[RE-wrenches] DC Fusing/Breakers for Battery Circuits

[Dan Fink]

Allan;
It's a topic much on my mind recently and i will provide a writeup soon.
It's all very well documented. I do have photos, but they don't show the
fire damage to the wooden battery box unfortunately, the client was a bit
flustered getting all the batteries out of there after the incident and
when I showed up he had already demo-ed the box. But the photos of the
batteries themselves do tell the story rather well.
There was another issue also.....his Xantrex power panel was wired with a
'self destruct switch' main battery cutoff. I did not design or install the
panel. But his logical reaction in seeing smoke coming out of his battery
box was to open the main battery disconnect breaker on the panel, which
then put solar 140vdc onto the inverters  inputs. Both were zorched by high
voltage. He should have opened the solar breaker first, then the main DC.
His homeowner's unsurance did cover most of it all.
The batteries were 8 years old....end of lifespan situation.
Lessons learned......OCP on parallel battery strings, and cement board
liner in all battery boxes, if they are field built wooden.

Dan Fink,
Executive Director;
Otherpower
Buckville Energy Consulting
Buckville Publications LLC
NABCEP / IREC accredited Continuing Education Providers
970.672.4342




On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 10:36 AM, Allan Sindelar <
allan at positiveenergysolar.com> wrote:

>  Dan,
> Do you have a writeup on that event? Any photos? I have many plywood
> battery enclosures in the field.
> Thanks,
>
> Allan
>
>       *Allan Sindelar*
> *Allan at positiveenergysolar.com* <Allan at positiveenergysolar.com>
> NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional
> NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional
> New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician
> Founder, *Positive Energy, Inc.*
>
> A Certified B CorporationTM
> 3209 Richards Lane
> Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507
> *505 424-1112 <505%20424-1112> office 780-2738 cell*
> *www.positiveenergysolar.com* <http://www.positiveenergysolar.com/>
>
>
>   On 2/7/2014 10:26 AM, Dan Fink wrote:
>
> Does anyone have any elegant solutions to this? It's really time consuming
> and ugly to run big parallel battery string wires *out* of the battery
> enclosure to class T fuses, then back into the battery box. It looks very
> ugly and DIY, and in conduit adds a few hundred to the install cost just
> for labor. The Class T fuses and blocks themselves are not particularly
> expensive.
> I have been recommending parallel fusing on battery banks of 2x8 L16s and
> over now, after a nearly tragic incident with a bad cell that shorted. The
> (perfectly legal) wooden battery box made the fire much worse. A pet peeve
> of mine.
>
>
> Dan Fink,
> Executive Director;
> Otherpower
> Buckville Energy Consulting
> Buckville Publications LLC
> NABCEP / IREC accredited Continuing Education Providers
> 970.672.4342
>
>
>
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