let's talk generators for this storm

[Fish On]

So I seem to understand that a regualer portable generator sometimes does not work with a pellet stove?

If you had one that was powerful and enough amps could you hook up a Inverter to clean the power to your devises?

 

[wingman1776]

you could go generator battery charger, battery then inverter. If you wanted to do an inverter. Most inverters at either 12 , 24 or 48 volts dc to ac The easyest whey would be genertor then power conditioner. the first way would give power with out your genertor untill your battery gets low.

 

[imacman]

The issue with portable power problems with pellet stoves is mainly with a 12v battery w/ inverter set-up....most of the cheaper inverters only output a square (modified) sine wave....BAD for pellet stove motors. A genny with a rotating generator should make a decent "pure" wave, which is the same as the power company makes.

If you buy a fairly good quality genny, it should work fine with the stove. Make sure you get one with plenty of watts to power the stove, some lights, etc. Most stoves (with ignitors) need at least 400 watts to start-up.

If I didn't already have the whole house unit, and was in the market for a portable unit, I'd get around a 5000 watt one. Run the stove, frig, lights, and TV/computer, etc.

 

[mtalea]

I have an 8000 watt,so no inverter needed?

 

[pete324rocket]

This is my experience,and I hope it helps someone. I have a deep cycle battery with an inverter. When that is gone,I am toast. So I bought a cheap (100 bucks new) generator at Wal-mart, but it is not clean enough to run the pellet stove(I found out),and it does some wacky things. Not the end of the story however, so I bought (on sale) a battery charger (Shcumacher 15 amp-10 amp 2 amp-49 bucks) that runs fine with the generator and on the 15 amp setting will keep the deep cycle battery afloat. Note that I had a previous battery charger that was fairly heavy but didn't agree with the generator power and would shut down. I have all the bases covered...until I run out of gas.

 

[imacman]

I have an 8000 watt,so no inverter needed?

No, shouldn't need one. Again, the genny makes power by rotating an armature in a stator, just like the power co. Although their stuff is much more controlled, as long as your genny stays right around 3600 rpm, it should make pretty decent pure sine wave power.

If you plug the stove in and it runs the same as the wall outlet power, you're good to go. If the motors starting making weird sounds (humming, etc), then the voltage (rpm) isn't right (probably too low).

probably a good idea to do a "test run" on the genny w/ the stove BEFORE you actually need it. Check output voltage with a voltmeter....should be 120v +- 3 v or so. If it needs to be increased or decreased, do that with the high speed adjustment screw on the carb.

 

[Fish On]

I have a husky 1850 and has the subaru engine, I'm only powering the stove and a few lights that's it.
So hopefully I should be good

 

[iron stove]

I have a Honda conventiaonl generator. It will be a bit warmer this coming week, so maybe ill give it a try.