I understand that battery placement should be placed outdoors. Unfortunately that is not feasible for me due to criminal activity that runs in my neighborhood. My question is, can I locate my batteries in the crawl space? My crawl space has an area that is so large that I can stand in it. The crawl space is also vented with four grates that were put in the foundation walls when the house was built.
The reason for placing batteries outdoors is due to the Dangerous hydrogen gas which is given off during the charge process of flooded type batteries. Batteries placed in doors if the flooded type need to be in a enclosed box which is vented directly to the outdoors. These boxes should also be lockable. They can be of simple plywood construction but venting is a must! With the introduction of large off grid panels there are now power vent fans that can be wired to the charger that trigger the fan during charging. A small setup wouldn't require a power vent as the small amount of gas given off could easily be vented upwards through a 2 inch plastic pipe to the outdoors.
That is how I vent my battery bank, I just give the Hydrogen gas a direct vent to the outside air. I have no problems with Hydrogen build up in the house, and my batteries do not suffer from large temperature drops in the winter.
