"EXPLOSION ROCKS RIO DELL" - Battery storage in Conex box

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It does not look like a full size multimode container, looking at the person in photo for scale. But it may be a shortened one with similar/compatible construction.
 
This town is about 40 minutes away from me. If I hear any updates I'll share them. I guess these boxes are supposed to be "plug-n-play" but that doesn't keep someone from tampering...
 
petersonra said:
I am guessing another DIY installation by someone who does not understand how dangerous some of these things can be.
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Since the battery array was almost certainly installed in the container at the factory, I would have expected ventilation to be taken care of at that time.
Note that when there is explosion risk, it is normal to make the roof a weak spot to dissipate the force upward. But the way the sides bulged suggests that was NOT done here. The ceiling was just a natural weak spot.
Lithium batteries do not generally give off hydrogen when charging, but they can go into thermal runaway if the battery management system fails. And that could well lead to an explosion. A short circuit could also cause a catastrophic failure.
 
Joe.B said:
This town is about 40 minutes away from me. If I hear any updates I'll share them. I guess these boxes are supposed to be "plug-n-play" but that doesn't keep someone from tampering...
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If it turns out that it was a factory assembly that failed, there will be some serious repercussions to the manufacturer.
 
petersonra said:
If it turns out that it was a factory assembly that failed, there will be some serious repercussions to the manufacturer.
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There was a photo published, and comments in the article indicate it was a Narada packaged unit. They use LiFe(PO4) batteries. They are, of course, out of China.
 
gadfly56 said:
There was a photo published, and comments in the article indicate it was a Narada packaged unit. They use LiFe(PO4) batteries. They are, of course, out of China.
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As is just about everything related to the so called green energy stuff.

I did not know they packaged them up like this. I thought they just st sold the rack mounted battery packs that you have to connect up yourself.
 
gadfly56 said:
There was a photo published, and comments in the article indicate it was a Narada packaged unit. They use LiFe(PO4) batteries. They are, of course, out of China.
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Lithium iron phosphate batteries are among the most resistant Lithium chemistries to thermal runaway, which is one reason they are frequently used in consumer electronic equipment. Presumably the container included ventilation for cooling, and that may have been obstructed by the placement of the unit.
 
gadfly56 said:
There was a photo published, and comments in the article indicate it was a Narada packaged unit. They use LiFe(PO4) batteries.
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The comment suggested they don't use LiFe(PO4) exclusively. Do you know that unit was LiFe(PO4)? Seems like Pb is more likely to explode. Is there a mechanism for a non-explosive hot fire to cause the damage shown?

Cheers, Wayne
 
We don't have a lot of experience with these kinds of battery packs. Keep in mind the GM had to recall all of the volt cars due to batteries that kept catching on fire.
 
Glad everyone is ok, that could have been way worse.

Speaking of thermal runaway...
HOT and FAST!
 
petersonra said:
We don't have a lot of experience with these kinds of battery packs. Keep in mind the GM had to recall all of the volt cars due to batteries that kept catching on fire.
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The EV model subject to that recall was the “Bolt”.
The “Volt” is (was?) a hybrid and it wasn’t involved in the battery recall. GM is trying to back charge the Korean battery manufacturer $1 billion over this!
 
retirede said:
The EV model subject to that recall was the “Bolt”.
The “Volt” is (was?) a hybrid and it wasn’t involved in the battery recall. GM is trying to back charge the Korean battery manufacturer $1 billion over this!
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I think you are right.

The official advice from GM appears to be not to park these vehicles inside or within 50 of a structure or another vehicle until the battery packs are replaced with new ones.
 
What typically causes these failures? Is it just like a shorted connection? Faulty workmanship like a failed spot weld? Or does the actual chemistry go bad?
 
petersonra said:
The official advice from GM appears to be not to park these vehicles inside or within 50 of a structure or another vehicle until the battery packs are replaced with new ones.
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That advice currently only applies to Bolts without either an interim firmware update (that limits the capacity to 80% of original) or a replaced battery. I haven't been following closely, but I don't think there have been any reports of fires on vehicles with the interim firmware update. Of course, capping the capacity is a bandaid while the batteries are being replaced, and owners aren't happy about the reduction in utility.

Cheers, Wayne
 
Looking through the posts and thinking about it I tend to agree that if this was factory built they should have included ventilation. That seems to be a potential failure point. These can be in a hot climate, picking up radiant heat, and generating their own internal hear. If the ventilation fan breaks down, or even slows down, this could be the result.
 
wwhitney said:
The comment suggested they don't use LiFe(PO4) exclusively. Do you know that unit was LiFe(PO4)? Seems like Pb is more likely to explode. Is there a mechanism for a non-explosive hot fire to cause the damage shown?

Cheers, Wayne
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If you go to Narada's web site, they say they are using the LiFe(PO4) chemistry specifically to mitigate explosion hazards, but they do have a lead/carbon offering and what they call "tubular flooded" which is a lead-acid chemistry.
 
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