<div dir="ltr">Allan;<div>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. </div>
<div>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.</div>
<div>The batteries were 8 years old....end of lifespan situation.</div><div>Lessons learned......OCP on parallel battery strings, and cement board liner in all battery boxes, if they are field built wooden.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra">
<br clear="all"><div>Dan Fink,<br>Executive Director;<br>Otherpower<br>Buckville Energy Consulting<br>Buckville Publications LLC<br>NABCEP / IREC accredited Continuing Education Providers<br>970.672.4342<br><br> </div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 10:36 AM, Allan Sindelar <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:allan@positiveenergysolar.com" target="_blank">allan@positiveenergysolar.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div>Dan,<br>
Do you have a writeup on that event? Any photos? I have many
plywood battery enclosures in the field.<br>
Thanks,<div class=""><br>
Allan<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Allan <span>Sindelar</span></b><br>
<span style="font-size:10.0pt"><a href="mailto:Allan@positiveenergysolar.com" target="_blank"><u><span style="color:#000099">Allan@positiveenergysolar.com</span></u></a></span><br>
<span style="font-size:10.0pt">NABCEP Certified PV
Installation Professional<br>
NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional<br>
New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician<br>
Founder, <b>Positive Energy, Inc.<u></u><u></u></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">A
Certified B <span>Corporation<sup><span style="font-size:7.5pt">TM</span></sup></span><br>
<u></u><u></u>3209
Richards Lane<u></u><br>
<u></u>Santa Fe<u></u>, <u></u>New Mexico<u></u> <u></u>87507<u></u><u></u><br>
<b><a href="tel:505%20424-1112" value="+15054241112" target="_blank">505 424-1112</a> office 780-2738 cell</b><br>
<a href="http://www.positiveenergysolar.com/" target="_blank"><u>www.positiveenergysolar.com</u></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span> </span></span></p>
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On 2/7/2014 10:26 AM, Dan Fink wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">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.
<div>
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. </div>
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<div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all">
<div>Dan Fink,<br>
Executive Director;<br>
Otherpower<br>
Buckville Energy Consulting<br>
Buckville Publications LLC<br>
NABCEP / IREC accredited Continuing Education Providers<br>
<a href="tel:970.672.4342" value="+19706724342" target="_blank">970.672.4342</a><br>
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