Pellet Stove, Battery backup - suggestions?

lagger said:

would it be practical as well as safe to purchase an inexpensive small generator, like the harbor freight one, and run a 12 v 1kw regulated power supply off of that into the inverter and run the stove off of that setup ?... seems to me this kind of setup with a 1kw 12v regulated supply, inverter and generator would be cheaper than some of the other options, a little more effort to set up initally compared to a dedicated battery back up perhaps.

harbor freight generator 99.00
harbor freight 750\1500w inverter 48.00
I see 12v 1kw regulated (switching) power supplies on line for 100.00 and up

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A battery provide you with uninterruptible power which can keep your stove going until you have the opportunity to fire up the generator. For example, smoke will back up into my house if power is lost while there's a fire going, even if the outage is brief. If power goes out while we're away from the house. If I don't want to listen to a noisy generator at night while I sleep. etc etc

TimfromMA said:

A battery provide you with uninterruptible power which can keep your stove going until you have the opportunity to fire up the generator. For example, smoke will back up into my house if power is lost while there's a fire going, even if the outage is brief. If power goes out while we're away from the house. If I don't want to listen to a noisy generator at night while I sleep. etc etc

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good point in another post someone mentioned a cyberpower pure sine 1500 backup looks like I would need something like that, and a small generator.. now worried that if the elec goes out while I'm not home, and the backup is exhausted after a short while, no one will be there to initiate the shut down before it smokes up the house... what to do ...

The easiest albeit quite expensive way to go would be to buy enough batteries so that the hopper will run out of pellets before the batteries die.

My biggest concern is keeping the batteries from over depleting which can ruin them. These batteries arent cheap.

TimfromMA said:

The easiest albeit quite expensive way to go would be to buy enough batteries so that the hopper will run out of pellets before the batteries die.

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The easiest way is to interrupt the thermostat circuit with a time delay relay and use the UPS to shut down the stove so you don't get smoke backing up with a direct vent exhaust. Using a time delay relay keeps the stove from restarting during short, multi power hits.

DBCOOPER said:

The easiest way is to interrupt the thermostat circuit with a time delay relay and use the UPS to shut down the stove so you don't get smoke backing up with a direct vent exhaust. Using a time delay relay keeps the stove from restarting during short, multi power hits.

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I use a low voltage sensor on the batteries tied to a relay on the auger motor.

I'm looking into tripping the 'proof of fire' switch. It's a simple loop, so a simple relay inline to break the circuit will let the stove board shut the stove down (stops feeding) but continues to run the combustion fan indefinitely (on my stove).

I do want to get a better back up system. the HF 900 watt gen set was a waste of money IMO. If anyone wants mine, you can have it. free pick up. didn't run chit. loud as hell. smelled aweful.


When i do go for a generator, i'm going to go for a pure sine inverter and a propane hook up. I can stock and go through a ton of grill tanks and not worry about it going bad. I'm still torn between the eu2000 honda and the 2400i yamaha. both are about the same price and specs, the yammy giving a little more wattage. Gives me an excuse to use the grill more too. Plus, it can be used for cooking during power outages just the same. i don't want to keep all that gas on hand. After the snopocpolypse and Sandy, gas was rare in these parts for a week. I can't use it in my car either, as my car only takes premium, so i don't want to fee the genny 93 octane or my high performance sports car old 87 + stabilizer crap :/