This is my first Diy battery rack. Any advice on how to improve it or important things i may have missed?

[robbob2112]

Actually, it took two punctures, and the venting cought fire... it did not explode or burn out of control.
But, yeah, in a catastrophic situation, the battery is flammable.

First puncture caused internal cell short and venting -
Second pucture provided the spark and incidentally welded the metal used to puntcure to it.

 

[Supervstech]

Jesus Christ! And i have 48 of those...
Lifepo4 is scarier that i thought. One puncture and bye bye! I have to get back to work and put those cells in a protected enclosure.

You should watch the rich rebuilds video where he was charging a tesla pack in a carriage he was buildin, and it exploded and shot batteries out like a hundred roman candles...

 

[timselectric]

Don't forget the fact that he was charging the batteries incorrectly .

 

[Aridom82]

It should go without saying.
Don't spear or shoot batteries. lol

Well is not like i am shooting or spearing things inside my warehouse, but funny things can happen. Imagine some fitting in the compressed air piping blowing and spitting a fragment, a drug addict gets inside when i am not there and tries to steal them, my dog trying to bite watever squirrel could hide behind them, something unstable falling into the rack, and god only knows what else.

That video makes things clear. An enclosure is absolutely necessary.

 

[robbob2112]

You should watch the rich rebuilds video where he was charging a tesla pack in a carriage he was buildin, and it exploded and shot batteries out like a hundred roman candles...

That is so cool..... he does stress that there was no BMS and they were severly overcharged when the popped off.

 

[timselectric]

Well is not like i am shooting or spearing things inside my warehouse, but funny things can happen. Imagine some fitting in the compressed air piping blowing and spitting a fragment, a drug addict gets inside when i am not there and tries to steal them, my dog trying to bite watever squirrel could hide behind them, something unstable falling into the rack, and god only knows what else.

That video makes things clear. An enclosure is absolutely necessary.

The video takes it to the extreme.
Look at the size of the conductive bar. And the depth it was forced into the cell.
Both played a role in the intentional outcome.
A flying fragment or a dog's teeth, won't do it.
Definitely respect the available energy. But paranoia is not required.

 

[Aridom82]

The video takes it to the extreme.
Look at the size of the conductive bar. And the depth it was forced into the cell.
Both played a role in the intentional outcome.
A flying fragment or a dog's teeth, won't do it.
Definitely respect the available energy. But paranoia is not required.

I dont consider myself as paranoid but very open minded. I have seen enough crazy stuff to know better and be careful.
After seeing that video i just have to consider that any puncture could be catastrophic no matter how small.
I am going to make a steel frame with polycarbonate panels to enclose it. I will even put a 'radioactive danger' big stickers on it to make thiefs think it twice. Some junkie broke my neighbor's door a couple of months ago.
I am not leaving my 48 lifepo4 cells without protection.

 

[DIYrich]

Spear a gas pipe in your house (flexible connector) and ...

 

[Ampster]

Don't forget the fact that he was charging the batteries incorrectly .

Yes, he was using a high Amperage charger that was charging at a higher voltage than those modules could accept safely.

 

[Dave911]

Yup, hightechlabs channel

I dont consider myself as paranoid but very open minded. I have seen enough crazy stuff to know better and be careful.
After seeing that video i just have to consider that any puncture could be catastrophic no matter how small.
I am going to make a steel frame with polycarbonate panels to enclose it. I will even put a 'radioactive danger' big stickers on it to make thiefs think it twice. Some junkie broke my neighbor's door a couple of months ago.
I am not leaving my 48 lifepo4 cells without protection.

Well, you need to put this into perspective.

What would happen if you jammed a steel rod into your running gas furnace? Gas instant water heater?
Main breaker box? Nothing good, that's for sure!

I have acetylene cylinders in my shop/garage sitting next to Oxygen cylinders. You don't want to puncture those!

That said, I think it is a good idea to try and be smart about it.

If a battery bank was going to be installed in an industrial environment, the standard enclosure would be a steel box.
But at the same time everything goes into steel conduit as well. No Romex is running around industrial plants.

Used Nema 12 industrial panels are scrapped out all of the time. Some are big enough to stand in.
But getting one into your basement might be difficult!

BTW, regarding security of your property. I had a break in several years ago and many thousands of dollars worth of equipment was stolen out of my 2500 sq ft garage/shop. It was pretty devastating. They hit my place twice. Once after I found the first break in. I got pretty paranoid afterwards. I'm pretty sure I interrupted them the first time. That could have been bad. Police didn't do anything. I installed several video cameras and put up some "Your on camera signs". Wow, nothing. All theft stopped entirely. I have seen people walk up the driveway and do a U turn when they see the sign. It is very, very effective. I'm not even sure the cameras need to work to be effective. I have 10 cameras around the property running to two small PCs that run 24x7. There is not much they don't catch. I'm trying out Motioneye software right now. I had Shinobi software, I would avoid that. I want to try the Frigate software with the AI enhancement. That can identify people, not just motion. Motioneye and Frigate are free.
Amcrest cameras are decent and cost about $50 each. Go hardwired, or POE, or both. Don't bother with Wifi. Its unreliable. Compared to what you can lose, its very cheap protection.

 

[Supervstech]

The video takes it to the extreme.
Look at the size of the conductive bar. And the depth it was forced into the cell.
Both played a role in the intentional outcome.
A flying fragment or a dog's teeth, won't do it.
Definitely respect the available energy. But paranoia is not required.

IDK, a large puncture would short out the packs inside, and the conduction of the layers would short causing the exothermic reaction.
Dogs teeth certainly could do it.
He punctured with a steel spike then pulled it out, and it was smoking and glowing, without the conductive spear in place, the additional spike puncture got flames happening, but i think flames would have started anyway, the INSTANT the second spike hit the cell flames started.

I think i will try it with a wooden spike and see what happens.
I have a couple of weak cells.

 

[SparkyJJO]

IDK, a large puncture would short out the packs inside, and the conduction of the layers would short causing the exothermic reaction.
Dogs teeth certainly could do it.
He punctured with a steel spike then pulled it out, and it was smoking and glowing, without the conductive spear in place, the additional spike puncture got flames happening, but i think flames would have started anyway, the INSTANT the second spike hit the cell flames started.

I think i will try it with a wooden spike and see what happens.
I have a couple of weak cells.

Catch on camera!

 

[timselectric]

IDK, a large puncture would short out the packs inside, and the conduction of the layers would short causing the exothermic reaction.
Dogs teeth certainly could do it.
He punctured with a steel spike then pulled it out, and it was smoking and glowing, without the conductive spear in place, the additional spike puncture got flames happening, but i think flames would have started anyway, the INSTANT the second spike hit the cell flames started.

I think i will try it with a wooden spike and see what happens.
I have a couple of weak cells.

I have seen videos of nails and drill press punctures. And only resulted in a little smoke. The size of the puncture makes a huge difference. It all comes down to how many internal layers are shorted together. And if that contact remains long enough. Or if the contact clears itself quickly.