HELP! Lost power!

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Nov 19, 2009
70
N. Indiana
Can I fill up insert with no fan or do I have to be careful of getting too hot. Going to get cold tonight!
 
Yes you can still burn a fire. Just avoid the temptation to build an extra hot fire to compensate for the blower being off. Build a normal, medium sized fire.
 
Thanks Be. I'll get one going.

Weird weather and power situation. We actually have power but it's like half and a lot of things don't work like insert blower fan and sump pump! Lights real dim.
 
I just looked at the manual. It has a picture of the tag on the back of the insert. On the tag it refers to the blower as "optional" so running without shouldn't be a problem. Like BG said, just don't overfire the stove.

Convection will pull a lot of air through the shroud.
 
indiana4spartans said:
Thanks Be. I'll get one going.

Weird weather and power situation. We actually have power but it's like half and a lot of things don't work like insert blower fan and sump pump! Lights real dim.
Not good with the dim lights, means you have a low voltage problem, thats when things burn up.
 
Quick, flip off some breakers before you burn out some motors.
 
LLigetfa said:
Quick, flip off some breakers before you burn out some motors.
so true alot of people dont realize this.
 
LLigetfa said:
Quick, flip off some breakers before you burn out some motors.

+1
Anything with an electric motor, the fridge, blowers etc. Low volts cause them to overheat & burn up.
The might try to run & just hum.
 
Shut her all down. Back to 18th century.

Got a buddy who works for power company. Says we are going down for long time.
 
About the same thing here 4spartans, lights dimmed off and on a few times of the last couple of hours then went off about 10:30 for about 20 minutes but now back on doing fine for the last hour.
 
indiana4spartans said:
What motors? I've got everything off except two lights.

everything excep two lights and a 'puter with connectivity to da 'net...what else do you need ?
 
What happened, snowstorm?
 
BeGreen said:
What happened, snowstorm?

Yep. Really heavy wet snow after all day rain. Lots of cracking in woods. Will check tomorrow.

Power back on. Love my REMC!
 
ecocavalier02 said:
LLigetfa said:
Quick, flip off some breakers before you burn out some motors.
so true alot of people dont realize this.

I didn't realize this.....good stuff!
Gabe
 
A friend of mine burned up her $2000 fridge this way. They were using the generator but had the govenor on.
 
Not trying to hijack, but low voltage causing motors to overheat and burn out is the reason that you shouldn't run an electric splitter on a long and/or undersized extension cord. The shorter and thicker (lower gauge) the better.
 
If you have only 1/2 power, that is, some of your outlets, lights, etc, work, and some don't, that indicates you have lost one of the two hot legs feeding your panel.
The utility feeds your home with two hot legs (wires) 110Volts each, combined they make 220Volts.
This is different from low voltage.

Your breaker panel, or fuse box, is divided in half, vertically, so that the breakers on the right, and the breakers on the left are fed by an individual hot wire.
For 220 appliances, the breakers draw power from both sides, or legs.

Anyway, you need to first call the utility to have them check to see that you are getting power in on both legs.
Could be they have a bad wire in the ground, or a bad connection at the meter base.
If that is all good, then call a pro to check the main breaker under the meter base, the physical connections, the feed wires, and then the main panel breaker.

If your fridge or other critical appliance is on the "dead" leg, you can simply run a (short) extension cord of the proper size from the nearest outlet.

Please don't wait to call.
Often a loose connection can arc (spark and heat up) causing a potential fire danger before the wire or connection fully separates.

Rob
 
based on my interpretation of what he was saying, I thing that he thought he was getting "half the usual power" not "full power to half the box"

Agreed, if that is the case, its internal and a problem!

It sounds like he is just having a serious brownout. I have had a few nasty ones. CFLs dont always want to light up , had a few burn out too.... dangerous, I would prefer if they just cut power than a brownout. Its safer.

As for the insert, without the blower it will remove a lot less heat from the firebox, so keep an eye that it doesnt get too hot. My insert barely puts out any heat without the blower on. I have heard other people blocking off a area around the fireplace so the little heat keeps that area warmer. I assume it was sheets or tarps in the general vicinity and keeping other doors closed.
 
indiana4spartans said:
BeGreen said:
What happened, snowstorm?

Yep. Really heavy wet snow after all day rain. Lots of cracking in woods. Will check tomorrow.

Power back on. Love my REMC!

That cracking is the sound of free firewood this week! Check your local roadsides, front yards, and powerline ROWs for details.
 
All good this morning. Only major issue is we lost our freezer (25-30 year old hand me down from parents). Probably due to the large number of power blinks and low voltage issue.

Learned something new about shutting everything down when that happens. Big time winter storm caused serious power issues but everything is good now. Been needing to buy a generator, guess now is the time! Thanks for all the help guys - love Hearth.com!
 
during our 6 day outage at the end of October, we had to burn our insert about 1/4 what we usually do. If we didnt, the lack of blowers had the stove like an inferno.
 
FPX Dude said:
indiana4spartans said:
What motors? I've got everything off except two lights.

everything excep two lights and a 'puter with connectivity to da 'net...what else do you need ?

BEER!!! At least if the fridge is off you can keep the suds cold in the snow.
 
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