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It is no secret that batteries can catch fire, usually when being recharged. When a battery fire happens, most people are unprepared for the results. Help might be on the way though with an invention that alerts the user to the possibility before it happens.
As batteries become more prevalent, more because of tech toys and so on than anything green, there will be more fires. As batteries evolve in design and capacity, we can also expect an increase in fires in those settings where they are used for storage solar or wind energy harvests.
While battery fires are rare, when they occur things go bad very quick.
Work is being done to develop an alarm that will alert the user that the potential for fire has increased.
The question posed in the article has merit: What do you do if the device you have (or battery bank for storing solar energy harvest) announces an alert?
RC Cars use LiPo batteries or at least the newer ones now do. When they go you get a warning, a high pitched sound right before it bursts into flames. And like you said, the one I know about happened during a recharge and an RC car racing event. A fire extinguisher put it out.
Neat that someone is thinking about putting an alarm into a battery to give you some advanced notice it is about to go.
I've seen 12V batteries in ICE cars go up too... Rare as well - if you look at the number of incidents, compared to the number of explosions.
As far as a scare tactic against hybrid/battery vehicles - other than a couple of Teslas being speared by road debris I haven't heard of battery cars exploding or catching on fire. I gotta believe that this would be HUGE, BIG, gigantic news if a battery car charging at a house, battery pack exploded. Or they get into accidents and explode.
I've seen plenty of non-hybrids go up in smoke from electrical shorts to road debirs as well... As an example, Ford's were catching on fire sitting in the driveway OFF hours after they were driven, because the cruise control mechanism was still "on", shorted out and caught the truck/car on fire. While rare, it happens. And FWIW, I drive a Ford truck and Chevy Battery Car (Volt).
LiPo RC car batteries are charged from depleted to full in a few minutes. Battery cars by comparison are almost trickle charged up and most won't let the pack fully deplete. It takes 10 hours to charge my Volt at home and the shortest time is 4 hours on 220V. A Fast charging Tesla is in the 30-60 minute time frame - but you can't do that at home and I gotta believe that Tesla knows what they are doing. Probably why you get to 80% fast and the last 20% takes as long as the 80% charge up did. Again, I haven't heard of one going up. Could it happen, sure...
I didn't take Mack Knife posts to be a battery car scare tactic - just explaining why I don't think there is cause for concern.
What would I do: Since I usually have a fire extinguisher nearby or in my vehicles, I would use it... And also call the Fire Department.
As far as a scare tactic against hybrid/battery vehicles - other than a couple of Teslas being speared by road debris I haven't heard of battery cars exploding or catching on fire. I gotta believe that this would be HUGE, BIG, gigantic news if a battery car charging at a house, battery pack exploded. Or they get into accidents and explode.
I think it is pretty indicative of Tesla's confidence in their batteries that they are warranted for 8 years against any type of failure or damage, even if caused by user negligence. In the rare cases of their cars catching fire they have bought them back from the owners, rather than making them file an insurance claim.
We should also distinguish between wet-cell batteries that generate hydrogen gas while charging, which poses a fire hazard if not properly vented, and a LiOn battery, which doesn't. I can almost guarantee that Tesla/Pamasonic's next generation battery will be a new chemical formulation, and is rumored to be non-flammable.
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A Fast charging Tesla is in the 30-60 minute time frame - but you can't do that at home and I gotta believe that Tesla knows what they are doing. Probably why you get to 80% fast and the last 20% takes as long as the 80% charge up did. Again, I haven't heard of one going up. Could it happen, sure...
Tesla's battery management system is revolutionary. The charge rate is controlled by the computer in the car, which constantly monitors the battery condition including internal temperature and charge level and adjusts the charge rate correspondingly. This allows the fastest possible charges on any power source without damaging the battery. This is one of their most valuable patents, because it is so advanced over anything anybody else has, and is one of the patents that Tesla made available to everyone else for free.
Merc63, No, my post really had little to do with electric cars. There haven't been enough electric cars put in use to draw a valid comparison to the frequency of fires compared to them and other cars. There are how many hundreds of millions of gas fueled cars on the road vs how many fires? The comparison between electric car fires and gas fueled car fires is a non-starter.
Over the next quarter, it is estimated by the auto industry that about 17 million cars will be sold. That is millions, not thousands. The percentage of those catching fire because of electrical problem is going to very very small I think. Now lets be realistic okay?
The post was talking about the fact that as more and more batteries are used for just about everything, that a real need to provide some type of warning in the event a fire is likely during use or charging is a real concern.
When you go to a gas station, there are warning signs prominently placed warning of fire/explosion dangers. They even admonish you to not use your mobile phones. There are publicly accessible shut offs in case of fire and so on. There are warnings about static electricity and also the types of containers that are suitable for use along with instructions that containers must be placed on the ground during filling if they are the portable types. Good so far?
Yet when people charge batteries, how many even think that it is during charging that a higher potential exists for explosion or overheating and even fire? I don't think many people bother to give it a second thought. How many people retire for the night and plug in their battery powered this and that and think about the possibility of a fire? They check the gas stove and so on, make sure the space heater has a shut off and so on but probably don't think twice about the possibility of a fire when charging their battery powered devices. I'm not implying a panic situation but awareness and what exactly is wrong with some technology to reduce that risk? Hmmm?
Then we get to huge battery bank storage. As more and ore larger scale battery banks are installed and if they become more available to consumers for off grid storage of solar harvests, the risks go up just because there will be more of them. Are battery bank fires rare? They are now but like anything, the more of something you have, the greater the risk or more events of failure. It goes hand in hand.
So just how is the post something against electric cars?
Location: Central Atlantic Region, though consults worldwide
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Amen Mack Knife.
Refined lithium can be volitie stuff.
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