Insulation has one major positive effect, it stabilized the temperature of the battery bank. With enough insulation battery temperature will vary very little even with big swings in ambient. The one major downside is that in hot weather or a warm room, they cannot get rid of heat. It is semi-common to bury batteries in very cold climates and in very hot climates – but the same warning applies if a lot of internal heat is generated. In our experience a fan won’t do much to cool hot batteries.
From: Dana Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 9:32 AM To: 'RE-wrenches' Subject: [RE-wrenches] To insulate a battery bank For many years I have had these questions asked of me – Should you or should you not insulate a battery bank in an Un heated building? If the battery bank is giving off enough heat to retain is the system being operated correctly to produce that much heat? If it is giving of that much heat the vent fan will be on therefore cooling the battery bank. If the battery is cold and the building [say in spring] warms up the insulation will prevent the bank from warming with the ambient temperature. Should it be a little insulation say 1” or 2-4” of insulation? I have leaned toward an insulated building with a vented battery box as required by NEC and Colorado electrical inspectors. I have worked on battery banks installed by others that are super insulated with convection venting and found them to be very cold. Colder than ambient temps. Dana Orzel Great Solar Works, Inc E - d...@solarwork.com V - 970.626.5253 F - 970.626.4140 C - 970.209.4076 web - www.solarwork.com "Responsible Technologies for Responsible People since 1988" Do not ever belive anything, but seriously trust through action. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org Northern Arizona Wind & Sun - Electricity from the sun since 1979 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Online Solar Store Free Solar Discussion Forum --------------------------------------------------------------------
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