Fireplace insert, loss of electrical power, what to do?

So you're saying it not safe to run without a fan?
Whys that?

Yeah, I would think you just would not want to run it as hot as when the blower is working. On most inserts, a blower is optional anyway, I wouldn't want to not have one, but I think its ok to use the stove if you don't.

fprintf said:

We are getting a pretty awesome early season snowstorm, I have the fireplace insert going pretty hot and just lost power. This is an insert that requires a fan when the fire is on. Fortunately the power came back on, but what is the procedure for safely either running this fireplace without power or getting it to safely shut down/cool down?

The risk with this snowstorm is that it is predicted we will all lose power.

This is an FPX fireplace insert (see my signature).

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I'm fairly paranoid about overtemping my insert, so I understand your concern.

Short of shoveling out burning chunks and embers, which creates safety issues that outweigh the risk of damage to your inerst, about all you can do is damper down. You can also try throwing on some punky crap - boiling off the water in the spongy stuff will drop the firebox temperature, but it's a fairly course way to try to cnotrol your fire.

You can get an inverter and a battery to run it on occasion when the power is out, too. If you really find you need the blower and if that kind of thing happens a lot.

BeGreen said:

I think this is one of the reasons blowers are always mounted low. They are pretty safe. I would consider it a bad design if they were not.

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BG, my blower is on the top. What's the diff?

*ETA* I've run the PE with out power, and it was fine. I just watched my temps. It was 68F in here last year when it was 5 outside & no electricity for 8 hours. My next option was to turn on the gas oven to maybe 250F & crack the door to add heat if it was needed.

My understanding is that on any Insert or Free standing stoves, blowers and there to increase the convection capacity of the unit. This is even more true on Inserts since the top, rear and sides of the units are in the hearth opening and you’re not getting the most out of that radiation. Most Inserts do have shields to help push most of this radiation towards the front. As others said before, never found any information against using an Insert without a blower.

Relatively expensive option but you could run with say an EU1000i Honda Generator.

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/...tion=P2GG&modelname=EU1000i&modelid=EU1000IKN

They run for up to 8.3 hrs on 0.6 gal of gas.

I have a couple EU2000i's and connect 6 gallon marine fuel tanks to them. Depending on load I could run these continuously for over 60 hours straight.

EDIT: Equivalent Yamaha model appears to be even more fuel miserly at .66 gallons for 12 hours at 1/4 load.

http://yamahagenerators.com/yamaha_generator_ef1000is_pr_1.html#detailed-specifications

Picking up a $100 battery-back up system might give you peace of mind, and allow you to continue to post through the snowstorm as well. :lol:

I have an insert, and I often run it without the fan on. It sticks out like 8 or 9 inches and puts out good heat without the fan. I had it running for hours last night without the fan on. The only thing is I usually won't pack it to the gills and not turn the fan on.

I ran the stove the other w/ fan off unintentionally. Was a 1/2 load and stove got very hot and insert is fullt flush so not as much radiant heat as others that extend. I cooled it by running fan almost full out and reduced air. I would be surprised if running decent size loads for an extended period would not result in overfire.

With no fan I would have to run small loads and to keep things under control. Guess it depends on outside temps as well.

Still new to the EPA insert world so my 2 cents may be worth about that much if not less.

BeGreen said:

Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:

BeGreen said:

I think this is one of the reasons blowers are always mounted low. They are pretty safe. I would consider it a bad design if they were not.

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BG, my blower is on the top. What's the diff?

*ETA* I've run the PE with out power, and it was fine. I just watched my temps. It was 68F in here last year when it was 5 outside & no electricity for 8 hours. My next option was to turn on the gas oven to maybe 250F & crack the door to add heat if it was needed.

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On the top? PE stoves have the blowers, shielded, on the front sides.

You experienced a nice benefit with these inserts. PE designed their inserts to convect well even without the blower. They are good stoves for power outages.

http://chimneysweeponline.com/hosummitblower.htm

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Explained way better than I did. The air blows from the top, fan is on the side :red:

If I run the BK princess w/o the fan I feel that I could shorten the life of the cat with temps above 1500 degrees. You stove guys forget that the insert is sitting inside a coffin of bricks and morter.

What I do is go and fire up the Gen for power for the fan and tv

BeGreen said:

Lanning said:

If I run the BK princess w/o the fan I feel that I could shorten the life of the cat with temps above 1500 degrees. You stove guys forget that the insert is sitting inside a coffin of bricks and morter.

What I do is go and fire up the Gen for power for the fan and tv

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Nope, didn't forget that at all. For sure, if your stove manual says don't burn without running the blower, then don't. You are right to bring up the question of running a cat insert. With a BK aren't you able to just turn down the air a bit?

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It is funny that you ask about the BK's, I just got the Blaze King Princess Insert a week ago, I was trying to run it at max heat today in order to clean the glass, like I used to do with my QuadraFire 3100i insert. I found it impossible to overfire it with the door closed and the cat engaged! I just can not get it hot enough no matter what setting the fan is at. I am guessing it has to do with the automatic thermostat, it limits the air intakes. I am still not sure how to clean the glass this way???

Like someone else mentioned on other post, the most cost effective way to run the fan when power outage is with the use of a 12V deep cycle marine battery, and a cheap 12VDC to 115VAC inverter. With the marine battery my guess is it should last a few hours (12 hours, guessing here) on low speed