Fire Safety in the Workshop. Flammables & Battery storage.

[Skottex]

Hello Everyone,
I'm considering to buy 2 certified flammables storage cabinet to store both chemical flammables (paints & oils) and tool's batteries to add a protection layer to the workshop.
My idea is to store the flammables in the the cabinets together with a temperature, or other, sensor in order to receive an alarm on the phone if something happen.

My workshop stands in the middle of the garden and is far from mine and neighbor's houses so in case of fire the consequences would be minimal. But I want to make it more likely that the property's insurance will refund any loss, in case of fire, and would not just say "You were improperly storing flammables".

What is your experience on this? (sorry for the bad English)

 

[clogs]

great idea.......buy a paint store cupboard bigger than u think u'll need....then u can keep oils n grease in there as well........
u'll soon fill it with kinds of paints etc....
as for the battery's even if in a steel cupboard it will prob still take out the shed if it one went up.....
good reason to buy genuine batts.......my spare batts are stored outside in a water proof metal box with a lift out tool tray for ease......no worries about condensation here....
biggest worry really is the charging.......heaven forbide if u leave one on overnight or a couple of days....it's easy to forget....
as an idea......
as I walk out the door I can turn the entire electrics off, big fused lever switch......that way nothing is left on....

just think on a bigger scale an EV will take at least 3 days to put the hot battery's out...

nice one.....

 

[Skottex]

great idea.......buy a paint store cupboard bigger than u think u'll need....then u can keep oils n grease in there as well........
u'll soon fill it with kinds of paints etc....
as for the battery's even if in a steel cupboard it will prob still take out the shed if it one went up.....
good reason to buy genuine batts.......my spare batts are stored outside in a water proof metal box with a lift out tool tray for ease......no worries about condensation here....
biggest worry really is the charging.......heaven forbide if u leave one on overnight or a couple of days....it's easy to forget....
as an idea......
as I walk out the door I can turn the entire electrics off, big fused lever switch......that way nothing is left on....

just think on a bigger scale an EV will take at least 3 days to put the hot battery's out...

nice one.....

Thanks for the advice on batteries but unfortunately I can't store it outside. Where I live it goes -10c in winter and most probably it will damage it.
For the battery storage I was thinking to use intumescent paint, as an extra protection, but it seems it is sold only in giant quantities. An alternative can be adding fire resistant tiles/bricks to the inner surface.
The idea is to slow down the fire and put the small cabinet in a convenient place so it can be, if possible, safely and easily thrown in the garden.

 

[Ozi]

Your picture is exactly the cabinet we use at work, I'm told although I'm glade to say I have no experience to back it up that they will contain hand tool battery fires, there must be a limit but we store them approx 2" apart and fire safety people seem quite happy. It probably depends where the cabinet is, ours is against a block work wall, in a wooden shed and covered in saw dust might be a different outcome. Like the idea of a thermal alarm. Need to review my workshop, always charge batteries overnight in the middle of the floor in the hope if one caught it would just burn out - not liking the thought of it catching my wood store that would not be good news

 

[Housey210]

"more likely that the property's insurance will refund any loss" Am I right in thinking insurance on main residential house? May be worth checking with them on wording at what exactly is covered in your garden as from experience I have known one to come a cropper as they deemed it, their workshop, to be used in connection with a business! Another I knew declared it as a business and a year later was visited by council and hit for business rates! Tough call.

 

[Sideways]

I may be cavalier about it but I don't think twice about storing lithium batteries in the toolboxes with the tools. I just make sure not to leave them on charge with anything flammable near-by.

A flammables cupboard for the volatiles, paints, solvents, etc is a great idea. I repurposed an old gun box for mine but I needed the space so it had to go and the flammables are now stored in the garden shed.

A cheap option is to get a secondhand fire safe or fire resistant filing cabinet. Some are incredibly heavy and show up used from time to time for very little money.