[RE-wrenches] Battery polarity check

[R Ray Walters]

I can confirm at least one reverse marked battery as well; another reason I hammer everyone on my projects to confirm polarity with a multimeter, and mark the wires as John Wiles has advocated:
Red = Positive, Black = negative for ungrounded systems
Red = positive, white = negative for neg grounding and
White = positive, black = negative, for positive grounded systems.
I take it one step further, and put on the positive conductor white tape with red printing on positive that says " + Positive + ground+ "
Only takes a minute, and makes sure nobody gets "turned around" with polarity checks on a hot roof.
Wire coloring should match everyones' multimeter polarity, just another easy step to reduce dangerous mistakes.

R. Walters
ray at solarray.com
Solar Engineer




On Oct 19, 2010, at 4:58 PM, Mark Dickson wrote:

> Happened to us once too with a Surette S-530.  Now that “free” battery sits in my home’s bank with some sharpie + and - symbols on it.  Easy to see how the symmetrical cap could be placed on backwards.  Seems a keyed notch on the cap would prevent that. . .
>  
> Best regards,
>  
> Mark Dickson,
> NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer ™
> Oasis Montana Inc.
>  
> From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Jason Szumlanski
> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 4:26 PM
> To: RE-wrenches
> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Battery polarity check
>  
> Wow. I always check my batteries for voltage when they arrive before installation. I never thought to check the polarity. I'll look for that negative symbol on my meter from now on! 
> 
> Jason Szumlanski
> Fafco Solar
> 
> On Oct 19, 2010, at 6:22 PM, "Kirpal Khalsa" <solarworks at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hey All......just wanted to send out a reminder to not take the markings on the terminals of batteries for granted.....we were installing a brand new bank of 2V 2400Ah batteries today and had one battery mis labeled direct from the manufacturer......had the potential to be catastrophic, just so happened that luck was on our side.......I will not be relying on the manufacturer's polarity markings any more.......
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Sunny Regards,
>> Kirpal Khalsa
>> NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer
>> Renewable Energy Systems
>> www.oregonsolarworks.com
>> 541-218-0201 m
>> 541-592-3958 o
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