Emergency power

When my power goes out, a NO Zone valve opens & the heat circulates naturally by convection. I just have to keep an eye on my temps and be sure not to overfire. No electricity required.

If I did need electricity, I'd get both a UPS and small generator.

zufrieden said:

I have been slowly researching alternative heating methods. I have a older, 1932 home, that I insulated last year. That cut our heating bill way down. I would still like more and am bouncing between replacing the pre EPA insert with a new gasifier, or getting a outdoor gasifier. What do you do when the power goes out? How do you keep the water pumping through the system to keep the house warm? Is there a model that can take the some of the gas from the burning process, and divert it to run the generator? I have seen hoe made units that are dedicated to running engines. Is something like that even possible?

Click to expand...

Maple has the answer.

When you say you have a pre-EPA insert, do you mean a fireplace insert? Is your home currently set up for a forced air or hydronic system? Or is that an additional system you would have to install? If it is just a fireplace insert, you could consider putting in a new woodstove or insert that would let you burn more efficiently, and then you wouldnt have to worry about a power outage at all.

A generator is probably your best bet, and the UPS will keep your house from freezing up if you are away for long periods of time and are worried about a power outage causing your pipes to freeze.

There arent any boilers that allow you to use some of the wood gas to run a generator. I have seen people that are running welders and generators off of wood gasification, but they are custom units that may need some tweaking to make work for you.

I have an inverter [essentially the same as a ups] to keep the lights and heat on when our power goes out. Have to remember to keep the batteries charged; it works perfectly.
Since the day I installed it, the mains power didn't fail anymore!

Everyone with overhead service lines should have backup power, especially if your house is in a cold area.

Odeceixe, Portugal, where it's sunny, breezy, and cool.

Buried 500 gal propane. 12kw Kohler with automatic switch. Power goes out at my house.. for about 7 seconds!



I am literally the end of the line from the transfer station.. about 10 miles away. 660 feet of my own overhead, then 1000 feet underground thru the woods.

Gen tests itself every week. I seem to have one winter, and one summer outage per year. Costs about 200 bucks for 90 gal of propane per year. Nice piece of mind when I travel a lot.

JP

This coming fall I am looking to add my OWB, furnace, and well pump onto a secondary circuit that I can switch over to an external generator.

When I renovated my house, I rewired the whole thing. I put in dual circuits everywhere; sockets are side by side, and the right socket is always wired to the back up system, the left not.
Heavy users like toaster, oven, washing machines and so on are not backed up. This makes the system much easier. I only need a half kilowatt or less to run the lights, entertainment, and heating.
My inverter is 3.5Kw, but the batteries won't last long if there's much load.
I have a little generator for when the batteries run down, but haven't needed it yet.