Battery to Inverter Backup Supply

[Retired_Ted]

I did a search for this information and didn't come up with anything - hope I can get some good opinions on this issue. I am going to have a Harman Accentra insert installed within the next week or so and plan on buying an inverter to back up the insert in case of a power failure. The Harman uses fairly complex computer-type ciruitry and, therefore, should I assume I need to invest in a pure sine wave inverter or would a modified sine wave inverter suffice? There is a considerable difference in cost. I already have a spare 12 volt battery although I may buy a marine battery depending on the rating of the spare battery I already own. Thats for any help. I assume I'll need an inverter capable of at least 500 watts, btw.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Others might chime in on this, but i have ran quadrafires on square wave invterters.:gulp: .... the quad systems are complicated too.

 

[smirnov3]

Accentras have an optional battery pack. It will run everything except the auto-light. (because the auto-light uses a lot of current - more than the battery can deliver safely). Ask your dealer about it.

As for using an inverter - they are horribly inefficient, and if you are running the auto-light off of it as well, you will mess your system up.

You can try a small generator, just be carefull to put in a good surge suppressor: most generators produce really noisy AC, and they can do bad things to a computer. (We learned this the hard way - we sold the Army some portable chemical detectors, and they hooked them up to a generator that killed the laser & messed up the computer)

 

[Rhone]

I'm not sure it's worth it. Did you determine how many watts your fans/blowers use? We had this discussion before when I wanted a battery backup on my insert. We ended up calculating a deep cycle marine battery with an inverter would power my blowers for something like 2-3 hours. Too expensive and net me too little time. In that conversation, we found out VC Winter Warms fans are very efficient, my unit has blowers that are like a 100w light bulb when on.

 

[Retired_Ted]

I did check with my Harman dealer regarding the factory backup system and they though it was wayyy over-priced ($900??). Then I looked at used small Honda generators on Ebay - talk about high priced! So, I am down to the inverter solution. If we have a power outage here in southern Penna., it usually doesn't last any longer than 4-6 hours. Usually, much less. I hate to spend too much $$ which is why I am heading for the inverter solution rather than the generator-Harman options.

 

[Retired_Ted]

I'm not sure it's worth it. Did you determine how many watts your fans/blowers use? We had this discussion before when I wanted a battery backup on my insert. We ended up calculating a deep cycle marine battery with an inverter would power my blowers for something like 2-3 hours. Too expensive and net me too little time. In that conversation, we found out VC Winter Warms fans are very efficient, my unit has blowers that are like a 100w light bulb when on.

Wattage-wise, I think the stove pulls around 600 watts with the ignitor running - otherwise, around 250 watts with motors churning. Not sure if the Harmon motors are 12vdc or 120vac Before I do anything, I will check that out. My intuition tells me they are 120vac - plus it might be easier to just plug the Harman into a 120vac inverter outlet rather than run 12vdc to the stove. I plan to put the battery, a trickle charger, and inverter in the basement and run a dedicated outlet near the stove for backup, if this idea matures.

 

[Rhone]

250 watts.... yikes. I was struggling to figure things out with an insert with 100w and not even pellet. 250w is a lot of power and storage... 600w is way too much.

Get yourself an inverter that plugs to your car battery and when the power goes out, attach the inverter to your car battery, start your car engine, and use your car idling with an extension cord to run the unit. A battery will be out in no time pulling 250w.

 

[BrotherBart]

The manual for the stove says that draw at startup is 440 watts and normal running is 255 watts.

 

[pelletheat]

[quote author="Anton Smirnov" date="1156203778"]"Accentras have an optional battery pack. It will run everything except the auto-light. (because the auto-light uses a lot of current - more than the battery can deliver safely). Ask your dealer about it."



This is simply bad information, the link below provides info for backup power. Harman offers thru this company the model 512 for auto ignite stoves & this would provide up to 8 hours of backup power. This is very similar to the model 503A listed on the website and may even be the same as the model Harman offers. Maybe a phone call to SEC could answer that question.

http://www.secamerica.com/ss_sentry.html

I would really consider the dollars spent vs. # of power outages in your area, is this option a must have or could you survive without your pellet stove for a few hours? Only you can answer that question.

 

[Retired_Ted]

I would really consider the dollars spent vs. # of power outages in your area, is this option a must have or could you survive without your pellet stove for a few hours? Only you can answer that question.

After much thought, I decided to ditch the backup idea. It'll be a good opportunity to leave the house for a while if the power goes out. Longest power outage I can remember has been only 5-6 hours tops. Look out this winter now that I have decided NOT to do it. The outages will probably last for days.

 

[hearthtools]

you can run most pellet stoves on a 500w inverter. and can run on a normal battery for 4 hours.
we sell the XPower Powerpack 1500 a portable power system for our Tailgating BBQ system and some people use them for the stoves.
We keep one at our house but the last time we lost power (trasformer hit by lightning) we used it to watch TV and opted not to use it on our stove for our home stays warm for several hours.
We use the power pack camping. Last week we went camping for 6 days and ran the power pack all week for lights, Microwave, DVD player, Laptop and Water pump and keeping Cell phones and Ipods charged. Along with a 1.2 amp Solar panel we had a fully charged pack all week
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/63/p/1/pt/29/product.asp

 

[jabush]

you can run most pellet stoves on a 500w inverter. and can run on a normal battery for 4 hours.
we sell the XPower Powerpack 1500 a portable power system for our Tailgating BBQ system and some people use them for the stoves.
We keep one at our house but the last time we lost power (trasformer hit by lightning) we used it to watch TV and opted not to use it on our stove for our home stays warm for several hours.
We use the power pack camping. Last week we went camping for 6 days and ran the power pack all week for lights, Microwave, DVD player, Laptop and Water pump and keeping Cell phones and Ipods charged. Along with a 1.2 amp Solar panel we had a fully charged pack all week
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/63/p/1/pt/29/product.asp

I have one of those units, only it's 600 watts with a 1200 watt surge. Works very well for 5-6 hours when the power goes out and I only need the TV and maybe a light or two.

 

[Retired_Ted]

After a lot of research, I decided a generator was the best way to backup the electricity to not only my pellet stove, but, it would also be a light source in case of an emergency. Of course, now that I have bought one, we will have super duper power delivered to my house now - . Btw, if anyone is interested in either a Honda EU1000i or an EU2000i at a very good price, let me know. I had been watching Ebay for a couple of weeks now and have found a supplier who has beaten those prices by about $100 with no sales tax (new generator too). I plan on running a wire to a new outlet near the insert which I will power up from an outside port to be installed soon (I do my own).