<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Fellow Wrenches,<div><br></div><div>I'm aware of one incident of an exploding battery. I helped a friend install two solar powered remote controlled gate openers on his ranch. These systems came with two small PV modules (5W each) and no charge controller. A 100 amp hour battery was recommended. During the winter, one gate went unused for an extended period. The systems are located at 7,000' in Colorado that has cold, sunny winters. When my friend tried to use the gate opener in the spring, and it didn't work, he opened the battery container and found the deep cycle, flooded lead acid battery had exploded. We immediately installed small charge controllers and the problem has not reoccured. I no longer accept the rule-of-thumb that a small PV module will not overcharge a large battery. No matter how small, every PV system gets a charge controller.<div><br></div><div><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">Randy Brooks</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">Brooks Solar, Inc.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><b><i>Solar Power for People</i></b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">140 Columbia View</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">Chelan, WA<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>98816</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; ">509-682-9646</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><a href="mailto:Randy@BrooksSolar.com">Randy@BrooksSolar.com</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; "><a href="http://www.BrooksSolar.com">www.BrooksSolar.com</a></font></p></span>
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<br><div><div>On Dec 15, 2010, at 10:13 AM, Dana wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div bgcolor="white" lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; "><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">I am not advocating for no box or vent as the corrosion factor is high without box and vent.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">Just if and how many incidents have occurred.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">Dana Orzel<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">Great Solar Works, Inc<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">E -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:dana@solarwork.com" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">dana@solarwork.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">V - 970.626.5253<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">F - 970.626.4140<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">C - 970.209.4076<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">web -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.solarwork.com/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">www.solarwork.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">"Responsible Technologies for Responsible People since 1988"</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: windowtext; "><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">Do not ever belive anything, but seriously trust through action.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; color: windowtext; "><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div><div style="border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(181, 196, 223); border-top-width: 1pt; padding-top: 3pt; padding-right: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; "><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; color: windowtext; ">From:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; color: windowtext; "><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org]<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>On Behalf Of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Kent Osterberg<br><b>Sent:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Wednesday, December 15, 2010 10:21 AM<br><b>To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RE-wrenches<br><b>Subject:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Re: [RE-wrenches] Battery based hydrogen incidents<o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; "><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black; ">Sounds like, in general, that the off-grid industry has been fortunate to not have hydrogen explosions. That's good. No explosions here either. But one shouldn't take that as evidence that it couldn't happen. I don't believe this is a circumstance where it is better to be lucky than good. That's why I recommend doing the calculations.<br><br>Kent Osterberg<br>Blue Mountain Solar<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></div><pre style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Courier New'; color: black; "><o:p> </o:p></pre></div>_______________________________________________<br>List sponsored by Home Power magazine<br><br>List Address:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a><br><br>Options & settings:<br><a href="http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org</a><br><br>List-Archive:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org</a><br><br>List rules & etiquette:<br><a href="http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm</a><br><br>Check out participant bios:<br><a href="http://www.members.re-wrenches.org/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">www.members.re-wrenches.org</a><br><br></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>