William,
Do you use tall batteries like IBE? What is the temperature difference between
the bottom of your on-slab batteries and the top?
Joel Davidson
----- Original Message -----
From: William Miller
To: jry...@netscape.com ; RE-wrenches
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Ideal platform for flooded type batteries:
opinions wanted
Jeff:
This racking system sounds like it would be a nightmare during an earthquake.
We have a system with IBE 2 volt batteries that suffered major damage during
an earthquake in our area in 2003. All of the batteries tipped over and
spilled their entire contents in the battery room. Fortunately, these
batteries were slated for replacement in the near future.
Now we strap all batteries to the wall with strut and all-thread. Given the
opportunity, we have the framing reinforced during construction. We do not
advertise the restraints as an engineered solution, but rather as a common
sense remedy to minor earthquakes.
In our hot and cold climate. we favor placing the batteries on a slab to
thermally couple them to a more stable temperature source. I laugh when I see
an insulated battery box with large vents. I'm not an licensed engineer, but
it seems pointless to insulate a box and then vent it.
We have tried the shower pan material as a liner, but it was not acid
resistant -- it degraded in two years. Now we use 1/8" sheet neoprene and
build a dam using it and pressure treat lumber to support the rubber.
William Miller
At 08:47 AM 5/1/2010, you wrote:
As you know, cold floors reduce battery charge. We use a support "shelf"
made of pressure treated 2 x 4 on EDGE, separated by 3/8" pressure treated
plates every 2 feet, using 8 foot long boards. This 16" wide by 8 foot long
shelf is placed on standard concrete blocks spaced every 2 or 3 feet, keeping
the shelf 8" above the floor. This puts the battery fill caps at a nice level
for re-fill, and the bottoms off the cold floor which allows good air flow. An
occasional acid spill may cause some minor issues, but we have these shelves in
systems now over 15 years old with no problems. The are also easy to site
build.
Jeff Yago
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