On Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:04:57 +0000, Larry wrote:

Are you saying that all of the charging power is converted into heat?



Eventually, yes. Whether it's the heat of the chemical reaction or the
heat of the internal resistance....it all comes off as heat at some point.

Putting batteries in an unvented, INSULATED box is a big mistake.

Battery boxes should be vented, no question.

The heat question is something else altogether. If all of the
charging power were converted to heat, there would be no energy left
over for creating a stored charge. Heat represents wasted energy in
the charging process, usually 10 to 20% of the total.