designs. They are  kinda spendy. Personally, I’m still using lead acid batteries with my house solar electric system. It’s a  huge price savings and the weight isn’t an issue since the house isn’t driving down the road at 80 mph. 

My small solar electric systems that I use for camping are still using lead acid. They are heavy, but the systems are small and only use one deep discharge battery. The weight penalty is acceptable. 

However, I did consider using a lithium battery for a 50 watt solar electric system I was going to bring on a long canoe trip. Weight was an issue in a canoe, especially when it came time to do a portage. As it turned out the trip didn’t come together so I never spent the money. 

Lithium batteries are pretty good, but expensive enough that you have to decide if your application really needs them or not. Industrial scale production brings the price down and that helps. In the long run lithium will probably be replaced with some cheaper and even more energy dense. There’s a lot of incentive to engineer in that direction.

-Sixbears

Have screwgun will travel

A couple of years ago my lovely wife gave me a really nice little bit driver. It’s a Bosh. I’d told her once that if she ever gets me cordless tools remember one word: lithium. Cordless tools with good lithium batteries can be lighter and still pack plenty of punch.

Today I was glad I brought it with me. My dad and I just laid down a new subfloor in his bedroom. He’s been rebuilding the floors in his Florida home. Those prefab places were put together with staples and particleboard. Over time, the floors develop soft spots. A good layer of plywood does much to stiffen things up.

I screwed down all the plywood. Dad’s knees are not what they used to be, so I was glad to help. It was good to do a project together and give him a hand.

-Sixbears

Waiting for lithium to warm up

A couple years ago my lovely wife bought me a nice Bosh bit driver. Handy tool, looks and works much like a drill. In fact, there are drill bits designed to fit it. Mostly I use mine to drive a variety of screws.

I told my wife one thing about buying cordless tools: lithium. Repeat after me, I said: lithium. If you buy me a cordless tool, get one that runs on lithium batteries.

She bought a nifty little bit driver powered by lithium battery packs. There are some good advantages over most other common rechargeable battery packs. Lithium has good energy density. That means the batteries can be light, small and long lasting. They also recharge quicker than most other types. All in all, it makes for a compact, light, yet powerful tool.

Only two significant problems with lithium batteries. They can be pricey. Of more concern, they can be temperature sensitive. Just brought in my bit driver from the back of the truck. The temperature out there is in the single digits. The bit driver barely turns. Once it warms up closer to room temperature, it'll be fine.

It's also possible to over heat them. After drilling a whole series of large diameter holes with a paddle bit, the battery eventually wore down. The charger blinked a warning light that the battery was too hot to charge. After letting it cool down for a half hour, the charger accepted the battery and it charged up just fine.

Remember boys and girls. Tell your spouse you want lithium -not for your mental condition, but for your cordless tools.

-Sixbears