05-MAY-2019-NEWSLETTER-FINAL-UPDATED

POA

Mark Hall - Security Director

GOLF CART CHARGING SAFETY

For those residents who choose to charge their cart batteries overnight, we highly recommend a ventilation fan be added to the garage. A number of residents have chosen to have a fan installed and it has solved the problem. You can have your own handyman install it or choose someone who has already installed them in other Frenchman’s Creek homes. Please contact the POA at (561) 627-1467, if you need assistance finding someone to complete this work for you.

Below is information from David DeRita, CFEI, Fire Marshal of Palm Beach Gardens Fire-Rescue regarding golf cart charging safety:

There is a serious hazard we want to bring to your attention lurking in garages. It’s called hydrogen gas. If you charge your golf cart batteries in your garage, this hazard may be there. The batteries emit or off-gas hydrogen when being charged. Just like carbon monoxide, hydrogen is an odorless and colorless gas, but worse it is extremely flammable.

When hydrogen reaches 4 to 7 percent in air it become explosive. The same levels of hydrogen in air, displace oxygen and will cause difficulty breathing. Golf cart batteries, especially older batteries will emit hydrogen while being charged. Homes equipped with carbon monoxide detectors will alert when hydrogen is present at higher levels because hydrogen tricks the detectors into thinking that there is CO present. The greater threat with hydrogen is the explosiveness associated with the gas. The hydrogen gas is very light and can leak into the

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May 2019