Englander 25-PDVC Power Outage Procedures and questions

[donbryce]

I'm a new owner of this wonderful mechanical/electronic marvel, first season and about 20 bags into the Canadian winter. So far, only a few minor issues, mostly answered by reading here. In fact, I read every thread from a search on 'Englander 25-PDVC'.

Now, my topic: The manual that came with my unit includes 1 page on what to do/expect in the event of a power failure (p.11). From that, I gather that if the unit is without power for <3 minutes, and it was 'on' when the power was cut, it will automatically go into the start-up cycle with the auto-ignitor when the power is restored. If >3 minutes, it will be 'off' when power is restored, and a manual pushing of the 'on' button to initiate the start-up cycle will be required.

I bought a small gas generator (rated for a continuous 800W, peak of 1000W) to power the stove for just such an emergency. I determined that the stove has a consumption rating of about 3 amps @ 110V, or 330W. The generator is rated at 400W output at 50% load, and should run for about 6 hours at that demand on a full tank of gas. Seems sized right for the purpose, and I got it on sale for $100.00.

My concern is that the auto-ignitor will be turned on whenever the power is restored and the start-up cycle is initiated, either automatically or manually, and I don't know if the generator will be able to handle the current draw.

Does anyone have the electrical specifications for the auto-ignitor?

I'm assuming it will be on for the duration of the start-up cycle, which is about 13 minutes, and I'm worried that it will either be damaged from inadequate amperage/current from the generator, or it will damage the generator. Should I consider putting a toggle switch somewhere in the circuitry to allow disabling the auto-ignitor, so I can start the fire manually?

 

[PunKid8888]

I would try it out now. Just shut down the stove for like 20mins and fire up your generator and then plug it in and hit the on button. Either the generator will bog out or it will trip its circuit or the igniter will not get hot enough and you will not be able to ignite the pellets. OR maybe it will work.

If you have no luck with the above then you just run it through a switch.

 

[donbryce]

CZARCAR, I have a box of pellet stove fire starter blocks, 'Rutland Safe Lite'. The stove store guy said to just break up a piece, about 1/2 a block, place on the pellet pile, and light it. You're kidding about the newspaper/lighter fluid, right? PunKid8888, I'm looking for the right information to avoid screwing up either my generator or my stove control board/ignitor by experimenting - I have too much $ invested in this. You're right about doing a dry run before I actually have an outage though, but I first want to know if the generator can theoretically put out enough juice to energize the ignitor.

 

[breklaw]

good point about the generator, and being cautious. You could ask anybody you know who works in a hospital fixing stuff to borrow one of their safety analyzers, as almost all of them display current drawn by whatever is plugged into them.
The reason I agree to being cautious is my old boss stupidly fired his 5500W generator with thw whole 3500 square foot house still turned on, and blew the diodes in the alternator, which I had to find, and replace- he had lost power for 7 DAYS! Ugh!

 

[breklaw]

Oh, I forgot, still on topic, we lost power here week or so ago, stove running, and not a whiff of smoke in the house. Just woke up cold and quiet! I go out a couple of 45's through the wall, tee outside, up 15 feet, with a 2 45 jog.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

igniter=300watts

 

[donbryce]

Thanks Mike, I knew you'd chime in sooner or later! So I'm thinking that the generator should be able to handle an initial start-up load of what I estimate will be about 650W: 350W or thereabouts for the combustion fan and auger motors, 300W for the ignitor. The generator manual rates the unit at 800W cont., 1000W max., so I have enough confidence now to give the set-up a try.

As far as the circuit board electronics, the concern seems to be avoiding voltage spikes, rather than damage from insufficient current, at least that is my understanding from the manual, which recommends using a 'surge protector'.

One last thing that I noticed from reading the manual. It states on p.9, 'Manually Starting Your Unit', "Do not use the manual startup method if the ignitor is working. NEVER place firestarter near the ignitor". This presents an interesting choice in a power outage situation. After cleaning out the burnpot and putting in a handful of fresh fuel, I could follow the directions to re-light the fire manually, then once lit, fire up the generator, plug in the stove, and push the 'on' button, or I could just clean, fuel, and let the ignitor do it's thing after firing up the generator and plugging in the stove. I believe the ignitor will stay on regardless for the initial startup cycle anyway, so using manual startup should be avoided if the ignitor is working, right?

 

[donbryce]

Oh, I forgot, still on topic, we lost power here week or so ago, stove running, and not a whiff of smoke in the house. Just woke up cold and quiet! I go out a couple of 45's through the wall, tee outside, up 15 feet, with a 2 45 jog.

That's another good point relevent to power outages: smokeback caused by a non-functional exhaust blower. I used to run an airtight woodstove, into a straight-up 7" Selkirk chimney through the livingroom ceiling, about 15ft. I ran the Simpson Dura-Vent pipe into it, starting at the back of the stove with a 90* clean-out T, about 6' of pipe, and a couple of 45* elbows. Since the Selkirk has a natural draft at the rooftop, I'm confident that I'll be OK when the blower stops while the fire is still going.

 

[breklaw]

another thing to consider here, I think it would be wise to let your generator run a bit ( a minute?) with the stove unplugged, so the voltages can stabilize. DO NOT START THE GEN WITH THE STOVE PLUGGED IN- the PC board is ALWAYS hooked up to the power, whenever the stove is plugged in, regardless of the status of the lights.