Insulating Bus Bars and Battery Terminals

[Johncfii]

I thought I would offer up my simple practice for insulating bus bars and battery terminals that I haven’t seen mentioned before.

I use a small-diameter bicycle inner tube, cut into lengths a bit longer than the length of the bus bar. i cut back each end of The “under-side” of the rubber tube to a bit less than the distance between terminals. Or, somewhat more elaborate, cut a hole in each end of the “underside“ of the rubber tube, a bit larger than the battery terminal, so that the hole in each end lines up with the battery terminal. (I’ve done it both ways.) Slip the rubber over the bus bar before attaching to the terminals. Each end of the rubber tube is then a “flap“ that covers the terminals, and that can be stretched or folded back for wrench access to the terminal screws or studs. I’ve been using this for almost 10 years with my large AGM batteries, and it works just fine with my new LiFePO4 strings.

With the massive amount of energy stored in these batteries, I decided it wise to minimize the risk of any metal object accidentally brushing/bridging any connections. Even with a cover, or enclosure lid for protection, these insulators are a suitable precaution against an inadvertent short whIle doing battery maintenance. If you have an old inner tube that was replaced because of a leak, these insulators cost nothing.

I would post a photo, but my job has me away from home for an extended period.

 

[LithiumGuy]

I thought I would offer up my simple practice for insulating bus bars and battery terminals that I haven’t seen mentioned before.

I use a small-diameter bicycle inner tube, cut into lengths a bit longer than the length of the bus bar. i cut back each end of The “under-side” of the rubber tube to a bit less than the distance between terminals. Or, somewhat more elaborate, cut a hole in each end of the “underside“ of the rubber tube, a bit larger than the battery terminal, so that the hole in each end lines up with the battery terminal. (I’ve done it both ways.) Slip the rubber over the bus bar before attaching to the terminals. Each end of the rubber tube is then a “flap“ that covers the terminals, and that can be stretched or folded back for wrench access to the terminal screws or studs. I’ve been using this for almost 10 years with my large AGM batteries, and it works just fine with my new LiFePO4 strings.

With the massive amount of energy stored in these batteries, I decided it wise to minimize the risk of any metal object accidentally brushing/bridging any connections. Even with a cover, or enclosure lid for protection, these insulators are a suitable precaution against an inadvertent short whIle doing battery maintenance. If you have an old inner tube that was replaced because of a leak, these insulators cost nothing.

I would post a photo, but my job has me away from home for an extended period.

Interesting idea. I would like to see photos if you have time to upload.

I too felt the need for this after seeing so many setups like this. I ended up 3D printing custom terminal & busbar covers for my big 14.4kWh LiFePO4 array.

I found out the hard way with a huge spark when I was pulling out a bus bar and it slipped out of my fingers because it got caught on the threads of the bolts. The resulting short sparked huge! Like an arc welder and the end of the bus bar vaporized. Lucky no damage to the pack but that was scary. I had my fears about this and it came true. Now I'm careful to remove only one cover at a time when servicing the terminals in any way.

 

[Johncfii]

Sure, I‘ll post photos as soon as I can.
I’m away from home on the job again, so it will a couple of weeks before I can post.

I’ve made a few big sparks too, even trying to be very careful.

 

[carterjohnsons25]

I thought I would offer up my simple practice for insulating bus bars and battery terminals that I haven’t seen mentioned before.

I use a small-diameter bicycle inner tube, cut into lengths a bit longer than the length of the bus bar. i cut back each end of The “under-side” of the rubber tube to a bit less than the distance between terminals. Or, somewhat more elaborate, cut a hole in each end of the “underside“ of the rubber tube, a bit larger than the battery terminal, so that the hole in each end lines up with the battery terminal. (I’ve done it both ways.) Slip the rubber over the bus bar before attaching to the terminals. Each end of the rubber tube is then a “flap“ that covers the terminals, and that can be stretched or folded back for wrench access to the terminal screws or studs. I’ve been using this for almost 10 years with my large AGM batteries, and it works just fine with my new LiFePO4 strings.

With the massive amount of energy stored in these batteries, I decided it wise to minimize the risk of any metal object accidentally brushing/bridging any connections. Even with a cover, or enclosure lid for protection, these insulators are a suitable precaution against an inadvertent short whIle doing battery maintenance. If you have an old inner tube that was replaced because of a leak, these insulators cost nothing.

I would post a photo, but my job has me away from home for an extended period.

This great. Can you share a photo of your finished product?

Thanks

 

[Johncfii]

Here are a couple of photos. Not very technical or pretty, and not much to see.
But this allows me to worry less about some metal object falling of the batteries.
Just be careful not to pinch the rubber between the bus bar and the terminal.