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I'm planning my house right now and yeah the garage is a big problem, there is no way I'm keeping even an electric bicycle close to my living quarters. Gas car

I'm planning my house right now and yeah the garage is a big problem, there is no way I'm keeping even an electric bicycle close to my living quarters. Gas cars can also spontaneously burn but if you have an alarm and a few fire extinguishers you have a chance to at least delay the spread until the firefighters arrive, with a battery fire you're fucked

adriancr 2y ago
If having an electric car in a garage is a worry then keep it outside... Also, if that worries you, you should probably worry about anything battery powered. That means phones, RC toys, laptops, external battery packs, power tools... Lastly, if your gas car spontaneously starts burning in a garage, it's probably not a good idea to rush to an enclosed garage, opening door/window might cause a blow up...
- lm28469 2y ago
  > Also, if that worries you, you should probably worry about anything battery powered. That means phones, RC toys, laptops, external battery packs, power tools... You might want to look into a few things: battery capacity, energy, chemical reactions. > Lastly, if your gas car spontaneously starts burning in a garage, it's probably not a good idea to rush to an enclosed garage, opening door/window might cause a blow up.. Most of them start with small electrical fires that propagate and after a looooong time finally get to the gas, nothing will explode I know EVs somehow got very polarising but come on... can't you tell the difference between a phone battery and a car battery ? really ? There is a reason why electric bicycles and scooters are banned from many cities public transport and buildings. Even firefighters recognise that EV fires are an absolute pain in the ass to handle. I know people love their EVs but stop drinking the kool aid after the first gallon
  - adriancr 2y ago
    > Most of them start with small electrical fires that propagate and after a looooong time finally get to the gas, nothing will explode https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft You just need a fire in an enclosed space running for a bit of time. > can't you tell the difference between a phone battery and a car battery ? really ? I have seen the result of a house fire due to bad laptop battery. Once a fire starts it's typically bad. If you are worried about EVs catching fire, then any battery has the same risk percentage to start a fire. (defective samsung mobile phones is a good example of an issue and it being resolved) Sure, it's much worse and much faster for an EV to catch fire. Still, a regular battery can kill you just as well. I just leave my EV outside, I don't think it will catch fire, but if it does it won't kill me. I also used to leave my gas car outside, I dont think that would catch fire either. I havent seen too many regular consumer devices starting fires so that risk might be low.
    - lm28469 2y ago
      Anything can kill... it's about managing risks. If you want to store two tesla in a garage sharing a wall with your bed room be my guest
      - bryanlarsen 2y ago
        Far safer than a couple of gasoline cars in the same place.
  - bryanlarsen 2y ago
    > can't you tell the difference between a phone battery and a car battery ? Far more people have died due to house fires started by phone batteries than car batteries. Knock the phone off your bedstand into your bed while it's charging and...
- massysett 2y ago
  If I had an EV I’d need to charge it in my driveway, which is still close enough for a fire to ignite my wooden house.
  - adriancr 2y ago
    Are you sure about that? I would expect wooden houses to have fire retardant panelings and insulation...
- closewith 2y ago
  Generally not a great idea to keep high capacity power tool batteries in your living space. Many insurance companies won't cover the resulting damage from a fire caused by one.
  - adriancr 2y ago
    How about in the garage?
audunw 2y ago
What utter nonsense. EVs are already extremely wide spread in many parts of the world, and the statistics clearly show that they’re far safer than ICE when it comes to fires. Even when people routinely charge their car at home overnight. The density of EVs in my area is insanely high (30%ish) and I haven’t even heard of a single case of an EV catching fire in a garage. The cases I’ve seen have either been on the road or during fast charge. An EV fire takes significantly longer to reach its peak than a gasoline fire. Yeah it’s possible that the electrolyte combusts in a somewhat spectacular fire at the start. That could ignite some things around the car. But electrolytes are very light and volatile. Not like gasoline that sticks around and burns for a long time. If you have a fire extinguisher you can deal with the fires that might have been started in the garage. EVs are designed to vent burning electrolyte away from the vehicle so the car itself is not likely to start burning yet. Then if you have a garden hose nearby and maybe a sprinkler, you can douse the battery pack with water. That should prevent the thermal runaway from triggering another fire until the fire department arrives. But I can not stress enough what kind of unlikely freak accident we’re talking about here. You should probably worry more about your house getting hit by lightning.

