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Comment by auscad | Hacker News Reader

CATL is the world’s biggest EV battery manufacturer, and they’re planning to mass produce these batteries in the next few months. This isn’t your run of the mill university research press release.

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You can already buy these cells in home sogens starting early next year.

https://www.bluettipower.com/pages/ces-2022

I do not care for their promo graphics of 10kwh sitting exposed alongside the exterior wall. Were I in a position to be constructing a battery backup, it is going to get its own dedicated concrete shed, separated as far as possible from the house.

For comparison, a gallon of propane is equivalent to 27Kwh[0] so that 20 lb cylinder contains about 124 Kwh equivalent. Now that's not something I'd keep inside the house but it's not too far away.

[0] https://www.blossmangas.com/knowing-the-numbers-propane-vs-e....

Curious, do you store your care very far away from your house too?

I agree with the danger of lithium batteries, I wouldn’t want it attached to my house either!

Ha, well GM did inform Bolt owners to stop parking next to the house, so maybe there is something to that logic.

Concentrated energy by any other name is a bomb. At least with gasoline, I am fairly confident if/when/where an ignition occurs. With an electronic device with embedded firmwares, I just have to hope that the failsafes are operating.

For the uninitiated, what are the risks with these batteries? Are they likely to explode?

The Bolt batteries were randomly catching fire. Random news article about it [0].

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/gm-advising-some-bolt-ev-own...

Sodium ion is much safer. Electrolytes in it may still be flammable, but CATL says there should be no thermal runaway or spontaneous combustion like Lithium-Ion. They’re also safer to ship without the hazmat warnings in the packaging.

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