Flexible Cables: Important Safety Issue [RE-wrenches]

[Ray Walters]

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>
>on 8/27/04 7:00 PM, Drake at solar at ecoisp.com wrote:
>
> > I soaked a number of cable insulation samples in battery acid.  THHN is the
> > only type that began to go into solution.  See the link below.
> >
> > http://eagle-access.net/solar/hpart.pdf
>
>THHN is not appropriate for this application.  310-9 Corrosive Conditions
>states that "conductors exposed to oils, greases, vapors, gases, fumes,
>liquids or other substances having a deleterious effect on the conductor or
>insulation shall be of a type suitable for the application."
>
>I contacted American Insulated Wire about what insulation would be
>appropriate for use with batteries.  Their tech guy emphatically stated that
>THHN, a thermoplastic insulation, would be a bad idea.  Ideally, the
>insulation would be a Hypalon or EPR material, both of which fall under the
>term RHW in the listings.  Both are a rubber type material with good
>characteristics in a corrosive environment.
>
>One caution:  Hypalon and EPR are both RHW insulations, but not all RHW
>insulations are Hypalon or EPR.
>
>He also advised that using tinned copper conductors was a really good idea.
>
>Phil
>Dankoff Solar
>

Hi;

I agree with Phil, tinned wire would be better, but that's like trying to 
find an actual UL listed battery cable.
         I've been checking the SAE listing J-1127 for the battery cable I 
use from DC Wire. Seems that SAE is like UL, they want lots of $$$ for 
their papers. 45$ gets me this spec. only. They do tell me that the spec is 
for 60 vdc or less with limited exposure to fluids, including acid, and 
physical abuse. Coating is PVC. Cost is about half what Cobra is. Flexible 
enough for battery connects, but low enough strand count(133 @2/0) to make 
good screw lug connections. ITS just NOT UL. I repeat neither are the 
batteries.
         Boy what a world if the engineers at UL worked together with the 
engineers at SAE, and when appropriate, the manufacturer would only have to 
submit to one round of testing...I guess that's sort of like expecting the 
US to adopt the metric system....Maybe the solar industry needs its own 
testing service that works WITH UL and SAE  and CSA to list all the 
products we use for exactly what we use them for. No more guessing by us, 
the customers, the manus, or the inspectors. I know we talked about it for 
inverters and wind units, but batteries, battery cables, racks, DC 
breakers, etc would be great. ( I guess it would take all the fun out of 
this list though, Huh?)



Ray Walters
ray at solarray.com
President, SolarRay, Inc.
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer
BS Mechanical Engineering, UT Austin 88
Returned US Peace Corps Volunteer 

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