NOVA: Search for the Super Battery

[WalkIntoTheLight]

@Enderman

@wle

there is a 5000 cycle battery now
if you only discharge 10% (standard li-ion) , it will last 5000 of those light cycles
which is fine as long as you are OK with it being 10x as big and 10x as expensive

wle

“Battery cycles” are defined as the number of times that a battery’s capacity is drained and refilled from it.
If you discharge it 10% and recharge it, you have completed 10% of a cycle.
It is not how many times it is partially drained and recharged.

I think his point was that if you want to take a Samsung 30Q 18650 cell, and call it a “300 mAh cell”, then it has 5000 cycles. You just have to make sure to only charge it as high as 3.8v, and not discharge it below 3.7v. That is, redefine the voltage of “full charge” and “depleted charge”, and you can cycle it 5000 times.

Similarly, you could also take that 30Q cell, and call it a “3300 mAh cell”. You just charge it up to 4.3v, and discharge to 2.5v. Then you have a 3300mAh cell, but it only has maybe 100 cycles.