We live in a semi rural area. We get occasional intermittent power losses. We just had our service put underground for our mobile home since we are around trees.. We have a Serenity stove and I guess the voltage loss is enough to shut the normal stove operation off. I thought about having back up for about an hour for shut down and back up heat(blue flame heater) to take over. Would a ups for a computer handle something that long ? Is it quick enough that the stove would keep running like during the night. I think it uses 160 Watts normal use(not starting). Thanks for any help. GBY
Back Up For Intermittent Drops
- Thread starter Hiskid
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By the time u get a backup big enough to keep the blowers going for a night you could buy a generator. Better off to get a small generator big enough to run the Stove and a few other items. I'm in the same boat and have been watching the buy and sell adds for a good used one.
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A 800VA to 1200VA UPS can keep you stove running for 10 to 20 minutes. Buy a "Pure Sinewave" type, the cheaper "Simulated" or approximate sinewave types may not be compatible with your motors and controller. I have used the CyberPower Pure Sinewave 850PFCLCD, these often go on sale for $99 to $150. Best Buy has the 1325VA model GX1325U for $189. As a plus, all these units have built in surge suppressors too. If you replace the small internal 12V battery with connections to a car battery, these units could keep your stove going for hours. When power returns, the battery would be automatically recharged.
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You would need a pretty good battery bank back up which costs some money but it has been done. Google battery backup for pellet stoves. I've read where some have a series of marine batteries that will run the stove for extended hours.
A UPS will not run your stove. They only allow it to run fans etc for a proper shut down and to get the smoke out and so forth. A generator (clean) would be the way to go as mentioned but also cost some coin.
I looked into those blue flame vent less propane heaters and they do work well. My uncle heated a cabin 100% with one and it was a good sized little cabin. Approximately 1,000 SQ FT or maybe slightly more. He heated it well with a blue flame ventless all winter. He lived in it for awhile and a complete winter waiting on his house completion and the move.
The only other instant quick and easy backup heat I can thing of would be a kerosene heater but they are not allowed in certain states, areas, etc; I have one and use it out in the garage or in another area if I'm work out there. Being in construction I also have kero / diesel/jet fuel torpedo heaters but only use them on bigger open space type heating situations because they have serious fumes. But man, do they throw out some heat. You could always do a small wood stove too but again expense and space. I always prefer many options for heat and back ups.
I think a 23K BTU kero or propane would be your best, overall least expensive, or most realistic option. What is your primary heat there? Electric?
A UPS will not run your stove. They only allow it to run fans etc for a proper shut down and to get the smoke out and so forth. A generator (clean) would be the way to go as mentioned but also cost some coin.
I looked into those blue flame vent less propane heaters and they do work well. My uncle heated a cabin 100% with one and it was a good sized little cabin. Approximately 1,000 SQ FT or maybe slightly more. He heated it well with a blue flame ventless all winter. He lived in it for awhile and a complete winter waiting on his house completion and the move.
The only other instant quick and easy backup heat I can thing of would be a kerosene heater but they are not allowed in certain states, areas, etc; I have one and use it out in the garage or in another area if I'm work out there. Being in construction I also have kero / diesel/jet fuel torpedo heaters but only use them on bigger open space type heating situations because they have serious fumes. But man, do they throw out some heat. You could always do a small wood stove too but again expense and space. I always prefer many options for heat and back ups.
I think a 23K BTU kero or propane would be your best, overall least expensive, or most realistic option. What is your primary heat there? Electric?
Thanks for all the feedback. I have the blue flame heater installed already. I was just basically looking for back up power to cover the "glitches" mostly at night for loss of heat. The drop is enough to shut the stove off. Will the back up ups be fast enough to keep the stove from going into shut down. I was thinking next year Lord willing to get a small propane genny since I ave propane on site.
batchman
Burning Hunk
A UPS won't let power to the stove "drop", and will keep it running until its' battery gives up. UPS is short for Uninterruptable Power Supply.
