Alternate Power for Well/Oil Burner

[branchburner]

I know the first three answers are generator, generator, generator, but I have an attached rental unit heated with oil furnace (baseboard radiators). I did have a wood stove in it for supplemental heat and back-up during long power outages (or when unoccupied) to prevent pipes freezing, but insurance agent now say NO.

Rather than a generator, I was thinking it would be nice to have the burner in the rental on a dedicated circuit juiced by solar or wind. And even though I heat 100% with wood, it would be nice if I had the same for my own back-up oil burner, just in case the first time I took a winter vacation in a decade happened to be the week of a sub-zero power outage.

For that matter, the only other thing we'd really need over the course of a week or two is running water, so it would be nice to have the pump on a non-grid circuit, too. So while I'm planning to get a generator anyway, how cost prohibitive is it these days to get a smallish system that is not tied to the grid?

 

[johneh]

I may be way off base but here goes
Situation oil heat powered by solar
You are on a weeks holiday in the sun
back home it is -20 and snowing has been
for 4 days . No sun to replenish batteries
no power to furnace pipes frozen water every were
Conclusion go solar but keep grid tie in
Just my 2 cents

 

[Warm_in_NH]

Check out the "green room" on here,all sorts of threads on related topics to that.

 

[branchburner]

Maybe I will cross post there. Took a quick look through some threads but didn't find this really discussed in detail on any.

 

[begreen]

If the main goal is freeze protection would a propane fired direct vent heater work?

 

[branchburner]

Well, another goal is freeze protection for the tenants, on the off chance that I'm away and they are not generator-savvy. So ideally, if the power was out for multiple days, they could fire the oil burner even if they had no other power, or water.

 

[velvetfoot]

I doubt a solar array like that would power a well pump. I need a pretty big portable generator just to power the well pump.
A standby generator supplied by propane would do it.

 

[moey]

I doubt a solar array like that would power a well pump. I need a pretty big portable generator just to power the well pump.
A standby generator supplied by propane would do it.

Batteries ( charged from a solar array ) can handle the instantaneous surge from the well pump. A generator can not that is why you need a large generator it has no storing power. Now how long you can run the well pump thats another issue.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

Have we determined if it's a shallow well pump that sucks the water up (low amps) or an artesian well that pushes it up from hundreds of feet down (big amp pull) ?.....