Lead Acid Health Monitoring through Impedance Spectroscopy achieved with Recycled Power Supply Unit

Rural electrification could be a very effective factor for economic and social development in many developing countries. Renewable energies which are generally available in these countries play a central role to limit the global footprint of the systems. Beside, brand new western systems are generally not affordable enough for many populations. Frugal innovation based on re-used materials combines several advantages: it contributes to global footprint reduction and offers very cheap solutions. In this framework, this paper studies the possibility of re-using reused components in renewable systems, including old lead acid batteries disposed from thermal engine cars. Before giving a second life to these batteries, their state of health (SoH) needs to be assessed, rapidly but precisely. To achieve this goal, some recycled power electronics devices, i.e. Power Supply Unit (PSU) from discarded desktops and a cheap microcontroller replace the expensive test devices that we generally have in our labs. A modified PSUs allows to apply battery evaluation methods (two pulses method and spectroscopy method) and assess the results.