re lead acid batteries part in article c h luy cbfsb cb att com rdell cbnewsf cb att com richard b dell writes in article apr ulkyvx louisville edu jhwhit ulkyvx louisville edu writes in article apr mprgate mpr ca vanderby mprgate mpr ca david vanderbyl writes lots of stuff deleted the lead acid secondary cell discharge reaction is exothermic i am glad you do not dispute this point if you don t want the lead storage battery to discharge it should be stored such that its charged state is the equilibrium state during winter the ground be it covered with concrete dirt or wood maintains a cooler temperature on average than the surrounding air or the battery the heat capacity of air is less than that of concrete dirt or wood so it heats faster conversely air cools faster too the normal storage procedure for a battery is to leave it in an unheated garage or basement the storage surface is often cooler than the surrounding air with the battery temperature somewhere in between e g the basement air temperature may be f the floor temperature f and the battery temperature f the air temperature is higher than the battery temperature the heat of reaction is not going to move up the gradient the floor temperature is lower than the battery temperature and heat is going to move to it the floor is an incredible heat sink might depend on where you live i know locally for most of the winter the ground and concrete floor within sheds and garages unheated is signifacantly warmer than the average air temperature the air does get warmer during the day but during the night the ground and concrete is definitely warmer especially when protected by the walls from the albedo effect and the nights are longer by several hours than the days rest of quoted text deleted jeff white jhwhit ulkyvx louisville edu richard dell sorry about following up my own article but i wanted to continue that what might be being missed here is that the important thing might not be temperature differences per se but the action of heat sinking the battery perhap someone could conduct an experiment taking two identical lead acid batteries placing both on wooden shelves but putting one of them in a water bath designed to act as a heat sink this would eliminate the concrete floor effect and keep both batteries at the same ambient temperature i think the argument over temperatures is not pertinent but the one over heat conductance and removing the exothermic heat may have some validity richard dell
