Safe Enclosure recommendations?

[coding2021]

I have seen a couple of completely burned homes in this forum caused by the battery/inverter/etc... I can't help but wonder if anyone out there has fire-proofed the crap out of their set up. I have a neighbor that put all of their inverters and batteries in their master closet in the house. I think personally, I am thinking of building a "solar shed" that will house my batteries, inverters. I want to make a fire wall between the two (minimize destruction in case one side starts burning).

Any one else thinking about this and what specifically have you done?

 

[mactech]

This is exactly what I am doing and why I signed up here. :D

I have an outdoor shed/observatory where I plan to house the batteries and inverter in a 4x8 warm room. Still in the planning stages but this is a big concern.

 

[Sanwizard]

I have seen a couple of completely burned homes in this forum caused by the battery/inverter/etc... I can't help but wonder if anyone out there has fire-proofed the crap out of their set up. I have a neighbor that put all of their inverters and batteries in their master closet in the house. I think personally, I am thinking of building a "solar shed" that will house my batteries, inverters. I want to make a fire wall between the two (minimize destruction in case one side starts burning).

Any one else thinking about this and what specifically have you done?

Yup. Inverters and batteries external to the house. My SC house inverters are in a concrete bunker, and my NY house inverters and batteries are located in the garage. I plan on enclosing the batteries even further by placing them in a steel cabinet with a lock.

 

[coding2021]

Yup. Inverters and batteries external to the house. My SC house inverters are in a concrete bunker, and my NY house inverters and batteries are located in the garage. I plan on enclosing the batteries even further by placing them in a steel cabinet with a lock.

Thanks for sharing. That sounds pretty awesome. Are you using cinder blocks or did you like hand poor, or using like hardie cement board? (Just curious as I'm trying to figure out how to make the space as fire proof as possible.

 

[mrzed001]

Check this thread out ... we talked a lot about shelves and cabinets ... (with pics and videos and ...)

Shelves for 3x 280Ah 48v LiFePO4 Banks?

My 48 280Ah cells arrived a few weeks ago, but I have yet to unpack all of them for balancing due to other projects taking priority. I would like to have a storage shelving solution for the cells and would like some input. I was going to have a cabinet custom made, but a price-tag of over $3500...

diysolarforum.com

 

[crossy]

Yeah, our batteries are outside the house too, they live in a "shed" which is steel framed with cement-board (Shera https://www.shera.com/) cladding and shelves, definitely fireproof if anything does go wrong.

The inverters live up under the car-port roof (which has the panels on it) they are out of the weather up there but are IP65 and fanless anyway.

 

[Wellbuilt]

I have a utility area off the garage , 6’ x15’ the inverter / charger is in there with the cc water heater well pump 250 gallon water tank .
The room has double 5/8 fire code sheet rock with a steel door .
It would take time to burn thru , then there is little out side air to feed a fire ?
The battery’s are in a box in the garage .

 

[OM617YOTA]

Fire protection was another reason I went with a trailer mounted system. Everything is outside, on a gravel driveway, separate from the house.

 

[crossy]

Fire protection was another reason I went with a trailer mounted system. Everything is outside, on a gravel driveway, separate from the house.

And you can take it with you if you move

 

[OM617YOTA]

Yep! And building code people can go mind their own business. ?

 

[Brett V]

I put my batteries in a metal toolbox. Your primary defense however, is prevention. Use a quality BMS and be sure it's set up properly. Use the correct size fuses and cable gauge for your install. Make good crimps and clean connections. I know things happen but the vast majority of mishaps can be traced to improper (lazy/cheap) practices. These batteries have a huge potential and must be treated with respect!

 

[Wellbuilt]

The building dept is not giving me a hard time with the battery box , yet ?

 

[Wellbuilt]

I put my batteries in a metal toolbox. Your primary defense however, is prevention. Use a quality BMS and be sure it's set up properly. Use the correct size fuses and cable gauge for your install. Make good crimps and clean connections. I know things happen but the vast majority of mishaps can be traced to improper (lazy/cheap) practices. These batteries have a huge potential and must be treated with respect!

Wow that would make me very nervous with the box so close to the terminals tap the box with a wrench and it could go very wrong .
Is you box grounded to your system ?
Nice looking set up .

 

[Brett V]

Wow that would make me very nervous with the box so close to the terminals tap the box with a wrench and it could go very wrong .
Is you box grounded to your system ?
Nice looking set up .

The photo is a little misleading, there's a little over 3" of open air between the top of the battery posts and the inside of the box.

 

[Wellbuilt]

I just don’t like any thing above the battery’s if I can help it .

 

[Smokin]

Buy a Dump Truck full of sand and bury the battery box in there.

 

[RV10flyer]

How about purchasing some RF interconnected smoke alarms. At least you might be able to shut things down and video the smoke escaping for us.

My 132kWh, 2000 lb battery bank, along with everything else is 80' from house. Each 16S battery divided from the next with 3/8" ceramic cloth. Concrete hardibacker covering all wood on all sides of battery shelves. RF smoke alarms, standard smoke detector and 40 lb CO2 ready, rapid shutdown switch on outside of power shed to shut off ac output and pv input to sol-arks.

 

[Sanwizard]

This is why there is such a need for a battery kit like the Seplos Mason, but without the cells. If they made a kit like that which fit 16 280ah cells, they would make a killing selling them to folks like myself who have the cells, but want a sturdy way to mount and stack the banks.
I bought 4 135ah kits with the cells, but would love a 16s 280ah setup the same way without cells. Its kinda dangerous with all of us coming up with ways to hold the packs we build, especially if inside a house. The toolbox method is nice, (mine are also in a toolbox) but a built for purpose solution is needed in the market.

 

[t3kn0f1l3]

Hey, similar concern here. I am on the tail end of building a custom fire resistant cabinet. I used a filing cabinet, modified it mostly by making custom doors. Then, I completely covered the thing with ceramic blanket. This stuff is toxic and you have to be *really* careful with the dust. i.e. wet down everything with water before removing from packaging, wear respirator and full-body hazmat suit, etc. Research working with it carefully if you go this route. I coated the whole thing with a few layers of mortar - inside of the doors has kiln/forge rated mortar. Anyways, I share your concern and can give more details and/or post pics once I have a few moments (if anyone's interested). I'll be running NMC batteries and in a solar shed, away from the house. Still, it took me a while to build the shed, and I want to keep it.

 

[OM617YOTA]

I've been thinking about an easy/convenient way to add ballast to my solar trailer, as 4x 410w panels is a BIG sail area on a relatively small trailer, and I don't know how much I can anchor it to the ground without running into code issues.

A solid steel battery box may be a good option.