Battery backup in case of power loss?

[strangemainer]

I have heard of people hooking up a marine or car battery to their stove.
Does/has anybody tried this?
Is it just easier to use a generator when I lose power?
I have a summers heat 2200 sq ft.

Thanks everyone!

 

[glacialhills]

I would think that if you only need to back up the stove a small inverter hooked to a deep cycle battery would be the easiest, least expensive option. Draw back would be extended outage. The battery, fully charged, should be able to run it for 3-4 days I would think. You could figure it out easy enough. If you need to power more than that then the gen set would be the right choice. But you will need to have a fuel supply to run it. And most people dont store much over 5 gallons of gas so either way you need to be able to get more fuel/charge.A tri fuel propane/natural gas/ gasoline conversion kit for a gen set will be a better long term storage/run time option. or if you have a large propane tank, a quick connect to that and no worries. I have a gen set but am considering a battery back up because of ease and quiet nature of inverter. and can be used indoors in the middle of winter(seems like its the middle of a blizzard when you need it) hope That helped.

 

[bungalobob]

The added benefit of the battery backup is that it will keep stove running if you are not at home when power goes out, or if you went to bed in a nice warm and cozy atmosphere and the power was lost at night, it will prevent a cold wake up in the morning. Plus with a generator you have to be there to start it, unless you go the expensive route where it will sense a power loss and self start. That option is not found on the cheap under two hundred dollar models. Get both the inverter system and the cheap generator. Get one this year and the other next year to spread out the cost. I am getting the inverter system with a marine battery system this winter. I have no experience with it yet, so I don't know how well it work, but if I get 8-10 hours of run time out of it I'll be happy for now. The prices I found are between 3-5 hundred, I havn't had made a choice yet. Checking posts for reccomended models but have not found much.

 

[RonaldAdams]

I purchased ( on sale at the time 40% off) this back-up unit. it is 1800watt and should be enough to run my quadrafire insert overnight. It is an automatic system that you plug into the wall and then plug your stove into the unit, it will automatically switch to battery and it has a built in surge protector. After that i have 6000watt generator that i picked up used last year. Living in Quebec I remember well the ice storm :down: that left my family in the cold for almost two weeks and I swore that I would not suffer through that again, so any means that you can use to back-up your heating systems is good. Using multiple heat ( energy) sources is the best way to go.

 

[MCPO]

There are benefits of both the battery and the generator .
My view is that if the power goes out my generator will operate the oil burner instead of the pellet stove. The generator and burner won`t have to run continously like the pellet stove will.
In a matter of minutes the oil furnace will have heated the house and plenty of hot water to a point where it can be off for hours. The added benefit of a generator is that it can also keep the refrig cold as well.
My point is if you are going to use a generator the gas burned might as well power other appliances at the same time. No need to waste the extra output.
Obviously a generator system properly installed (and sized) is costly but a marine battery and inverter won`t be cheap either.
Keep in mind a generator that is oversized is not efficient and will burn more gas than necessary.

 

[smokinj]

I purchased ( on sale at the time 40% off) this back-up unit. it is 1800watt and should be enough to run my quadrafire insert overnight. It is an automatic system that you plug into the wall and then plug your stove into the unit, it will automatically switch to battery and it has a built in surge protector. After that i have 6000watt generator that i picked up used last year. Living in Quebec I remember well the ice storm :down: that left my family in the cold for almost two weeks and I swore that I would not suffer through that again, so any means that you can use to back-up your heating systems is good. Using multiple heat ( energy) sources is the best way to go.

i 2nd that no heat in a bad winter stoam makes you fill helpless,but be careful you will soon have more friends than you thought!

 

[RonaldAdams]

As long as I have heat. the more the merrier and with all those bodies it cost less to heat :lol:

 

[strangemainer]

Hmmm, not an easy decision. leaning tword a generator though,
Thanks everyone!

 

[DiggerJim]

Living in Quebec I remember well the ice storm :down: that left my family in the cold for almost two weeks and I swore that I would not suffer through that again, so any means that you can use to back-up your heating systems is good. Using multiple heat ( energy) sources is the best way to go.

