Fellow Wrenches, I'm aware of one incident of an exploding battery. I helped a friend install two solar powered remote controlled gate openers on his ranch. These systems came with two small PV modules (5W each) and no charge controller. A 100 amp hour battery was recommended. During the winter, one gate went unused for an extended period. The systems are located at 7,000' in Colorado that has cold, sunny winters. When my friend tried to use the gate opener in the spring, and it didn't work, he opened the battery container and found the deep cycle, flooded lead acid battery had exploded. We immediately installed small charge controllers and the problem has not reoccured. I no longer accept the rule-of-thumb that a small PV module will not overcharge a large battery. No matter how small, every PV system gets a charge controller.
Randy Brooks Brooks Solar, Inc. Solar Power for People 140 Columbia View Chelan, WA 98816 509-682-9646 ra...@brookssolar.com www.BrooksSolar.com On Dec 15, 2010, at 10:13 AM, Dana wrote: > I am not advocating for no box or vent as the corrosion factor is high > without box and vent. > Just if and how many incidents have occurred. > > Dana Orzel > Great Solar Works, Inc > E - d...@solarwork.com > V - 970.626.5253 > F - 970.626.4140 > C - 970.209.4076 > web - www.solarwork.com > > "Responsible Technologies for Responsible People since 1988" > Do not ever belive anything, but seriously trust through action. > > From: re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org > [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Kent Osterberg > Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 10:21 AM > To: RE-wrenches > Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Battery based hydrogen incidents > > Sounds like, in general, that the off-grid industry has been fortunate to not > have hydrogen explosions. That's good. No explosions here either. But one > shouldn't take that as evidence that it couldn't happen. I don't believe > this is a circumstance where it is better to be lucky than good. That's why > I recommend doing the calculations. > > Kent Osterberg > Blue Mountain Solar > > > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Home Power magazine > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Options & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org >
_______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
