Re: [RE-wrenches] Thermal isolation (and liner) for battery bank

[Roy Butler]

I use the same technique as Dana just mentioned and it does work very well. The blue rigid insulation we call Dow board has a very high compression strength. It's used under concrete pads and between house foundation walls and the backfill with great success. Good enough for batteries. What I haven't seen mentioned here is the material I've touted several times on this list since '99 called Structoglas. This is a very heavy duty fiberglass sheeting that is used in kitchens, restrooms, dairy milk parlors, etc. We've been using it since '98 to line the interior of our plywood battery enclosures. We make the bottom liner out of a single piece, no seams. We install an 8" high vertical "base trim" strip on all 4 sides and seal it with a high quality, 50 year silicon caulk. 12 years now, with several acid "incidents" caused by a few of our less maintenance conscious customers, have proven to us that the fiberglass and the caulking hold up perfectly. I'm off grid here and have been able to observe my Structoglas liner for 14 years. No degradation whatsoever. Don't tell anybody but I've done some acid testing here myself ;-) The nice thing is that this is available at most Lowes and Home Despot stores. A 4 x 8 sheet is usually around $34.00. One sheet will easily do an enclosure that holds 12- L16s. It cuts easily on the table saw and can be scored and snapped as well. Roy Butler NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer® NYSERDA eligible PV & wind installer PA Sunshine Program Approved PV Installer Four Winds Renewable Energy, LLC 8902 Route 46 Arkport, NY 14807 607-324-9747 www.four-winds-energy.com Although no trees were killed in the sending of this message, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced. =============================================== The 6th Annual Small Wind Conference A Gathering of small wind industry stakeholders June 15 and 16, 2010 Stevens Point, Wisconsin i...@smallwindconference.com http://www.smallwindconference.com On 5/1/2010 12:53 PM, Dana wrote: To thermally isolate the battery bank in un-heated locations we use 1½” blue or pink board under ¾” exterior ply wood on top to set the battery bank on. It will settle a hair but this has worked for years in many places.

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