I had the same experience 10 yrs ago. That year was so bad we were out for a total of 22 days over the course of the year including the 2 weeks in Feb. I installed a 6KW generator, transfer panel, etc. and haven't had to run it more than an hour or so a year ever since. Don't know if being prepared caused the fates to bypass our house when it comes to power failures or if the electric utility just fixed things well enough that it's not a problem. Regardless, cheap insurance against it happening again.

 

[cac4]

I would think that if you only need to back up the stove a small inverter hooked to a deep cycle battery would be the easiest, least expensive option. Draw back would be extended outage. The battery, fully charged, should be able to run it for 3-4 days I would think. .

you will need to think again...unless you're talking about a battery that is the size of a bus. 3-4 Hours, is more likely. Your typical marine deep-cycle battery is around 100 amp-hours. There is significant loss when you use an inverter to invert DC to AC current, too. My stove will use 250 watts in its typical run mode in an hour. 100 amp-hours @ 12v dc =1200 watts. Thats like 5 hours, but doesn't include the losses involved when converting dc to ac, nor does it account for the fact that wet-cell batteries can really only be run down to about 50% of their capacity....
you get "a few hours". that'd be it. ok for short outages, but if your power is prone to disappearing for "days" on end, you're gonna need a generator. But if you **neeeeed*** that for a pellet stove, you'd need it for a furnace/boiler, too, and you'd already have one. kwim?

 

[imacman]

I purchased ( on sale at the time 40% off) this back-up unit. it is 1800watt and should be enough to run my quadrafire insert overnight. It is an automatic system that you plug into the wall and then plug your stove into the unit, it will automatically switch to battery and it has a built in surge protector. After that i have 6000watt generator that i picked up used last year. Living in Quebec I remember well the ice storm :down: that left my family in the cold for almost two weeks and I swore that I would not suffer through that again, so any means that you can use to back-up your heating systems is good. Using multiple heat ( energy) sources is the best way to go.

A nice unit, but inverters have a lot of losses when converting from dc to ac. You might want to do a test run just on battery power when the weather gets cooler....I'm not sure you're going to get enough out of that for the whole night....better to know how long it will run your stove now, than in the dead of winter, and it's REAL cold outside.

 

[RonaldAdams]

macman I like the way you think ( just like me ) I was just waiting for a nice cool night to do just that. The unit only took 4 hours to fully charge and if I read the manuals correctly the 1800 watts are ac output. I calculated 300 watts peak per hour for my stove and think six hours of heating time should allow me time to engage my generator. I also have another UPS which has been boosted up by the addition of 4 - 24volt truck batteries (deep cycle) which I have used to run my oil fire furnace successfully for 48 hours. I don't like to leave anything to chance so I usually test my back-up systems every six months and I run the generator at least 1 hour every month. Fear is a healthy teacher. :bug:

 

[imacman]

macman I like the way you think ( just like me ) I was just waiting for a nice cool night to do just that. The unit only took 4 hours to fully charge and if I read the manuals correctly the 1800 watts are ac output. I calculated 300 watts peak per hour for my stove and think six hours of heating time should allow me time to engage my generator. I also have another UPS which has been boosted up by the addition of 4 - 24volt truck batteries (deep cycle) which I have used to run my oil fire furnace successfully for 48 hours. I don't like to leave anything to chance so I usually test my back-up systems every six months and I run the generator at least 1 hour every month. Fear is a healthy teacher. :bug:

Yes, we DO think alike. I'd rather know these things BEFORE I really need them. Let us all know what your results are. It looks like a nice unit, and if you can get a whole night out of it, I'm sure there are others on this forum who'd be interested.

BTW, maybe I missed it....what did it cost? Where did you get it?

Latr

MM

 

[RonaldAdams]

Being up in Canada I purchased this unit for $325.00 + lots of cdn sales tax(12.875%) at the one and only Canadian Tire Store. :lol: BTW since I am still new on this sight can you show me how to include your message to me ( just like what I see when you asked? :-S

 

[Panhandler]

Being up in Canada I purchased this unit for $325.00 + lots of cdn sales tax(12.875%) at the one and only Canadian Tire Store. :lol: BTW since I am still new on this sight can you show me how to include your message to me ( just like what I see when you asked? :-S

Like this? Hit the "QUOTE" button at the bottom of the message you are referencing.

