LiFePo4 battery on the firewall?

[David Paule]

For FWF installation, it's likely that the major heat impact will be following a long taxi after landing and then shutdown. The engine bay temps can get pretty high then.

Any temperature monitoring will need to include the case of having the airplane all turned off, with high temps under the cowl for a significant period of time.

What's significant? I don't know. That's a qustion for the battery vendors to answer.

I'm beginning to think that a relatively thick stainless steel case, with the battery accessible through an external blast and access door, might be reasonably safe. It would still need to be insulated from anything important.

Dave

[EarthX Lithium]

I was about to post this on another thread and saw this one so it seemed appropriate to put it here as well.

Kathy, I was able to get the battery installed in my RV10 today. There was only a little bit of work to do to get it to fit. Here are the notes and links to pictures. http://tinyurl.com/nadnssd



1) The width of the ETX48E is an exact fit for the width of the Odyssey
PC925 - so anyone that is using that battery (most all RV10s), the existing angle piece in the battery tray works perfect to hold the aft end of the ETX48E.
2) The depth of the ETX48E is about 1-5/8" thinner than the PC925 (typically installed on its side). I used a piece of UMHD with some lightening holes to reduce weight to take up the extra room in the tray behind the ETX48E battery.
3) The stock battery tie-down lands on top of the battery but is off the back of the center built up area (where the EarthX label on top is). To fix this, I made a 6"x3/8" piece of UMHD and epoxied it to the top of the battery. The tie-down bar then fell equally on the UMHD block and the exposed battery top.
4) The existing wiring runs from the Master Relay and the Ground Wire were all a perfect length to reach the ETX48E when using the Terminal Adapters to move the attach points to the front of the battery from the top.
5) The screws to attach the Terminal Adapters were outfitted with a lock washer and a flat washer to secure the screws in place. The same thing was done to secure the battery cable lugs to the terminal adapters.
6) A MS25171-3S insulting rubber boot was installed over the top of the POSITIVE side of the battery terminal adapter to protect the exposed terminal. It also protects it from the nearby battery tie-down bar.
7) The change out took about 2 hours including fabricating the new spacers.
8) The battery worked great and it seems like the starter has a little more oomph than the Odyssey battery.




Hope this helps answer some questions out there.

Kathy

[jc11378]

I see these battery as such a high risk, and if for some reason something goes wrong, then the fire and any gasses that are let loose are extremely toxic, and the thin firewall is not enough protection.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[EarthX Lithium]

We would love to hear your feedback here at EarthX on what you think of this proposed battery box? It's aluminum, weighs less than 2 pounds and the straps could be adjustable. This is only a prototype. You can also email us at sales@earthxmotorsports.com


[IMG][/IMG]

[scard]

Originally Posted by EarthX Lithium

We would love to hear your feedback here at EarthX on what you think of this proposed battery box? It's aluminum, weighs less than 2 pounds and the straps could be adjustable. This is only a prototype. You can also email us at sales@earthxmotorsports.com

That just makes me laugh. If I see it on your airplane, you'll be providing more welcomed amusement for me .

My 2c worth of opinion.

[EarthX Lithium]

Dear Scard,

I should have given more details on the battery box, we are not making it but had a metal fabricator send us this "idea" on something that he could do. The straps are a no go...they must be flame proof such as an aluminum bar and ideally, it would be a solid aluminum casing around it in the event of an engine fire to protect it from flames as well.

But maybe I don't understand what you mean by it makes you laugh.....care to offer a more detailed opinion?

Kathy

[Bill.Peyton]

Basically sums it up....

[Low Pass]

Kathy,

One thing that might help you is to understand that there is a pretty polarized audience for the LiFePO4 batteries. You either recognize the benefits and accept the risks, or you think they're unacceptably dangerous and will hear nothing of using one. Try asking those who appreciate the benefits and accept the risks for application suggestions. Otherwise, you won't get sincere or productive feedback on your ideas.

Bryan

[blahphish]

I installed an EarthX in my plane a few months ago and am completely happy with it. I put it in the standard location for the -10 (behind baggage wall) and so my 2c on the battery box is that its not necessary since the battery can be very easily made to fit in the standard battery tray.

[NovaBandit]

Since I started this thread, I figured I should update you all as to what I decided to do.

I'm going to be following Brian's example and I will be installing an EarthX battery in the stock RV10 location. I still really like the idea of having the battery on the firewall, but a friend measured cowl temperatures in the locations I was looking at, and during taxi both before and after the flight, the temperature would climb up to around 180 degrees. I feel a lot better not exposing the battery to those temperature extremes.

Thanks for everyone's input!