[RE-wrenches] Battery Bank Off-gassing CO?

Daniel Young dyoung at dovetailsolar.com
Tue Jun 29 06:50:03 PDT 2010


I was emailed recently by someone in my area saying that she thinks here
battery bank is going bad and poisoning her home.. My firm did not install
her off grid system. Her original installer will not respond.

 

She has an 6yr old battery bank w/ 6 Trojan L16H's (48V). The system has
1.2kw of shell solar modules with an MX60 CC and FX Inverter. She noticed
feeling ill when in the basement where the system electronics were
installed, so she got out a combustion gas analyzer, (she is a home energy
auditor), and recorded over 500 ppm CO in the battery bank storage closet,
not the battery box, but the closet that stores the outback system. That is
over double the concentration that the US Consumer Product Safety Commission
considers deathly toxic. She reports this has been going on for the last 1-2
months. There is one battery box in this closet, with a 3" PVC vent pipe
going up to the roof. There is no power vent.

 

Has anyone heard of a flooded lead acid battery bank emitting CO? I did not
think that a lead/sulfur based battery was capable of this. Is it possible
that her combustion gas analyzer is mis-interpreting some other gas as CO?

 

We already plan to install a power vent at minimum, and to closely inspect
her ventilation system and improve it as needed. Just curious if anyone else
has seen this happen before.

 

Thanks,

 

Danny

 

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