[beltor]

I was going to add battery's to my house for emergency power, I was told that battery's will creat a gas and you should not charge them in the house?

[ctshooter]

Originally Posted by beltor

I was going to add battery's to my house for emergency power, I was told that battery's will creat a gas and you should not charge them in the house?

Depends on the batteries. If you go with a dry cell type no gases. But yes most lead acid batteries will bet gas.

[HockaLouis]

And isn't hydrogen gas generation the reason you connect the ground AFTER the positive when giving a car a jump, so as not to generate a spark at the battery that could make it explode (including with very strong acid all over you)? 'course!

[clr8ter]

What kind of batteries, and what kind of system? Large batteries are way expensive, and won't last very long. How about a generator?

[HOSSFLY]

Originally Posted by HockaLouis

And isn't hydrogen gas generation the reason you connect the ground AFTER the positive when giving a car a jump, so as not to generate a spark at the battery that could make it explode (including with very strong acid all over you)? 'course!

YES! Had one blow up on me yrs back while doing a gud deed for a lady who didn't even thank me or offer to buy me a new shirt 'n shades

BTW- I DID hook it up right so i guess they can blow when ready --

[c3shooter]

1. Charging a traditional lead-acid battery DOES give off hydrogen gas. You want to have adequate ventilation for that. If you have ever been in a golf car barn, where 25-50 carts are charging at one time, you might notice the BIG gable vents! Keep them away from sources of ignition (cool and dry is good)

2. Jump starting a car- hook positive to positive. Hook negative of GOOD battery to some solid metal part of the car with dead battery- but NOT to the battery. When you make the last connection, you WILL get a spark. You want that spark to be away from the battery.

3. Emergency power- depends on what you want to power, for how long. I have 4 ea 115 amp hr deep cycle batteries, and a 2500 watt inverter. I can run smaller items for quite a while before I need to recharge batteries.

[HOSSFLY]

Originally Posted by c3shooter

1. Charging a traditional lead-acid battery DOES give off hydrogen gas. You want to have adequate ventilation for that. If you have ever been in a golf car barn, where 25-50 carts are charging at one time, you might notice the BIG gable vents! Keep them away from sources of ignition (cool and dry is good)

2. Jump starting a car- hook positive to positive. Hook negative of GOOD battery to some solid metal part of the car with dead battery-

When you make the last connection, you WILL get a spark. You want that spark to be away from the battery.

3. Emergency power- depends on what you want to power, for how long. I have 4 ea 115 amp hr deep cycle batteries, and a 2500 watt inverter. I can run smaller items for quite a while before I need to recharge batteries.

Hummm- now you got me wonderin if i did that part right

[WebleyFosbery38]

C-3 gives good advice. There are ways to put them in your house safety (Vent hoods) that is usually as part of a larger system supplied by an alternative source like Solar, Wind or Hydro. If you move the Batteries outside in a shed (that has AC Power), put it as close to where your going to need it as you can, Distributed DC is high loss even on large conductors and their is still a large enough loss on longer runs using an AC inverter.

Anything of any size (2000 Watts) is not cheap and the chargers/ inverters alone can go many hundreds of dollars if not thousands. Battery backup is tricky if you want it to work, it has to be maintained and used regularly. Our University goes through very expensive batteries in our huge UPS's like crazy because the batteries are not worked or maintained properly. Even well maintained batteries have a certain life-cycle then they are recycle material.

[HockaLouis]

Originally Posted by c3shooter

2. Jump starting a car- hook positive to positive. Hook negative of GOOD battery to some solid metal part of the car with dead battery- but NOT to the battery. When you make the last connection, you WILL get a spark. You want that spark to be away from the battery.

Never seen a spark this way myself (only on positive posts) but, yeah, the negative on "chargee" should be to the frame of the car where everything else is also grounded by the way...

Hoss, glad u were wearing shades!

[racer_x]

Yes they do pop.Back when I first started turning wrenches one blew on me putting a volt metter on it.Spent a few hours in the er washing out one eye.