[RE-wrenches] battery venting

[Jeff Yago]

Here is another issue related to this thread.  

Yes, you can build sealed battery boxes and add vent pipes, fans, whatever,
but battery terminals and battery cables installed in a confined box will
have far more problems with terminal corrosion due to more concentrated
forms of gasses and a mist of acid moisture that will settle on all
surfaces.

We have been called in to repair off-grid systems that used battery boxes
only a few years old that had battery cable ends and battery terminals
almost totally dissolved, yet, we have the same type batteries and cables
installed in larger well-ventilated battery rooms that you could eat off of
the floor 10 years later.

I say that battery boxes should be a last resort and used only when there is
no other way, and then you better make sure there are multiple sources of
adequate ventilation air.

Jeff Yago
DTI Solar Inc.