Power source?

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searay220

Member
Dec 5, 2008
34
Reading Ma
I have a wood insert and works great and heats my small cape style home very well. It heats my house because of the fan motor thats built into the unit. I was wondering in the event of a power outage other than a generator how would you power the fan motor? I'm wondering what the options are.
 
No gen and you do not want a major investment i guess. If it was me I would get the biggest gps[guaranteed power supply] or ups[uninterrupted power supply]. Thats like the guaranteed power supply many put on their computers. Get the biggest you can afford. Costco regularly has them. This would be great for those 1 day power outages.
I know you said no generator but a small 1000w Honda inverter would be best. They are safe for electronics so you could serf and be warm and they are silent. They use very little gas and you could just get a long extension cord and put it on the balcony or at least outside somewhere.
 
snowtime said:
No gen and you do not want a major investment i guess. If it was me I would get the biggest gps[guaranteed power supply] or ups[uninterrupted power supply]. Thats like the guaranteed power supply many put on their computers. Get the biggest you can afford. Costco regularly has them. This would be great for those 1 day power outages.
I know you said no generator but a small 1000w Honda inverter would be best. They are safe for electronics so you could serf and be warm and they are silent. They use very little gas and you could just get a long extension cord and put it on the balcony or at least outside somewhere.
I agree with snowtime. It doesn't take much to run a fan motor on a stove. If you can't afford the Honda, you can catch 1000 watt generators on sale very cheap. Also, you can buy a 12 volt DC to 120 volt AC inverter very cheap! You can run it off your car battery. Of course, eventually you will run down the car battery.
 
But chances are; the cause for a prolonged power outage this time of year would be an ice storm--so your not using your vehicle anyway.

I did a random Internert search on inverters & saw this one for $29.00 plus shipping. www.donrowe.com
Lowes had the same size one with the battery clips for $39.00
 

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If you decide to go the battery route and want significant run time, get one of the inverters suggested and hook it up to a marine deep cycle battery.

Computer UPS's are not really meant to drive AC motor loads and the batteries inside all but the largest ($$$) models are quite small. The APC 1000VA (700w) model for example has only a pair of 12Ah gel cell batteries. And they cost a few hundred.
 
You will need to look at the length of time of the worst case outage. In our area we can get 5-7 day outages. In that case, a battery + inverter or UPS isn't going to cut it. We have to rely on a generator then. Though not for the stove which is centrally located and does pretty good with just the ecofan. It's for refrigeration that we mainly need the generator.
 
How about one of these? ;) :)
 

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searay220 said:
Would the Ecofan work on an insert?
Some inserts cannot be fired without the circulating fan. Check your manual. Mine says if the power goes out, open the doors and burn that way.
 
If you are affected by a power outage, you're likely going to want to power more than just your stove blower.
Add lights and a few additional comforts and you'll quickly realize you need a gasoline or propane powered generator.
I suggest at very minimum, a 2kw would suffice for a short outage. You can find 4-stroke OHV's online for under $300.
Good luck w/ your decision.
 
Seastrike were effected with the ice storm one year ago? I would have to guess the type of person that has a wood stove would probably own a generator as well.It's no easy task owning a stove but the satisfaction you get keeping your house toasty and your family warm is well worth it. So what kinds of generator and what size do you own. I borrowed one from work a year ago after a tornado went through my area in NH. It was a Honda 6500kw electric start very quiet and what a sweet machine. I understand there huge money.
 
Hi Searay-
We learned anout the importance of a good generator during last years ice storm. We were 10 days without power, and had no stove at the time.
A friend loaned me his B & S 5500w storm responder generator and I had an electrician wire it in for us- it worked like a champ and gave us life again.
It powered a well pump, oil furnace, blower and lights without issue.
Since that storm, we made 2 significant purchases- A Jotul insert and a Generac GP5500 (got a great deal on an unused floor model at HD-$499.00 !, so we are ready for the new storm, though we'll likely never see anything like the last, we are ready.
That Honda you mention sounds like a sweet machine, costing 3-4x what the Generac cost, w/ more power and less dB than the Generac.

Stay Warm -Enjoy that stove & Good luck with tonights storm- Im hearing 12" in your area.
 
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