[asianthree]

Recently homes in Middleton (1), between the “6’s” reported home fires. Official results have not been posted, initial estimates fire may have occurred in garage. Possibly Golf carts?

Last week friends had a small garage fire, while charging e-bike, several other batteries.
Fire was caught quickly with some damage to wall and cabinets. Fire Department stated if they weren’t home, obviously damage would have been greater.

Our neighbor has always charged his golf cart outside as a precaution. Anyone else take different approach to charging batteries for home or cart use?

[Altavia]

Those fires make the headlines but the risk seems no greater than that of lightning strikes.

The two I'm aware of were R/C car and lawn equipment batteries being charged.

Look for products U/L listed, only use the supplied charger.

Do not leave the attic access open, make sure attic stairs are fire rated.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by Altavia

Those fires make the headlines but the risk seems no greater than that of lightning strikes.

The two I'm aware of were R/C car and lawn equipment batteries being charged.

Look for products U/L listed, only use the supplied charger.

Do not leave the attic access open, make sure attic stairs are fire rated.

Good advice but there are probably only a handfull of people in the Villages that understand that attic stairs need to be fire rated. Many leave them propped open LOL!

Recently there was a fire, maybe it was one in Middleton where it started in the garage and quickly spread into the attic and the rest of the home. The only way that happens is if there was a non-fire rated penetration from the garage to the attic.

[Altavia]

Don't know the timing of the Middleton fire but there was a unusually high community power surge reported by Ting near Wellpoint last Monday morning impacting 620 other homes using Ting so it was widespread.

Ting

This is the kind of surge the SECO protection is designed to mitigate and illustrates the usefulness for a whole house surge protector.

The voltage spike below was measured at the output of surge protection doing its job - the surge voltage on the power line side was likely higher.

[CarlR33]

Hopefully, they can start compiling data related to any battery related fires so a common cause can be found. I charge my tesla, golf cart and mower tools inside.

[Win1894]

Originally Posted by Altavia

Don't know the timing of the Middleton fire but there was a unusually high community power surge reported by Ting near Wellpoint last Monday morning impacting 620 other homes using Ting so it was widespread.

Ting

This is the kind of surge the SECO protection is designed to mitigate and illustrates the usefulness for a whole house surge protector.

The voltage spike below was measured at the output of surge protection doing its job - the surge voltage on the power line side was likely higher.

I would like to know what the 133 volt spike actually means. Keep in mind that the 120 volt standard in the US is actually an RMS voltage of an alternating current that cycles to +/-170 volts 60 times per second. So what is the significance of the 133 volt spike? Does that mean the actual spike was 188 volts (133v X 1.414 = 188v) which only 11% over the peak voltage, which is no big deal? And why would the voltage be higher on the supply side? Does this mean the surge protector wasn't doing its job by allowing this spike through? Or maybe the spike on the supply side was just 133v RMS? Anyone?

[TMHwestford]

Originally Posted by jrref

Good advice but there are probably only a handfull of people in the Villages that understand that attic stairs need to be fire rated. Many leave them propped open LOL!

Recently there was a fire, maybe it was one in Middleton where it started in the garage and quickly spread into the attic and the rest of the home. The only way that happens is if there was a non-fire rated penetration from the garage to the attic.

When we bought our home I was disappointed to see the fire separation from garage to house was the GWB on the ceiling and that it's only 1/2", not disappointed enough to do anything about it tho. I wonder how much longer the GWB will last than the plywood on set of attic stairs?

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by Win1894

I would like to know what the 133 volt spike actually means. Keep in mind that the 120 volt standard in the US is actually an RMS voltage of an alternating current that cycles to +/-170 volts 60 times per second. So what is the significance of the 133 volt spike? Does that mean the actual spike was 188 volts (133v X 1.414 = 188v) which only 11% over the peak voltage, which is no big deal? And why would the voltage be higher on the supply side? Does this mean the surge protector wasn't doing its job by allowing this spike through? Or maybe the spike on the supply side was just 133v RMS? Anyone?

133v RMS would be a typical clamping voltage for a surge suppressor.

No way to know how high the line voltage spiked on the service side.