fireproof EUC charging station

[null]

1 hour ago, Mr Dilkington said:

Seems like there is so much conflicting information out there....

It is mainly because lithium fire ≠ li-ion battery fire..

Edited January 12, 2021 by null

[Rich Sam]

56 minutes ago, Mr Dilkington said:

Seems like there is so much conflicting information out there....

Yes, I quoted one website saying that standard ABC extinguishers should be used, and found several others with the same claim.

Then I found heavy hitter websites that state it is a class D fire and copper D extinguishers should be used. I tend to lean more twords D as FAA.Gov and BatteryUniversity.com backs this classification.

 

 

[Rich Sam]

2 minutes ago, null said:

It is mainly because lithium fire ≠ li-ion battery fire..

It is mainly because lithium fire ≠ li-ion battery fire..

I think you hit the nail on the head!

[RagingGrandpa]

Someone also pointed out: HVAC ductwork can be a practical source of modular steel box sections for creating an EUC container.

But beware smoke damage- a 'metal box' that prevents a fire from spreading will still release a massive volume of black smoke into your house, causing severe damage to your home... to be effective at minimizing damage from an unattended fire, it would need to be sealed and vented to the exterior in a similar way to a clothes dryer or fireplace.

[WheelyBad]

What about something like this fireproof cabinet? It doesn't solve the venting to the exterior issue, but it looks like it'd give some time to gather your wits before your house goes up in flames. It is "vented", so with a little bit of engineering one might be able to vent to the outside.

[RagingGrandpa]

If you have a private garage, the most practical one I've found is below.
Cabinets of this type are priced around ~$250 shipped (USA).

Put it in the garage so the smoke doesn't destroy the interior of your home.

If you notice a fire starting, roll it out the door.
If you're not home, your garage gets smoky but not fiery.

https://www.sevilleclassics.com/products/uhd-cabinets?variant=39536458727582 

Edited May 31, 2022 by RagingGrandpa
showing URL

[Unventor]

30 minutes ago, RagingGrandpa said:

If you have a private garage, the most practical one I've found is below.
$180 shipped (USA).

Put it in the garage so the smoke doesn't destroy the interior of your home.

If you notice a fire starting, roll it out the door.
If you're not home, your garage gets smoky but not fiery.

I wonder how that would look at @Marty Backe place? It probably be a US continental freight train equivalent 😉

Edited January 14, 2021 by Unventor

[Zopper]

A proper cabinet vented outside would be amazing, but for now, I'm going on with a fire blanket permanently covering the wheel. The wall it is next to is from bricks, the floor concrete and with the blanket on, the fire has no chance of get nearby of anything flammable except an extension power cord - but those should be from a fire retardant plastics. Smoke... that's a risk I have to live with.

I think this is a very easy and cheap solution available to plenty of people. It's not the best solution, but <insert your proverb about partial but applied solutions being better than an ideal one that's not implemented>

Edited January 14, 2021 by Zopper

[Tawpie]

Just get a shipping container! They're remarkably cheap, roomy, and from the eWheels pictures are proven effective at containment... the boat didn't catch on fire. Myth Busters did most all of their fire stuff in one. Homeowners association and landlord opinions aside of course.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Tawpie

[GothamMike]

1 hour ago, RagingGrandpa said:

If you have a private garage, the most practical one I've found is below.
$180 shipped (USA).

Put it in the garage so the smoke doesn't destroy the interior of your home.

If you notice a fire starting, roll it out the door.
If you're not home, your garage gets smoky but not fiery.

Link?

[Hal Farrenkopf]

On 1/14/2021 at 11:53 AM, Tawpie said:

Just get a shipping container! They're remarkably cheap, roomy, and from the eWheels pictures are proven effective at containment... the boat didn't catch on fire. Myth Busters did most all of their fire stuff in one. Homeowners association and landlord opinions aside of course.

I thought of that too. They now make a smaller shipping container. 
https://www.atscontainers.com/en/Products/New-containers/Product/8-New-Mini-Container

[conecones]

For anyone concerned with the enclosure melting, you can add some cheap fire-rated drywall (gysum board) and/or paint the inside with intumescent paint (also fairly cheap for non-commercial grade).
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Firetect-WT-102-1-gal-White-Flat-Latex-Intumescent-Fireproofing-Flame-Retardant-Paint-Coating-for-Wood-102W-1/307899625

This paint goes on thin but expands quickly in a fire and is used commonly on architecturally exposed structural steel or wood to achieve fire resistance.

It may even help if you applied this paint on the inner shell/battery packs. Won't stop the fire necessarily but may buy you some extra time to throw it outdoors. Ideally, it'll contain the thermal runaway to one battery pack and prevent the second (or more) from igniting.

[Rich Sam]

1 hour ago, conecones said:

For anyone concerned with the enclosure melting, you can add some cheap fire-rated drywall (gysum board) and/or paint the inside with intumescent paint (also fairly cheap for non-commercial grade).
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Firetect-WT-102-1-gal-White-Flat-Latex-Intumescent-Fireproofing-Flame-Retardant-Paint-Coating-for-Wood-102W-1/307899625

This paint goes on thin but expands quickly in a fire and is used commonly on architecturally exposed structural steel or wood to achieve fire resistance.

It may even help if you applied this paint on the inner shell/battery packs. Won't stop the fire necessarily but may buy you some extra time to throw it outdoors. Ideally, it'll contain the thermal runaway to one battery pack and prevent the second (or more) from igniting.

Great idea!  Here is a project I found to build a "Battery bunker" cinder blocks with gypsum cement board you will have to upscale the idea but seems sound.

