Telecomunications/Computing

A Battery room is a room in a facility used to house batteries for large-scale custom-built backup power systems. These batteries are usually wired together for 12, 24, or 48 volt supplies primarily for telecommunication and Computing equipment in Datacenters, Central Office facilities, and Remote Telecomunications stations. The batteries can provide power for minutes, hours or days depending on the electrical laod and design. Sometimes the batteries only have to supply power untill a diesel engines usually coupled to generators can be automatically started to provide backup power for hours or days untill public electrical service is restored. The rectifiers used in charging and trickle charging these battery loads can be hot swapped if there is a failure without disrupting the system. Failing batteries can also be swapped becuase of the redundancy built in to this design.

Electrical utilities

Battery rooms are also found in electric power plants and substations where reliable power is required for operation of switchgear and critical standby sytems. Often batteries for large switchgear line-ups are 125V or 250V nominal systems, and feature redundant battery chargers with independent power sources. Separate battery rooms may be provided to protect agains loss of the station due to a fire in a battery bank. Power from the battery system is required for switchgear operationgs required to black start a power plant.

Submarines and ocean going vessels

Battery rooms are found on submarines of the diesel-electric type, where they contain the batteries used for undersea propulsion of the vessel. Batteries in surface vessels may also be contained in a battery room.

Design Issues

Since typical secondary batteries may give off hydrogen gas especially if overcharged, ventilation of a battery room is critical to maintain the concentration below the lower explosive limit.

The life span of secondary batteries is reduced at high temperature and the energy storage capacity is reduced at low temperature, so a battery room must have heating or cooling to maintain the proper temperature.

Batteries may contain large quantities of corrosive electrolytes such as sulfuric acid or potassium hydroxide. Materials of the battery room must resist corrosion and contain any accidental spills. Plant personnel must be protected from spilled electrolyte.

Battery rooms on ocean-going vessels must prevent mixture of seawater with acid, since this will produce toxic chlorine gas. This is of particular concern on submarines.