[RE-wrenches] battery venting

William Dorsett wmdorsett at sbcglobal.net
Tue Jan 3 19:58:16 PST 2012


While hydrogen gas will rise out of a vent, hydrogen sulfide is heavier than
air and there is a possibility that it could grow to dangerous levels in a
basement. At low levels you would be warned by the familiar rotten egg smell
but at high levels your nose can become saturated and useless very quickly.
http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/hydrogen_sulfide_fact.pdf
Obviously a small area with a large battery bank (read battery room) would
be more of a concern than a large area with a small bank. It seems that the
bank would have to overheat to generate a large concentration and I doubt
that this would be as apt to happen in a UPS system. 

Bill Dorsett
Sunwrights
Manhattan, KS


-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Ray Walters
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 5:59 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] battery venting

H2 is actually very difficult to contain, and can migrate through most 
materials.
A super sealed, very small space, with a lot of charging source, its 
possible to reach combustion, but IMHO, you'd have to really try to 
create a system to do that.  I've had a cell burn off its H2 once, so 
yes you can reach combustion levels inside the cell, but not in an 
adequately sized and vented box.
As Jeff said earlier, venting is not so much about explosion, its that 
Hydrogen Sulfide gas is poisonous.  While it might be very hard to 
create an explosive build up, its much easier to create a deadly H2S 
buildup.  (the code is definitely missing the point on that one)

Ray

On 1/3/2012 2:04 PM, jay peltz wrote:
> Hi All,


>
> We've been having this discussion about battery box explosions.
>
> I would like a show of hands who has actually seen or truly known of a
battery enclosure that has exploded due to hydrogen gas build up.
> And some specifics about that occurrence if possible.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jay
>
> peltz power
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