adriancr 2y ago

If having an electric car in a garage is a worry then keep it outside... Also, if that worries you, you should probably worry about anything battery powered. That means phones, RC toys, laptops, external battery packs, power tools... Lastly, if your gas car spontaneously starts burning in a garage, it's probably not a good idea to rush to an enclosed garage, opening door/window might cause a blow up...

lm28469 2y ago
> Also, if that worries you, you should probably worry about anything battery powered. That means phones, RC toys, laptops, external battery packs, power tools... You might want to look into a few things: battery capacity, energy, chemical reactions. > Lastly, if your gas car spontaneously starts burning in a garage, it's probably not a good idea to rush to an enclosed garage, opening door/window might cause a blow up.. Most of them start with small electrical fires that propagate and after a looooong time finally get to the gas, nothing will explode I know EVs somehow got very polarising but come on... can't you tell the difference between a phone battery and a car battery ? really ? There is a reason why electric bicycles and scooters are banned from many cities public transport and buildings. Even firefighters recognise that EV fires are an absolute pain in the ass to handle. I know people love their EVs but stop drinking the kool aid after the first gallon
- adriancr 2y ago
  > Most of them start with small electrical fires that propagate and after a looooong time finally get to the gas, nothing will explode https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backdraft You just need a fire in an enclosed space running for a bit of time. > can't you tell the difference between a phone battery and a car battery ? really ? I have seen the result of a house fire due to bad laptop battery. Once a fire starts it's typically bad. If you are worried about EVs catching fire, then any battery has the same risk percentage to start a fire. (defective samsung mobile phones is a good example of an issue and it being resolved) Sure, it's much worse and much faster for an EV to catch fire. Still, a regular battery can kill you just as well. I just leave my EV outside, I don't think it will catch fire, but if it does it won't kill me. I also used to leave my gas car outside, I dont think that would catch fire either. I havent seen too many regular consumer devices starting fires so that risk might be low.
  - lm28469 2y ago
    Anything can kill... it's about managing risks. If you want to store two tesla in a garage sharing a wall with your bed room be my guest
    - bryanlarsen 2y ago
      Far safer than a couple of gasoline cars in the same place.
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  > can't you tell the difference between a phone battery and a car battery ? Far more people have died due to house fires started by phone batteries than car batteries. Knock the phone off your bedstand into your bed while it's charging and...
massysett 2y ago
If I had an EV I’d need to charge it in my driveway, which is still close enough for a fire to ignite my wooden house.
- adriancr 2y ago
  Are you sure about that? I would expect wooden houses to have fire retardant panelings and insulation...
closewith 2y ago
Generally not a great idea to keep high capacity power tool batteries in your living space. Many insurance companies won't cover the resulting damage from a fire caused by one.
- adriancr 2y ago
  How about in the garage?

audunw 2y ago

What utter nonsense. EVs are already extremely wide spread in many parts of the world, and the statistics clearly show that they’re far safer than ICE when it comes to fires. Even when people routinely charge their car at home overnight. The density of EVs in my area is insanely high (30%ish) and I haven’t even heard of a single case of an EV catching fire in a garage. The cases I’ve seen have either been on the road or during fast charge. An EV fire takes significantly longer to reach its peak than a gasoline fire. Yeah it’s possible that the electrolyte combusts in a somewhat spectacular fire at the start. That could ignite some things around the car. But electrolytes are very light and volatile. Not like gasoline that sticks around and burns for a long time. If you have a fire extinguisher you can deal with the fires that might have been started in the garage. EVs are designed to vent burning electrolyte away from the vehicle so the car itself is not likely to start burning yet. Then if you have a garden hose nearby and maybe a sprinkler, you can douse the battery pack with water. That should prevent the thermal runaway from triggering another fire until the fire department arrives. But I can not stress enough what kind of unlikely freak accident we’re talking about here. You should probably worry more about your house getting hit by lightning.