Backup power supply

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Hope everyone has a wonderful and warm Thanksgiving!
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here

Northwoodneil

Feeling the Heat
Feb 10, 2012
424
Land of Cheese
The power went out today while my wife and I were at work. She returned home to a house full of smoke. She turned off the stove and unplugged it while the power was still out. Then called me about the same time the power came back on. I told her to turn the stove back on but she refused said there was smoke in the hopper and was scared. I rushed home plugged it in and started it up. It's running fine. First time this has ever happened to us. I have a 4 foot vertical rise and a 3 foot horizontal run. I figured it would draft but no joy. I just ordered an APC BE850G2 because 750's are obsolete. The reviewers say they use it on Harman stoves and it works fine. Is the only thing I need to do is flip number 4 dip switch to "on" and plug it in to get this backup to work with my stove?
 
What is number 4 dip switch on?

House full of smoke makes me think leaking door gaskets?
 
If you have a harman stove I’d leave dip switch 4 at the current setting which should start stove shutdown when power is out by cycling the combustion blower. The small ups units will only run the stove for minutes and this unit would have enough power to begin shutdown. If power came back during shutdown and stove was warm enough it would just continue running. If you are looking for hours of backup , an aps750 and a 100-200ah worth of battery capacity.
 
That UPS will allow the stove to shut down gracefully and pulse the exhaust to keep smoke from entering the room. I am unsure about the dip switch. I would make sure the UPS is charged up, get the stove running, unplug the UPS from the wall socket and see if it works. If not, plug the UPS back in and let the stove run its cylce. Once it shuts down then you can flip the dip switch and retest.

I didn't have to do anything with either of my stoves' s switches, but they are older.
 
I run Harmon XXV and Aims 1250 Inverter/Charger with couple of 100ah Batteries. 10-12 hours of runtime. With Sportsman 1k Inverter/Generator just in case need power longer. I came from BK King Wood stove with 8" Pipe and no smoke with power off (tested it). Mistake I made was not getting bigger generator, this one won't charge Batteries. No biggie I have 7kw one if really needed. Longest outage in 11 years was 10 hours so far. Nothing done to stove switches (Built 2014). I do turn down the fan speed to 1/2 for longer run time.

[Hearth.com] Backup power supply [Hearth.com] Backup power supply [Hearth.com] Backup power supply
 
My power rarely goes out and stays out, but last year it did while I was home. I watched and waited for the smoke but it just went out and I never even smelled it. My vent runs straight out through the wall, maybe the vertical height has something to do with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tbear853
I run Harmon XXV and Aims 1250 Inverter/Charger with couple of 100ah Batteries. 10-12 hours of runtime. With Sportsman 1k Inverter/Generator just in case need power longer. I came from BK King Wood stove with 8" Pipe and no smoke with power off (tested it). Mistake I made was not getting bigger generator, this one won't charge Batteries. No biggie I have 7kw one if really needed. Longest outage in 11 years was 10 hours so far. Nothing done to stove switches (Built 2014). I do turn down the fan speed to 1/2 for longer run time.

View attachment 302975 View attachment 302976 View attachment 302977
No need to adjust your stove switches using those inverters:) pure sine wave won’t put the stove into shutdown . If you use modified sine wave it will as that was harman’s solution to give the stove time to shutdown when on a small non sine wave ups
 
I backup my Harman Absolute 43 with a APC UPS 1500VA Sine Wave UPS Battery Backup, BR1500MS2. Paid $215.99 at Walmart.com

1st. test, unpluged UPS and stove saw no change while operating. UPS LISTED 65 MINUTES, More than enough time to setup the portable generator to run the house.

2nd. Test while stove was fully running, set to shutdown. UPS SHOWED 63 minutes, at 41 minutes UPS changed from 45 minutes to 112 minutes ( only combustion blower on), at 115 minutes stove fullly shutdown no message on screen, UPS listed 95 minutes remaining.

I choosed the APC over the Cyber Power due to numerous videos on YouTube showing pc board corrossion on the Cyber Power after 2 years.

Hope this helps