Before buying into Elon Musk’s dream of equipping homes with solar power and battery packs on the garage wall to store energy for night time use, thus enabling severing of ties with the electric company, serious consideration should be given to safety, primarily from a fire aspect. Fourteen kilowatts or more power in a confined space is a lot of power. If lithium based and a fire starts, fireman will only make it worse, trying to extinguish it with water. Insurance companies won’t allow storage of propane or other compressed fuels in the garage even if stored in ASME code vessels.
What will they do in this case, when the first house burns down? An outside, sheltered installation may be the answer. Maybe the answer is to do nothing. Automobiles crash, yet there is no abatement in their usage. The same is true of many modern amenities. What's a few homes, in the big picture?
No comments:
Post a Comment