NiFe Batteries-Redditch,Jungner and Charging

The NiFe battery (nickel–iron battery)  is a rechargeable battery. It is originally developed by Thomas Edison in 1901 and is manufactured between 1972 and 1975 under the "Exide" brand.

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In these batteries, there is an arrangement made of nickel oxide hydroxide positive plates and iron negative plates with an electrolyte of potassium hydroxide. NiFe batteries are environment friendly and standby batteries especially designed for photovoltaic systems.

There is no memory effect and the battery is best used for everyday cycles where it can be discharged completely and recharged every single day. 

These batteries are very heavy and bulky and have very low cell voltage. More batteries can easily be added in them at any time so if you wish to add to your existing system, it is no problem at all.

It is a very strong battery which is tolerant of overcharge and short circuiting and can have very long life even if so, treated as there is no acid so the battery will not corrode and will still work after being discharged for longer time.

NiFe Batteries Redditch, Jungner And Charging

According to S.E.O NiFe batteries can be charged continuously and can last for more than 20 years that's why it is preferentially used for backup situations such as mining locomotive–traction applications. NiFe batteries have a very high self-discharge rate, low energy density, low coulomb efficiency and are less expensive than Nickel-cadmium batteries.

But they are not cheaper if compared to Lead acid or Lead-ion batteries in fact these are almost four times more expensive.

Due to its outstanding characteristics, the NiFe batteries are replacing the lead-acid batteries in a wide range of applications especially for?solar PV?and renewable energy power systems. These are very easy to take away and transport them to areas that lack electricity and install in very remote and harsh areas.

NiFe Batteries Redditch

In 1929 Varta founded Britannia batteries LTD at Union Street, Redditch and commenced making dry batteries and lead acid batteries. Right amidst of the 1930's they also stared the production of nickel-iron batteries

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Furthermore, Chloride come by a controlling interest in batteries LTD with Lucas retaining a shareholding and renamed it NiFe batteries LTD. These batteries are a kind of a little lamp to service. All it needs is just a little bit of TLC and with a bit of luck and your effort it should once again spark up and be brought back to life.

One amazing and unique thing that Redditch had were the two alkaline battery developers and manufacturers within its area. The first to arrive was the Batteries limited which was established in 1918 in a factory hunt and second was Britannia batteries which was set up in 1929 in Union Street.

The two companies were merged to become Alkaline batteries limited and were based at the union street site and is now called as Alcad LTD but after a long history and changes of ownership the manufacturing site closed down and the site sold for redevelopment.

NiFe Jungner Batteries

Ernst Waldemar Jungner was a Swedish engineer and inventor. He founded "Accumulator Aktiebolaget Jungner" which is now called as SAFT AB.

It is a company that manufacturers and produces high quality batteries around the world. Jungner's most regarded inventions were the nickel-iron battery (NiFe) and the Nickel-cadmium battery (Nicd).

Prior to Thomas Edison NiFe batteries were at first invented by Jungner. After inventing nickel cadmium batteries in 1899, Sweden's Waldemar Jungner tried to replace cadmium for iron.

The cadmium in his nickel cadmium batteries was substituted by iron in different percentage to evaluate how well it could operate however poor charge efficiency and gassing (hydrogen formation) give rise to leave the development without securing a patent.

In 1901, Thomas Edison continued the development and invented NiFe batteries. These batteries were also used on mining operations because of its resistance to vibration.

Charging NiFe Batteries

These batteries can perform equally even if you do not charge the battery for a long time.

Charging efficiency of this battery is about 65%. That means 65% of input electrical energy gets stored in this battery as Chemical energy during its charging process. Discharging efficiency is about 85%.

That means that battery can give 85% of stored energy to the load as electrical energy and the rest gets discharged due to self-discharging of the battery.

Normal or average voltage rating per nickel iron cell is 1.4 V. Nickel iron battery has a longer lifespan that is more than 20 years and if the battery is kept unused for a month, it will lose only 10% to 15% of its stored energy due to self-discharging.

New NiFe batteries require 3-5 cycles charges to get them into service with their full power.

Pros and Con of NiFe Batteries

Just like every other electrical device or appliance these NiFe batteries As well have some advantages and disadvantages. 

Pros

These batteries are highly resistant and do not go bad even at zero charge with no use over a week that may be detrimental to other lead-based batteries.

Theses batteries can be carried anywhere and are very easy to install.

Cons

It has very high resistance.

The electrolyte needs to be changed because of atmospheric poisoning.

 Conclusion 

NiFe battery is becoming more popular day by day as there is a huge scope of development to turn the battery into high energy density battery for an electric vehicle. 

The battery is very robust and can bear over charging and over discharging. Due to its heavy weight, this battery is used in those applications where the weight of the battery does not matter for example in solar energy system and wind energy system. It has theoretically unlimited lifetime and completely closed loop material cycle ecology. 

The historical NiFe technologies limitations include low specific energy, low power, low charge retention, today it may find a new field application in electric vehicles for over the road use. 

In modern industrial methods a special sintered iron electrode is now used which shows a charge behaviour that makes the iron electrode better compatible. However still nickel iron battery (NiFe) has lost its popularity because of its high manufacturing cost.