What happens when there is a power failure during operation?

[LIpelletpig]

I'm a newbie. I was talking to my installer today who has a freestanding unit. I have a Harman Accentra Insert. He recently had an indicent where there was a power failure in his home when the stove was in operation. The fans obviously shut down and the unit doesn't feed pellets at that point. He did NOT have a battery back up system. The smoke from the smoldering pellets that continued to burn in the burn pot escaped the stove from every little space and filled his house with smoke. Is this normal? He also did not have a direct fresh air vent. Would of that helped in the escaping of the smoke? After listening to this story I am a little skeptical about leaving the stove unattended when not home and worrying about a power failure. Not to mention there are pets that could be effected by the smoke if this was to happen in my home. Is the answer to this problem to invest in a battery back-up system? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[freebird77]

Ive heared that with the verticle flue you wont have problems , but with horizontal youll get smoke. My power has gone out a couple times since weve had the stove, and fortunatly, there was no smoke in the house. We have verticle flue. Im sure more knowladable here will chime in.

 

[sinnian]

With a proper draft (vertical flue +) you should not have any issues because the smoke will continue to draft up and out regardless of the fan. However, simply having a vertical flue does not guarantee you have a proper draft, it depends on the height of the flue too.

 

[Souzafone]

Our pipe goes straight out, then up 4 feet. Never smoke in the house when the power fails.

 

[slheinlein]

We have a horizontal flute. It depends on the direction of the wind whether or not we get smoke in the house. if the wind is blowing so that smoke can't exit the flute and effectively gets blown back into the flute and into the stove, then we get smoke in the house. If not, then the smoke is very minimal or not at all. In either case, the smoke seems to go away pretty quickly. It smells for a few hours and then it goes away.

 

[JustWood]

I use a power inverter and 2-3 deep cycle batteries to power my furnace when the power goes out. Works well.
If you didn't want to buy batteries you could pull your car to the nearest window and hook inverter to car battery ,running an extension cord through a window.

 

[Lobstah]

If it's an insert, you have a vertical flue.

I would never run with just a horizontal flu, for the reason mentioned above. I just think all flues should be vertical for draft reasons and sparks.

If you want to test it, unplug it (or turn off the breaker) when the stove is running. I'd set it on low first.
Then you'll know how it acts.

I'f the power fails here, which it will , I'll be using a 12V gel battery with an inverter from Walmart/BJs for my backup. That's about $100-$150.

Jim

 

[crausch]

I've boasted previously about how over 20 years in my house we have hardly ever lost electric. Mostly only short brown-outs. I guess I jinxed myself because the over the past few days my electric company has graced me with 2 short outages. Neither time did I get smoke in house. I have about a 4' vertical rise on my pipe. It sounds to me that you should take recommendations from your installer/dealer with a grain of salt if he does not have his own stove properly setup or battery backup.

Oh, BTW... I learned something else yesterday when the electric went out. Hook your crockpots up to battery backup also. The pot roast that my wife and I thought we were going home to for dinner, didn't happen. Yeah, when the electric goes out the crockpot does not come back on when the electric did. I went from a nice roast dinner to call-out pizza. On the bright side though...NO SMOKE! ;-)

 

[LIpelletpig]

Thanksd for all the insight. I am not really concerned about the electric going out while I'm home, I have a pure sine wave inverter in my truck that could take over just in case I am in a jam. I am just more concerend about when I'm away from the house. I think I'll do my own test by just pulling the plug and seeing what happens from there. If anyone has additional feedback it would be great. Thanks

 

[LIpelletpig]

I did the TEST! I pulled the plug out of the outlet while the stove had a roaring flame in the burn pot. The flame calmed down quickly and was a slow steady burn for awhile and not one bit of smoke escaped the stove. This is a big relief since I was going to start shutting the stove down whenever I left the house until I got battery backup. I guess since I have an insert it worked out well since there is great draw for the smoke to rise through the chimney. Happy Thanksgiving!