Problem is it takes a good amount of power to run a decent size stove, with both convection and combustion blowers going. I found max ratings are mostly about the ignitor, which is not a problem for this case. See if you can scare up a clamp meter to see what you really draw in operation, and you should be able to find a reasonable UPS that will run it for 10 or 15 mintues, bearing in mind that there is less than 100% efficiency in these devices.
Still a year away I'd guess, but I'm hoping to rig my stove such that a UPS kickover triggers an orderly shutdown, and return of power lets it re-start by itself. At least for now my UPS will keep the stove running 20-30 minutes, long enough for some of the outages we get.
Tripp Lite and APC are good brand names in that space, bear in mind that whatever you get the batteries are a maintenance item, and a fairly high percentage of the cost of the unit.
Good luck,
- Jeff
Problem is it takes a good amount of power to run a decent size stove, with both convection and combustion blowers going. I found max ratings are mostly about the ignitor, which is not a problem for this case. See if you can scare up a clamp meter to see what you really draw in operation, and you should be able to find a reasonable UPS that will run it for 10 or 15 mintues, bearing in mind that there is less than 100% efficiency in these devices.
Still a year away I'd guess, but I'm hoping to rig my stove such that a UPS kickover triggers an orderly shutdown, and return of power lets it re-start by itself. At least for now my UPS will keep the stove running 20-30 minutes, long enough for some of the outages we get.
Tripp Lite and APC are good brand names in that space, bear in mind that whatever you get the batteries are a maintenance item, and a fairly high percentage of the cost of the unit.
Good luck,
- Jeff
Thanks. 20-30 min. would be fine. The stove operates on 150 watts, 450 if using ignition. When they changed the electric to underground the stove was kicking out heat but no smoke came inside when the power dropped.. I don't think the glitches at night go long but enough to turn the computer off and the clocks flash. I have back up heat if the power goes down that should keep the porch and plants above freezing. I could also use the ups to run the computer/cable modem. I assume these batteries are the agm type that don't release and gasses when charged since they will be on the porch with the stove. I'm retired and home all the time so I can restart if needed when awake.Thanks. GBY
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Looks like batchman covered it. I have had short power outages here and glitches. I'm out in the country a ways away from civilization and there are pretty frequent issues but short lived and my APC UPS handles those well. It will send my stove into shut down mode but many times it is back up and running before or just after that complete cycle.
UPS's are cheap in the overall scheme and I'd start there. They can usually be had for around $100 bucks or less if you can find a deal. Bogie always knew the deals on Amazon. I am not sure which one (brand & model) works best with the Serenity stoves though. The Harman manual gives recommendations on which one works in the manual. That said the operation of the Harmans is different than the Serenity stoves also.
Maybe Google best UPS for the Castle Serenity pellet stove.... and start there. Plus a UPS is a top notch surge protector strip vs. the cheap simple ones or will likely give you better coverage when the juice gets weird.
UPS's are cheap in the overall scheme and I'd start there. They can usually be had for around $100 bucks or less if you can find a deal. Bogie always knew the deals on Amazon. I am not sure which one (brand & model) works best with the Serenity stoves though. The Harman manual gives recommendations on which one works in the manual. That said the operation of the Harmans is different than the Serenity stoves also.
Maybe Google best UPS for the Castle Serenity pellet stove.... and start there. Plus a UPS is a top notch surge protector strip vs. the cheap simple ones or will likely give you better coverage when the juice gets weird.
The largest non-commercial UPSes are 1500VA. For my stove which runs at about 100 watts, I can get an hour of runtime. The CyberPower I use, listed below in my sigfile is a pure sine model, with AVR, auto voltage regulation, etc. Those can go for $140 to $150 on sale, at Newegg and B&H Photo. Once a month or two, get on their mailing lists. If you don't need pure sine waves, it's less, but definitely go for the largest units at 1500VA if you want maximum runtime.
Thanks for info. That model pops up a lot. I will do the mail list thing. Thanks very much.
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