The nickel-iron battery, or Edison battery, is a battery design that was developed around the year 1900. It has seen some use in that time and is still available today, though they are quite expensive. Possibly since there seems to be only a single manufacturer left in China.
The NiFe battery is a low-tech battery. It cannot compete with the modern batteries if the purpose is power density, power per weight or cost per kWh. Nor is it very good in efficiency.
So why bother? Well, it turns out that the NiFe is a very robust battery type that can last several decennia. NiFe batteries have been found after 50 years, and by simply cleaning them up and refilling with a new electrolyte they were good to go.
And that is exactly why this type was chosen for this project. The aim is not to create “the best ever” or “most modern” kind of battery. The purpose is to create a battery that we can build ourselves and will last -with a little maintenance- a life time.
Note: There are quite a number of modern improvements on this battery type and work is still continuing. However most of these developments will be ignored for this project as efficiency or energy density are not priorities.
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