I intend to put a 5000 mAh li-ion battery atop an 11-storey building in a 30 x 20 x 10 cm^3 aluminium case. The location is in a town where never in recorded weather data did the min temp go below -20° and a source online says the highest ever metal surface sun temperature recorded was 62°C. The box will not have any electrical heat source. It will be a solar #meshtastic node #solarnode . The box will be covered by a solar panel facing south. Is this safe? Could there be thermal runaway in the battery?
I would not be too worried. Batteries dont usually get thermal runaway unless you over charge them or try to push way too much current into them.
Considering you are using an aluminium case this is a plus and a negative. Firstly, if you get a thermal runaway/blown battery, the case will most likely contain the heat and smoke. On the negative side, when building the node you need to be extremely careful of not having anything shorting out on the case itself. I would consider this more of a danger than the battery overheating by itself. Be very careful with sequring components and connections and protecting them from shorting out on anything and you should be good.
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