Achilles Heal of the Pellet Stove

[Augmister]

If you have an abundance of pellets and the ability to restock, the major issue of using a pellet stove during heating season is the electrical source.
We have seen the events in Japan over the weekend. A gasoline generator is a short term, logical stop gap solution.

Has anyone set up solar panels, an inverter and some batteries should the grid go down, for an "extended" period of time to run their stove? And yes, a few extra amps for the water pump and a light bulb or two?

An inquiring mind whats to know, learn and set one up.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

I will never get rid of a wood stove in our house. We have a pellet in the frontroom, wood in the dinning room, and the ability to put a pellet in the office, just off our bedroom(The vent runs through the ceiling stove is currently missing). I have 90 acres of woods surrounding my back yard so I feel I am set for heat.

 

[Fsappo]

I have sold a few Europa stoves to some off the grid type folks because they use very little power when running.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

The Europa 75 works on AC or DC

DC Mode (12 Volts)

6 amps (average) draw, that's not bad.

http://www.pelletstove.com/

 

[MCPO]

There`s simply no preparation that would be adequate for fending off a catastrophic event like what happened in Japan.
But I would have to think a small wood stove hooked up somewhere or kept ready for a swapout along with a half cord of wood kept for an emergency could go a long way in an extended power outage.

 

[bugzme]

I have been looking into gasifiers to supply a house generator.
www.victorygasworks.ning.com
The hotwat looks perfect only 4k :O

 

[arnash]

Self-reliance could become a great industry of the future if there was some home-grown way to produce electric power from wood. I'd like to be able to make a steam generator using an old water heater. Boil water by heating the tank from outside, vent the steam into a turbine which drives an alternator or two, powering batteries from a wrecking yard, which are connected to a big inverter. Grid failure and expensive electric power are worries of the past! Which reminds me, my electric bill with my pellet stove running daily is about $1.00 a day more than without it. ($30. per month) My heating costs are about the same as before the stove, but I'm enjoying twice as much heat as from my heat exchanger, using about 1/3rd the power. Solar is too expensive per watt and is useless during overcast weather, which can last for weeks. What I don't understand is why no one is selling an affordable wind-power generator for homes, ideally, one that could be connected to a manual means of generating power, like an exercise bike with a big flywheel (for when there's no wind). With that, everyone could produce as much power as their energy would allow. Instead of paying an exercise spa to use their equipment, they'd pay you! Teenagers all over the world would have something to do, a way to earn some money.

 

[bugzme]

The Hotwat does enable you to produce electricity from wood or any biomass for that matter. just connect it to a petrol generator and use the gas the Hotwat produces to run it, it also has a water heating inlet built in. Check out the youtube videos http://www.youtube.com/user/VictoryGasworks?blend=2&ob=1#p/a

 

[woodchip]

We have an inverter which we can use to take power from our car to run our heating water pump, the fridge, and a low wattage electric light on an emergency basis.

We could not be without our woodburner, which we heat and cook on.

If you think you might still not have enough light, remember many people have solar lights out in their back yards, just pop them out daily to charge them up!!

 

[arnash]

I have a 400 Watt inverter and am thinking of getting a 1000 Watt inverter from Harbor Freight for $$80. Then I could run everything I want to run when the power goes out for several days. But I'll need to buy a few good wrecking yard batteries to power it. My 5000 Watt generator is too gas hungry and since it's "new" (12 years old but never touched) I should just sell it to someone that needs that amount of power. My neighbor bought a Harbor Freight 900 Watt generator on sale for half price -about $65! I'd love to get that deal.