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Comment by hlieberman | Hacker News Reader

The author actually talks about ESS in a comment to the linked blog post from the article. Apparently their battery generates a ton of H_2 that needs to be managed. That could easily be the sort of thing that only is possible/realistic at large scales, thus eliminating sizing the battery down indirectly. https://chemisting.com/2024/03/15/an-open-source-diy-flow-ba...

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I am the author of the blog. The Zn/I chemistry actually generates very little H2, so that's not a problem in our current configuration.

you can just vent h2 to the atmosphere

It doesn't work so easily; if you do that, the battery itself will fall apart because of deposition of the iron. See: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/abcf50/...

thanks! so the rest of the thread here is sort of beside the point

Your local fire department will want to very closely inspect your explosive materials handling and safety procedures. Think about what big banks of lead-acid batteries have to do, and google the pictures of battery rooms with their roof blown to bits.

i'm familiar with the destructive power and unpredictable nature of hydrogen detonations, yes ;)

but that's what happens when you don't vent the hydrogen to the atmosphere

Yes, but improperly venting the hydrogen is "not venting hydrogen" but looks like venting the hydrogen unless closely inspected.

you can do it in ways that are really obvious, though only to someone who knows the order of magnitude of hydrogen that could be produced

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