Battery charging safe distance to ignition source?

[oilmaninpowell]

Charging/ discharging batteries may cause the release of explosive gases. What would be considered safe distance to ignition source in an RV enviroment?

I plan to instal and use large storage batteries in my Brave. I had hoped to insulate the storage boxes for use in sub zero (celius) . With provisions for ventilation. But where do I vent too? There are sources of ignition all over a RV! Obviously outside and not under the RV. But from there what?

[joev]

if is was doing it I would put a vent on the battery door  maybe use something like a vent for they use for gas tank on a boat

[Madathlon]

My question is whats wrong with the factory batty box location?

[Froggy1936]

The hydrogen gas produced by charging is explosive, But it has to be of a certain consentration, wich is not likely with all the free air space around the batteries. The safest way, is to use closed top batterys with vent hose connections and route the hose,s out of the compartment.  Frank

[cosmic]

if this was any sort of problem, would we not have rv's blowing up all over the country.  i??

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Our battery compartment shares the same door with the generator compartment, but when the door is closed they are separated from the genny, and there is a LOT of free air movement over the batteries, which vent under the coach.

The hydrogen would never reach an explosive concentration since it isn't contained.

On submarines, they have to vent the hydrogen gas outside the sub.  That's why you'll notice on some submarine films that there is always a steady stream of tiny bubbles coming out of the sail.

Kev

[Madathlon]

OKay, you want to keep your battery warm. while this seems like a good idea it can lead to other problems.

And then you have the cold side that your worried about. first question, are you planning on RVing in the winter in places like Canada or sub-arctic?

If not your over building and dont need to worry about this.  instead just make sure there properly charge and cycled as needed.

Sitting batts need to be discharged and charged regularly. this will keep them alive even in the coldest of days.

[oilmaninpowell]

Thanks for the relies everyone.

@Madathon, the stock battery box is all rusted solid and won't slide out. I thought to move the batteries to a storage box on the other side of the RV at least temporarily while I cut out and replace the stock one. Then that led me to thinking why have the storage batteries so far from the gen set? After rebuild I was thinking to put the starter battery back in the stock location and some larger deep cycle batteries closer to the gen set.

As to temperatures. It does not get that cold in the places I may go camping. -30 Celsius would be the lowest probably. I've only camped down to -12c so far. Not too bad with the wood stove going. Too cold to have water in the pipes though.

I was a little concerned that if I ran the batteries too low they might freeze. Additionally if I close the batteries in with wood and insulation gas build up might be an issue. Not sure. Might be might not be. But I've seen batteries explode first hand. Kinda scary. On top of that when I rebuilt the lower sections of the walls all way round, I did not seal it to the floor with caulking like they do at the factory. I also installed a wood stove not too far from the intended new battery box location. No more dangerous than a pilot light I suppose.