EnergyStorageBatteries

Battery safety and fire risk

When installing energy storage batteries more people are becoming aware or the risks associated with batteries that have a possibility of going into thermal runaway.

Over the last few years there have been a number of reports of fires and explosions being caused by lithium ion batteries.

‘Zombie batteries’ causing hundreds of waste fires, experts warn

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How freezing temperatures affect batteries

 

 

Recent sub zero temperatures in Victoria have caused problems with liquid in solar panels and batteries freezing.

Plumbers and solar installers say they have struggled to keep up with unprecedented demand for help as temperatures plummet. Cold weather can cause water in solar panels to freeze and expand, resulting in snapped and split panels and broken frost valves. Naturally this problem is worse in cheaper products or products that aren’t installed properly to allow for temperature extremes.

We have also heard of several instances of batteries freezing as well. Most lead acid and lithium ion batteries only operate effectively between around 5 – 35 to 40 °C which is problematic on days when the temperature gets very cold or even is below freezing as we experienced in Melbourne recently.

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Operating Temperatures for Energy Storage Batteries

The SoNick or molten salt batteries have an operating range of -20° to +60°C which makes them a much better alternative to other batteries.TEMP-FOR-Teslar-and-SoNick In Australia, we have extreme weather conditions and even in a garage in suburbia, a common place for housing a battery, the temperature can often exceed 40°C.

The SoNick batteries are the only batteries that will really work in temperatures over 40°C without having any detrimental effect to the batteries longevity. Although other batteries claim to be able to operate at the 40°C mark, they will deteriorate when operating around this temperature and will have a much reduced lifetime.

The wide temperature range of operation makes it a perfect battery for hot remote areas or areas that are bushfire prone. Other batteries stop working at around 40°C whereas the Sodium Nickel Chloride battery continues to work to at least 60°C and doesn’t need cooling. For example the lithium ion batteries that are currently receiving a lot of market attention from Tesla, only have an operating range of around 5 – 35°C, which means they will not operate on many hot days in Australia and even on cooler days if they are not housed in a cool enough environment.

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