Carbon monoxide detectors and hot batteries? [RE-wrenches]

[Geoff Greenfield]

Hello all wrenchies -  

I VERY concerned customer called with what seems to be a failing battery
bank (tons of heat, bubbling way more than normal, and a recently
manifesting large difference between strings of water consumption).  These
are T-105s  retired from an electric vehicle, and I suspect an open or
shorted cell. 

He is remote and has transferred AC loads and shut things down on the DC
side... and once he borrows a multimeter I will walk him through a
resistance check on the cells and suspect to find a bad battery.  Along with
looking for anomalous individual battery voltage, at rest and during heavy
charging do any of you have any other quick tests to suggest?  I already
asked if he had an infrared thermometer... and when I spoke with him "all
the batteries were too hot to touch".

So - the gist of my post is:  he was alerted to this situation not by
collapsing voltage under load, but by his CO detector going off.  What
chemically is happening there?  These are flooded LA batts... is insulation
and plastic heating up and generating CO?  Does the CO detector pick up
other stuff?

The batteries are in a roomy painted plywood box with plastic liner,
screened low vents and a 2" pvc power vented to the screened exterior (I
should have him check that for wasp nests).  Will check to see if the vent
operates. it was controlled by the MX-60 aux to come on at around 53 VDC.


For a brighter energy future,

Geoff Greenfield
President
Third Sun Solar & Wind Power Ltd.
340 West State street, Unit 25
Athens, Ohio 45701
(740) 597-3111   fax: (740)597-1548
www.third-sun.com

Clean Energy - Expertly Installed


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