[RE-wrenches] Battery based hydrogen incidents

[Luke Christy]

These descriptions of battery explosions certainly drive home the  
point that one should always always wear protective gear when working  
on batteries.

I have  a story that may take the prize for the most foolish behavior  
yet described (thankfully I wasn't involved until the cleanup stage).
In 2008 a neighbor of mine was filling a bank of 12 L-16s installed in  
a remote home here in So. Colorado. Apparently it didn't occur to him  
that it probably wasn't a good idea to smoke while adding water to  
gassing batteries. Two or three batteries into the job, sure enough, a  
spark fell off his lit cigarette, probably landed in or near the open  
cap of the cell he was filling, and the resulting explosion blew the  
top off of the L-16, also spraying electrolyte everywhere in the  
battery room. My neighbor (who shall remain nameless) was not wearing  
protective gear of any kind, and of course he had acid in his eyes and  
all over his face. He was alone at this house, 40+ miles from the  
nearest town, and close to ten miles from the closest neighbor. He  
managed to wash his eyes and face in a creek, and was somehow able to  
drive the ten miles to the neighbor's house, who then took him to a  
hospital. Amazingly, he came out of it without permanent eye damage or  
scarring, but that must be due to having had more than his share of  
luck that day.

I had the job of cleaning up the mess and replacing the blown-up  
battery. One thing that stood out was the fact that the top of the  
battery disintegrated into dozens of very sharp shards of plastic.  
These were obviously thrown out with the explosion and could have  
easily caused serious injury themselves. The entire wall of the  
battery room was covered with tiny bits of plastic, plate particles,  
and electrolyte, almost making a cartoon-like outline of my neighbor,  
as he had been standing in front of the wall when the battery blew.

Always wear your eye protection. (and it seems that smoking plus  
hydrogen equals bad things).


Luke Christy

  NABCEP Certified PV Installer™: Certification #031409-25 (Luke  
Christy)
  CoSEIA Certified PV Installer (Luke Christy)

Solar Gain Services, LLC
Monte Vista, CO.
SGSRenewables at Gmail.com




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