 

[Wet1]

I quickly tested my Englander with a 12 v car battery and inverter, it didn't run all that long so I gave up on the idea as it having any practical long term utility. The only way I'd feel comfortable with this system was if I had a lot of batteries hooked up so I knew it would run for extended outages. Even then, I'd still be concerned because you never know how long you're going to be without power, and when it's in the single digits outside, I tend to get a little concerned about these things...

I thought about buying a $100 small generator to run only the pellet stove, but decided that if I was going to run an engine to supply power, I'd rather be able to get more utility out of it. I ended up following Gio's logic and bought a used 7000 watt generator with electric start through CL for $350. It's in excellent condition (the owner said it had only been used twice for a couple of hours) and gives me enough power to run just about everything I'd normally use in the house. The seller even threw in a 75' cable, so I can place it on the back side of our detached garage when it's in use, which really reduces the noise issue inside the house.

 

[RonaldAdams]

Being up in Canada I purchased this unit for $325.00 + lots of cdn sales tax(12.875%) at the one and only Canadian Tire Store. :lol: BTW since I am still new on this sight can you show me how to include your message to me ( just like what I see when you asked? :-S

Like this? Hit the "QUOTE" button at the bottom of the message you are referencing.

I see said the blind man Muchos Gracious Senor

 

[schoondog]

Here is my concern, maybe someone can tell me if its valid. The two times I burned my US Stove 6039 I was amazed how long it ran after shutting off. Auger still runs slowly, and after reading I see its to keep pellets from burning up the auger to the hopper. If i lose power when I'm not home what are the chances of fire getting through auger? Even if power supply gave me few hours I may get power back or get home to fire up generator. The other side is if it were that important it would be built into the stove. Anyone know exactly what happens to the stove if it loses power?

Schoondog

 

[smokinj]

Here is my concern, maybe someone can tell me if its valid. The two times I burned my US Stove 6039 I was amazed how long it ran after shutting off. Auger still runs slowly, and after reading I see its to keep pellets from burning up the auger to the hopper. If i lose power when I'm not home what are the chances of fire getting through auger? Even if power supply gave me few hours I may get power back or get home to fire up generator. The other side is if it were that important it would be built into the stove. Anyone know exactly what happens to the stove if it loses power?

Schoondog

I would think the fire would just go out because there is no air supply

 

[imacman]

This was in a previous thread.....seems like a nice little unit...got good reviews.

www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200313480_200313480

 

[wil lanfear]

This was in a previous thread.....seems like a nice little unit...got good reviews.

www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200313480_200313480

This looks to be about the same unit that I purchased. The seller will accept a $90.00 offer plus the shipping fee.

(broken link removed to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=280259196706)

 

[smokinj]

This was in a previous thread.....seems like a nice little unit...got good reviews.

www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200313480_200313480

i look into that one as well not bad for the price

 

[bostonbaked]

This was in a previous thread.....seems like a nice little unit...got good reviews.

www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200313480_200313480

i look into that one as well not bad for the price

This is also from the other thread. Same item as Northern but only &119;.00 and free shipping. http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Tools...d_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1220634286&sr=8-6 BTW this has a one year warr. not 90 days

 

[smokinj]

This was in a previous thread.....seems like a nice little unit...got good reviews.

www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200313480_200313480

i look into that one as well not bad for the price

This is also from the other thread. Same item as Northern but only &119;.00 and free shipping. http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Tools...d_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1220634286&sr=8-6 BTW this has a one year warr. not 90 days

good bang for the buck

 

[imacman]

This was in a previous thread.....seems like a nice little unit...got good reviews.

www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200313480_200313480

This looks to be about the same unit that I purchased. The seller will accept a $90.00 offer plus the shipping fee.

(broken link removed to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=280259196706)

How do you make an offer? This is a standard auction.