[Homestead] Homestead tools
Wendy
crazygardens at nationi.net
Fri Nov 19 21:25:10 EST 2004
Here, I would agree with your building code guy. All that low-level
circuitry that is always on (even when the "Power" switch is off) are a fire
trap, but that is not the same thing as leaving your battery charger plugged
in. A battery charger is designed to deliver the high current required to
charge a dead battery. As the battery charges, the charger needs to deliver
less and less current. A fully charged battery draws only the little bit of
current required to make up the self-discharge current of the battery, so
the charger and battery sits there idling at a small fraction of its
designed current rating. Piece of cake for it. On the other hand the
"always on" circuitry in many of our house hold equipment (anything with a
remote control or is functioning 24/7) is always drawing its nominal
operating current. Since most of this stuff is made as cheap as possible,
there is not a lot of safety margin built in in these components, so there
is a higher chance of a catastrophic malfunction. Got it?
Wendy
>>The DeWalt guy said, no, you can just
>>leave it in there;
>>the battery will not overcharge and it will always be ready
>>at top charge.
That's good information to have. My chargers weren't on the list, but
after
reading about how many were I decided not to take chances and leave my
charger plugged in unattended. It's inconvenient in a way, because a fully
charged battery will bleed down over a week or so.
One of our local building code guys says the biggest cause of house fires
are those blamed transformers that are all over these days. Cordless
phones,
computer printers, etc., etc. He is the type of guy who would work for the
code department, though, so he may be exaggerating.
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