Old batteries brought back to life

Industrial nickel-cadmium batteries uncovered in the engine house of an old steam-powered water pumping plant have been restored to full working order.

Industrial nickel-cadmium batteries uncovered in the engine house of an old steam-powered water pumping plant have been restored to full working order with the assistance of Saft and CE Colemans of North Shields.

Saft owns the historic British Nife brand.

The discovery of the batteries in the shadow of a giant steam engine set in motion a restoration project that has brought the 45-year old batteries back to life.

The renewal has contributed to the authenticity of the engine plant which is open to the public as a museum.

The giant steam engines at Kempton Great Engines near Twickenham date from the early years of the last century.

The two triple expansion, 75kW reciprocating engines are over 18.9m high and 13.7m long, and each weighs 725,000kg.

Their cylinders (high, intermediate and low pressures) have diameters from 73.6 to 218.4cm and the two flywheels are a massive 5.2m in diameter.

One of the original engines is now fully working thanks to the efforts of a team of dedicated volunteers.

The priority was to restore the engine to working order but once attention was drawn to the battery and its charger unit, the hunt was on to find out more and begin the restoration process.

An internet search led the volunteer engineers to Saft where their enquiries sparked a great deal of interest and support.

With the assistance of Saft and Colemans, the 84-cell, 110V battery, contained in 12 wooden crates, has been restored to full working status.

Initially, the Kempton team knew nothing more about the battery than the label told them, namely: "This is a Nife nickel cadmium alkaline battery unit, rated for 32.5Ah for seven hours with a normal charge rate of 6.5A".

When discovered, the overall open circuit voltage was only about 5V.

The original charger was still in place.

This was powered by the former pump station mains supply at 200V DC.

As this supply is not readily available, Saft arranged for a new 240V AC charger to be manufactured by Jenelec, and this has been neatly installed within the original cabinet.

Despite the fact that the Nife batteries had not been used for 25 years or more, after an initial clean-up, the cells were able to retain a charge.

What was the battery used for?.

The main theory is that it provided power backup in case of a power cut, probably for the instruments that monitored the chlorine house.

The restoration work is now complete thanks to Saft, Colemans and Jenelec and the battery is about to be connected and put into service.

It is most likely to be used to provide back-up lighting for the engine house.

It is estimated that it could provide up to three hours emergency lighting.

The batteries have been restored as closely as possible to their original condition with very few new components.

The only changes that have been made have been to conform to modern safety requirements.

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