While hydrogen gas will rise out of a vent, hydrogen sulfide is heavier than air and there is a possibility that it could grow to dangerous levels in a basement. At low levels you would be warned by the familiar rotten egg smell but at high levels your nose can become saturated and useless very quickly. http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/hydrogen_sulfide_fact.pdf Obviously a small area with a large battery bank (read battery room) would be more of a concern than a large area with a small bank. It seems that the bank would have to overheat to generate a large concentration and I doubt that this would be as apt to happen in a UPS system.
Bill Dorsett Sunwrights Manhattan, KS -----Original Message----- From: re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Ray Walters Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 5:59 PM To: RE-wrenches Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] battery venting H2 is actually very difficult to contain, and can migrate through most materials. A super sealed, very small space, with a lot of charging source, its possible to reach combustion, but IMHO, you'd have to really try to create a system to do that. I've had a cell burn off its H2 once, so yes you can reach combustion levels inside the cell, but not in an adequately sized and vented box. As Jeff said earlier, venting is not so much about explosion, its that Hydrogen Sulfide gas is poisonous. While it might be very hard to create an explosive build up, its much easier to create a deadly H2S buildup. (the code is definitely missing the point on that one) Ray On 1/3/2012 2:04 PM, jay peltz wrote: > Hi All, > > We've been having this discussion about battery box explosions. > > I would like a show of hands who has actually seen or truly known of a battery enclosure that has exploded due to hydrogen gas build up. > And some specifics about that occurrence if possible. > > > > Thanks, > > Jay > > peltz power > _______________________________________________ > 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 _______________________________________________ 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