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"Offensively cheap": Solar power is looking up (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/sustainabletech@lemmy.sdf.org
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Chinese-made panels on rooftops across the world are changing the facts of life for big utilities.

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[–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

I do have concerns, but right now I'm rolling the dice in a sense by sleeping and spending most of my day next to 265Wh of NMC cells and about 220Wh of LFP as "12V" drop-in replacements for lead-acid. The former is from a pretty reputable company, the latter is from a Chinese company which seems to be on the upper end of the manufacturing & testing scale, but my due diligence only went so far.

These are very small sizes compared to a whole-house system or even one that could run my servers for 24 hours, but the NMC power bank could easily start a house on fire, and the LFP units could easily fill the room with highly toxic smoke. YOLO I guess, but I'm definitely keeping an eye on battery development, and very excited for sodium-ion to become widespread.

(BTW, a big concern from LFP batteries in thermal runaway is that they can produce enough carbon monoxide to very quickly become life-threatening in enclosed areas... the risk of fire is less but the risk of being poisoned if there is an event is higher.)

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    These are very small sizes compared to a whole-house system or even one that could run my servers for 24 hours, but the NMC power bank could easily start a house on fire,

    Can I ask if you've acquired a battery fire blanket or box that you could use in an emergency for your smaller packs?

    and the LFP units could easily fill the room with highly toxic smoke.

    This is my concern for my situation. Not only is the vapor produced highly toxic for inhalation, but also a very high concentration of hydrogen (35%-55%). I'd thought about trying to build in a ventilation system that I could engage, and then a follow-on detection system that could trigger the vent to run, but with that high a concentration of hydrogen, I'd be worried about the vent fan or relay igniting the hydrogen from a spark.

    So today, I too and using the YOLO method. I've purchased really high quality UL 9540A Compliant LFPs, but that only goes so far.

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