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Another Battery Fire in AT&T's Network
An anonymous reader writes "AT&T has disclosed another fire started by one of the 17,000 Avestor batteries in its broadband network. The first fire caused a violent explosion in suburban Houston. This second incident occurred just 20 miles away."
I can't imagine if one of these went off in say, northern El Cajon California. There would probably be a huge brush fire at least, all it takes is one spark to hit that bone-dry foliage. Does anyone know if these batteries are installed all over or just in TX?
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From TFA: "Outside of these two incidents, there have been no similar incidents involving these batteries," AT&T's spokesman writes via email.
Anyone else read ".... YET" in that sentence. I'm hoping they are doing further testing in whatever conditions these batteries were in that made them explode. TFA did not mention anything but then again it is light reading.
I keep telling myself I'm not the desperate type.
Of course, when the hottest thing you have to offer your customers is an actual fire it's not quite the same.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
What I can't figure out is why they aren't using SLA's in those cabinets in the first place. They are, by far, the most common battery in use in almost every application. The advantage is that SLA's are safe, predictable and cheap. The disadvantages are volume and weight, but in a stationary cabinet that shouldn't make a difference.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
It really doesn't surprise me. Sealed cell VRLA Battery + High Temperatures (Summer) + Hydrogen creation inside battery from the Water/Acid mix + brown out causing battery to be utilized = practical bomb. I had one cook off in a generator this week. One of my data center generators went to start up for its weekly exercise this week and it never started, but one of the batteries exploded. It didn't lead to a fire, but I'm sure it would have if it was in a more confined space.
And you might end up with a little problem.
k thepilot202/print.html
http://www.askthepilot.com/upsfire.html
Story that explains the picture:
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/09/22/as
Granted, Smith is a pilot, not an engineer, but he gives a somewhat good explanation of thermal runaway.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
Holy GOD it's hot here.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
You have to distinguish between two types of lead-acid batteries and then the whole thing is not that optimal anymore.
With wet-cell lead-acid batteries you'll get evaporation and resulting loss of capacity. Beside that you have a precipitation of lead(II) sulfate that can ultimately kill your battery.
With maintenance-free (sealed) batteries like Valve Regulated Lead Acid batteries you do not get these problems but you could get thermal runaway and they do explode. Gel-batteries are less inclined to explode but especially older ones do that too.
On the other hand lithium metal polymer are said to "have service lives as long as 10 years, under ambient temperatures from -40C to +65C."
"Hannibal's plans never work right. They just work." Amy/A-Team
You could try cracking a joke that had something to do with the article, or at the very least to a comment.
That post was a waste of all our time, and a moderators mod points, and your Karma.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Verizon's FIOS is in my area. I won't subscribe because I hate Verizon with a passion, but I've got photos of their cabinets and they look nothing like at&t's cabinets.
t -72157594534810671/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kd1s/553921527/in/se
The lead-acid batteries I'm familiar with are large, have clear cases, lots of room below the plates and probably quite wide spacing between the plates. Banks of them fill large rooms. They are one of the reasons that POTS (plain old telephone service) works even when the power goes out everywhere else. They are also the reason why air traffic control towers continue to work even if the diesel generator doesn't start quickly. All of the problems you mention don't affect them.
Having said the above, even regular car batteries last a very long time in backup service. There's not a lot of current happening so they don't have much of a problem with sulphation. You do have to check the water level every x months. My former employer had a lot of remote equipment and used heavy duty car batteries for backup. In the ten years I spent with them, I don't remember having to replace even a single battery.
The one thing I do remember having to address was acid vapor. The batteries were never in the same space as the equipment.
FWIW- I see the joke you were trying to make. Just imperfect delivery I guess. Mods can be very jumpy with the MS topic
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/11/avestor_sh uts_d.html
Avestor, the Canadian developer of Lithium-Metal-Polymer (LMP) battery technology, is shutting down. The company filed with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy in Montréal with a view to making a Proposal to its creditors on 31 October.
In August, the company had produced and shipped its 20,000th battery. At that time, Avestor said it had signed multimillion dollar, multiyear contracts with major telecommunications service providers in North America and also was a provider to several other telecommunications customers in North America.
yep
h uts_d.html
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/11/avestor_s
our telecom outfit had ship issue after ship issue and RMA issue after RMA issue, before we finally got a tech advisory that the vendor was shyt outta luck, and use sealed lead-acid for field replacements.
which will probably improve reliability immensely.
if you have any, seriously consider replacing them with non-incendiary technology.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
In practice, for ambient temps between 15C & 40C, service life seemed to be ~ 3 years max. And not much, if any, better in a regulated 25C ~30C environment.
OTOH, I remember these being used to replace batteries of flooded lead-acid cells, subject to a fairly well regulated 20C ~ 30C, that were still in near-perfect condition - no silting, no visible sulphation, no chlorine poisoning, minimal post corrosion, discharge test results of > 90% capacity @ C10 rate, etc - despite being more than 30 years old.
Yeah, traditional flooded cells require at least yearly maintenance; preferably 1/2 yearly or quarterly. But, as I've mentioned here before, I've seen SLA batteries go from visually/quantatively OK to "oozing their guts" in less than 3 months...
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
Wake up take your head out of your ass and buy Flywheel batteries. Caterpillar sells them for god sakes. No maintenance, rapid charge and discharge, and so reliable that you can send them into space at 10,000 USD per pound to orbit.
I was at Sprint PCS a few years ago. I remember hearing about the power failure in Ft. Worth, TX. The batteries drained down in the UPS, so the power generator was started. It caught fire and people were air lifted to hospital. When I'm in the Ft. Worth area I go to visit that data center and just think about the horror Sprint, EMC, Sun and Veritas people suffered one night a few years ago.