[RagingGrandpa]

On 1/25/2021 at 2:57 PM, Hsiang said:

https://cellblockfcs.com/

Hey neat!

A dry media that's as effective as water, but lighter than sand.
'As effective as water' probably won't hold true for batteries assembled into an EUC- the cellblock media won't be able to get inside the shell, so the cells will always have some room to 'breath' and keep evolving heat... but at least all that violence would be happening deep in a bed of absorbent media. And the plastics and tire won't be allowed to keep burning.

It presents a lot of practical challenges for putting out a fullsize EUC on fire: you may need more than 10 gallons of media to completely envelop a burning EUC... but using this inert dry media might be attractive for the trap-door automatic dispensers we've discussed. No water damage, no leak hazard.

Edited June 24, 2021 by RagingGrandpa

[GothamMike]

On 1/15/2021 at 6:31 PM, Rich Sam said:

Great idea!  Here is a project I found to build a "Battery bunker" cinder blocks with gypsum cement board you will have to upscale the idea but seems sound.

This would prevent a fire from leaping between PEVs as well. 

[Tryptych]

On 10/21/2018 at 7:59 PM, Thai-lad said:

A Tesla auto has 50 or 75 times the battery storage capacity of a typical 1kw EUC.  And they're shipping almost 1000 of them daily.  So I'll worry about my EUC batteries when I start hearing stories of hundreds of garages spontaneously combusting all over the US.  You're more likely to get struck by lightning while riding

Good point, worth repeating.

Keep things in perspective; don't worry about this much more than you worry about getting struck by lightning.

With that said having a fire safety plan can't hurt, I keep a large fire blanket by my wheels, and an extinguisher, but I don't spend much time worrying about it.

[RagingGrandpa]

Nice demonstration!

21 hours ago, GoGeorgeGo said:

Here is the testing we did with a welding fire blanket

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5ffyTtJeEI

[Paulo Mesquita]

On 10/20/2018 at 9:45 AM, Beowolve said:

Hi all,

since some wheels did go up in flames (inmotion v10f for example), I decided to load and store my wheel inside a metall box in the future.
Besides the extra safety, the box I choose should look nice so my wife accepts it as well .

It turned out, that finding the right size wasn't that easy, eventually I found the optimal box for my 9bs2.
The box doesn't look too bad and has enough extra space for all my euc utils and the charging device.

Enders  Aluminiumbox VANCOUVER 123 l
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00JBZP442/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_xvUYBbM3907CK

Has enyone done this allready and maybe found a better alternativ?
We could collect all candidates here to have a nice list of boxes suitable for different wheel sizes.

 

I heard @ShanesPlanet parks his wheels, while recharging, just outside the local fire department 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Paulo Mesquita]

On 3/11/2019 at 5:56 PM, egress123 said:

My garage is attached..  and I see those video clips of InMotion V10f on fire, I get quite nervous having my EUC charged overnight in my garage.

maybe a smoke alarm might be good enough for now.

 

I never charge mine overnight. Mine are in the living room and I have my alarm set to remind me at midnight to go and switch them off. 

[GothamMike]

6 minutes ago, Paulo Mesquita said:

I heard @ShanesPlanet parks his wheels, while recharging, just outside the local fire department 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I chain mine outside the garage door, There is 6 foot (1.6 Meter) overhang that keeps the EUCs dry. On Cold winter days, i through an old jacket over them to stay warm.  I leave a Fire Extinguisher nearby, and run the charging wires under the garage door. 

[Scottie]

43 minutes ago, Paulo Mesquita said:

I heard @ShanesPlanet parks his wheels, while recharging, just outside the local fire department 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[.....]

5 hours ago, Paulo Mesquita said:

I heard @ShanesPlanet parks his wheels, while recharging, just outside the local fire department 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Myth.. ALL my wheels are stored full and charged (cept those for long term), on stands, next to a paramotor with gasoline,parked aside the supermoto, beside the paint cabinet, under the bedroom, aside a garage door, with gas cans and propane. You know, just to keep it all in a general basic area for ease. It is a concrete floor tho, and ceilings are almost 7'! Volunteer fire department is too far, I aint walkin down there.

Edited June 25, 2021 by ShanesPlanet

[Unventor]

5 hours ago, ShanesPlanet said:

Myth.. ALL my wheels are stored full and charged (cept those for long term), on stands, next to a paramotor with gasoline,parked aside the supermoto, beside the paint cabinet, under the bedroom, aside a garage door, with gas cans and propane. You know, just to keep it all in a general basic area for ease. It is a concrete floor tho, and ceilings are almost 7'! Volunteer fire department is too far, I aint walkin down there.

This is so you can here the fire started and you need to ride an extra long lap before it is safe to return home right ?

[Rehab1]

15 hours ago, ShanesPlanet said:

Myth.. ALL my wheels are stored full and charged (cept those for long term), on stands, next to a paramotor with gasoline,

Sounds safe to me.

 

[Paulo Mesquita]

20 hours ago, ShanesPlanet said:

Myth.. ALL my wheels are stored full and charged (cept those for long term), on stands, next to a paramotor with gasoline,parked aside the supermoto, beside the paint cabinet, under the bedroom, aside a garage door, with gas cans and propane. You know, just to keep it all in a general basic area for ease. It is a concrete floor tho, and ceilings are almost 7'! Volunteer fire department is too far, I aint walkin down there.

@ShanesPlanet you're a, walking fire bomb!!!

I'm already looking at my KS 16x sideways. But hey, I did that with all my 3 ex wives....