Power Outage how warm were you?

For a colder than normal winter this year, I had a $10 coupon from Lowes, and I began to think a "Plan B". In case we had a power outage, I bought a Black and Decker 400 watt power inverter for my insert's blower. I used a "Kill-a-watt" to measure how much power the blower uses. For a Freedom Bay, I found it uses 175 watts running on high and 84 watts all the way down on low. Using a 12 volt battery from either the second auto or from the lawn tractor, with the inverter, I could run the blower for added volumes of heat, and keep the insert door closed making the wood last longer...

If worse became worse, I could us the jumper cables to start the 2nd auto or lawnmower and recharge the battery. No power problems happened, but if the winter was abnormal, the storms in the coming spring might need a "Plan B", too.

Just the other day, I saw that Lowe's had marked their 1,000 watt, Vector inverter, down to $59..... ;>)

Bill

Does your inverter produce a pure sine wave or a modified sine wave?
Bryan

We lost power for 4 days, just got it back. With the Jotul 500 running, and under seasoned wood. My house stayed at about 65 ish. That was running the fan we run to suck the heat through the house just a bit. We had an OLD weak borrowed generator, we ran it sparingly.

bboulier said:

Does your inverter produce a pure sine wave or a modified sine wave?
Bryan

Click to expand...

This is a simple Modified sine wave inverter.

We have a 2500sq. ft. home. We live primarily on the second floor in our "apartment" (this allows gravity feed of waste to a raised septic system) and that's where the Fireview is located. The house is well insulated. The first floor of the house fell to the mid-50s after nearly 3 days but our "apartment" was easily in the mid-70s the entire time. We boiled a very large stock pot of water from the pond on the gas range for 5 minutes and then transferred it to the top of the stove to hold it warm for future use. It worked like a charm. I am not sure how long and how cold it would have to remain for the first floor to be in danger of freezing.

The worst part of losing the electricity is the loss of water as we're on a well, but with thought and planning it's not so bad. Other than that, the rest is very readily managed.

Aladdin oil lamps rock.

We lost power in Dutchess County NY since Thursday night at 7pm and just got it back last night (monday) at around 10pm. Luckily I purchased a 5500 KW generator over the summer. Ran that thing throughout the day. I was able to run my pellet stove and and two refrigerators in addition to multiple lamps. Also ran an extension to both my neighbors. House was really toasty. Best 500 bucks ever spend.

Never lost power . . . but the Jotul kept chugging on the same as it has since Fall and I have been plenty warm.

I lost power, plugged in my new Honda generator, flipped the transfer switches, and kept on keepin on. I was happy to use my new toy!

52 hours out in Southern NH, we just lost it again as I write this as they restring the 4 brand new poles over on the main road that got snapped. We have a "tri-level", kind of like a split level on drugs, with the 'ol Kent Sherwood in the basement happily gobbling up eco-bricks. During these "events" (we're gettin kind of used to them now), we just camp out in the basement. I think when I woke up in the mornings, the temp was maybe 68 from a high of about 78 when we went to bed.

Upstairs bedroom never got too cold - maybe 55 or so at the lowest.

-Al

We lost our power on Friday early evening in the Nor'easter and got it back on late Saturday.

Not terribly cold outside, but we stayed a comfy 68-ish in the great room with the Jotul. Far end of the house where we get little circulation from the stove was down to low 50s.

I'm thinking generator to add to the list of "wants"--if only to run the well pump. Flushing with melted snow is a little messy!

I installed an 11kw Coleman standby propane generator with an automatic transfer switch. So I probably wouldn't be aware of a power outage except for maybe 10 seconds during transfer. My VCDW wood-burner stove and Hearthside piezoelectric gas stove would keep us warm without the generator. I love being prepared! I also have a pellet stove, but that would be useless without power, as a matter of fact I would probably have to open all the windows to let the smoke out because the exhaust blower would quit. We had a 2 hour power outage here last December and if it wasn't for the standby generator this house would have been a smokey mess!

Jim

3 days. Gen backup for the lights + HW but the stove kept the heat off. I stopped using the fan, because we all huddled in that room and its really overpowering. Got to say it gave a much more even heat, longer burns and complete w/ cleaner glass.

MUCH WARMER than the ice storm of '08!

We must have some super electrical service because our power did nothing more than flicker a couple times. So, it was business as usual for us.

bboulier said:

Does your inverter produce a pure sine wave or a modified sine wave?
Bryan

Click to expand...

I got a little 400W inverter years ago, and it's a lifesaver at times. I have two fully charged deep-cycle batteries in the house awaiting those days on the water with my Old Town Sport canoe and the electric trolling motor. But when the power goes out, the wife can't seem to understand that while I can run a 32" TV off it, she can't seem to get her lil' 'ol blow dryer to work. I explain the whole thing to her, she nods her pretty head, then she goes and plugs her iron into it. She also has taken it upon herself to hook it up herself... always with the polarity reversed (I needed to get a 5-pack of 40W fuses). So I keep it in my car when I don't need it in the house, works great for small corded power tools, work light, etc.

Is it real important that it be a pure sine wave? I'm sure mine's not, although I never looked. Will it hurt some appliances? I want to get a bigger one for intermittent use of bigger tools (max 15A). What should I be looking for?

Lost power for 4 days. But what's the difference. We only heat with our wood stoves anyway. Warm enough to just have a t-shirt on.

Is it real important that it be a pure sine wave? I'm sure mine's not, although I never looked. Will it hurt some appliances? I want to get a bigger one for intermittent use of bigger tools (max 15A). What should I be looking for?[/quote]

Anything with electronics needs a full sine wave inverter; they say that induction electric motors will run hot if you don't. They are not cheap compared to Modified SWave inverters. Seeing inside a pellet stove, I understand that they have electronics...

Here's a good start on info and questions:

http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/inverter_faq.html

30 hours without power in VT. I had to head up from the flatlands Wednesday night to get the stove going. I used to sterno to warm up the firebox and get the draft going. That worked really well...and heated up the stove quite a bit. By mid AM Thursday, I had the lower level of the a frame up to the mid/upper 60's.

We had 6 inches of rain and noticed water sweating out from inside the chimney so fired up both woodstoves (see sig) on opposite sides of the chimney to dry out the flues.

Downstairs in the great room 20 feet from the woodstove was 70 degrees. Same for the one bedroom that was open upstairs.

Inside the kitchen where the Glenwood is was pretty cozy but I don't have a temp reading.

Lost power for 20 hours last thursday. My house is a 4,000 sq ft center hall colonial with an open foyer. My stove is recommended for 900 - 2,000 sq ft homes, so it's definetely undersized for the house, but I only use the stove to supplement. The stove sits in the living room on the main floor. Temps on main floor were 62 at the coldest point. Temps upstairs in the 3 bedrooms were 66 degrees with 2 other room doors shut. My neighbor, who has a similar house told me his temps were 52 degrees with no heat. I guess my stove came in handy.