[RE-wrenches] Battery based hydrogen incidents

[Warren Lauzon]

I think you are bringing up a very important point here – nearly all of the battery related explosions we have seen or heard of, and nearly all the ones described in all the various posts here recently have one common theme – that the BATTERY exploded. Some or most were probably related to Hydrogen gas – in the very small space inside a battery, pretty easy to get to the 4% LEL limit. And aside from the possibility of a cigarette setting it off, static or any other spark could also do so. But something else to note is that it seems that clogged battery caps are a much bigger danger than not venting your battery shed.

From: Luke Christy 
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 8:52 AM
To: re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org 
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Battery based hydrogen incidents


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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