My pellet collection grows for 2012 and UPS backup project

My pellet stash update :

I have leftover from last year, 66 bags of Presto-Logs and 30 bags of Canadian Okie softwoods. I moved these to my pole building for long term storage where they will remain as backup in a humidity controlled environment. 5 bags of the Presto's broke as I was moving them, so I remind everyone to be careful with older bags. I'm not sure if the bags degrade a little, or if i was getting lazy! I'm burning those open bags first, as we encountered a little cold snap the last 2 nights.



Tomorrow, I have 4 tons being delivered from Lowes. They have both Green Team and Cheat River. I told them I wanted Green Team, but they said its the same part number and have no control over whats pulled, but I put it in the driver notes that I prefer Green Team. Actually I wouldn't mind a bit of both. We'll see what he delivers tomorrow! That takes me to 296 bags. A decent stash!

I also decided to add a battery backup to the pellet stove this year, because we get lots of brown outs and power outages. Nothing beats the clean output of an old school APC Smart UPS, so I set forth looking at refurb units with new batteries. I discovered a great deal on a rack mount 1400XL. The XL series includes an Anderson connector on the back to add addition battery packs. I'm probably going to add a couple big AGM 100aH batteries instead of using official APC battery extenders. I haven't done much testing yet, but I ran a 120 watt halogen light for an hour and a half with it. I'll probably incorporate a timer with thermostat cutoff so the stove does a proper shutdown. Just a little protection for when I'm at work and the stove is running. My pets need to stay a little warm. Also the rack mount models incorporate a cooling fan, where the equivalent tower models do not. This seems a little heavier duty to me. Well I have a start anyhow. I'll post more data and info when I can.

Alain S. Prevost said:

What did you wire directly to the ups? The combustion blower? or the entire stove...looks good by the way.
I have a harman pf100 on a generator backup - but nevetheless if that fails - I wouldnt mind having a ups for just the combustion blower to keep the fumes rolling out of the vent properly....I'd need a schematic, etc to tie into just the combustion blower/relays/etc correct?

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Alain,

I have the entire stove on the UPS. My main concern were those brownouts, where the power drops out for a split second to a few seconds. I may wire up one of those ICM491 motor protectors and have the stove do a proper shutdown in the event of a power failure, like someone else did here. Its possible to backup just the combustion motor, a schematic would be handy in that case, but might be more trouble than its worth.

I took some power consumption measurements today of my Quadrafire CB1200i. On battery power running on medium speed it draws 93 watts, 198 volt amps, 1.64 amps with a power factor of .49 using a Kill-a-Watt meter.

I'm going to examine the possibility of running my gas boiler on the backup as well. The plan could be in the event of an unattended power outage to do a proper shutdown of the pellet stove, then if the temperature drops 10 degrees lower, fire up the boiler. I'm now thinking the boiler won't take as much power to run, as its only 1 circulator motor and some minor electronics. The goal is to not let the house freeze until I get home to run the portable diesel generator, and of course to preserve the pellet stove from overfiring or smoking up the house.

bill3rail said:

What did that UPS cost?
I have a large commercial UPS that needs three (3) 12v batteries, but the only batteries I can find are about $150.00 each. It runs on 220v and the batteries are wired to 36v, so I can't even test it with a car battery! I was going to set that one up in my basement with the stove outlet wired directly to it.

What deal did you get on the pellets? Delivery cost?
And..

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Bill,

Yes the larger units are 36 volts, and would require 3 12v batteries wired in series to power the unit. Sounds like a beefy unit! 240v isn't such a big deal if you're used to electrical work. The 1400XL seemed like a great unit, because its total power output is about a KW. A KW is roughly twice the power draw of my stove at startup (w/electric ignition). I've bough refurb backups from different places over the years. This time I bought from UPSforless.com. Some units had free shipping and thats the way to go with these heavy backups. I could have bought a 1400 tower for $169 shipped free, and thats a great deal, but my rack mounted 1400XL has a fan in the back and the battery quick connect right on the back, i considered that worth the additional costs.

I bought pellets from the big box store again this year. Lowes last week was $219, this week it dropped to $209 - 10% off coupon = $188/ton. $59 delivery fee for any amount bought. Local Agway had Powerhouse for $220 and American Wood Fibers for $250. Delivery was $35 first ton and $15 for each additional. I usually like to support my local businesses, but sometimes money talks you know. I don't plan on burning 4 tons this year, but I'm stockpiling what I don't use and averaging my delivery cost over 4 tons.which would be $15/ton. I don't think I could do it cheaper in my pickup truck with the price of gas and 4 trips!

Pictures or it didn't happen huh? Well delivery is tomorrow, so you are correct it didn't happen YET so you'll just have to wait and see. Then I can update my signature for the year!

bill3rail said:

The 220v is not a problem, it is the $450.00 in batteries that I balk at!
I am checking upsforless right now, maybe I'll find a deal less than the batteries for the one I have here.
Thanks for the link.

Bill

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Yeah I know what you're saying, Bill. A good 100aH AGM battery costs about $200. (I need a pair to get 24v). I seem to remember them being half that price not long ago. Might have something to do with the Chinese rare metal market we saw in the news earlier this year?

My pellets were just delivered from Lowes. All 4 tons are all Cheat Rivers. So much for Green Team that had sitting outside the entrance. Oh well. I've read good and bad reviews of almost every pellet out there.The pallets look wrapped good and appear in good shape. We'll see how they burn this season!