Insert during power failure

[JSL]

We have a wood burning insert with a glass door pretty flush with the surround and with an integrated fan.

Can I keep the insert running if there is an extended electrical outage?

We have, but never use, a wire screen door to replace the glass door. Would this be a better option? More air up the chimney but I am worried about damaging the insert by overheating. Thanks.

 

[jatoxico]

I've worried about this too. Pretty easy to over fire with no way to scrub heat. My solution is to not find out so I put a battery backup on the system. Worse case scenario is you put on a full load and the power cuts. With the battery backup I should be able to run the fans for at least that load then I can figure out what to do next.

 

[begreen]

Most inserts are fine running with the blower off. What make and model insert?

 

[DougA]

We have, but never use, a wire screen door to replace the glass door. Would this be a better option? More air up the chimney

More air up the chimney means more cold air entering the house elsewhere = less heat in home.
Plan B should always be in place if your power goes off. A computer type backup will last a short time and is cheap or a cheap generator is under $100. but I always seem to have problem with the cheapies when I need them.

 

[Hogwildz]

Sounds to me like a ZC

 

[jatoxico]

Most inserts are fine running with the blower off. What make and model insert?

You may be right BG but I'm not comfortable running that way. With my Jotul there is no extension onto the hearth so fully flush and no where for the heat to escape except maybe a little convection. Tonight I loaded 3/4 full. With careful air monitoring, I finally had it fully shut down w/ fans full blast and I topped out at 700. I really can't imagine running w/o the fans.

For the OP if your stove has one you could pull the surround and let the heat out that way.

 

[begreen]

Note I said most inserts and asked the make and model. At this point we are not even sure it is an insert and not an ZC fireplace.

 

[jatoxico]

Noted

 

[Fod01]

+1 on pulling the surround off during an outage.

My fan runs on 'auto'. I used to turn it off during start-up/ reloading, but no more. Once I forgot to turn it back on with a full overnight load of oak.
Next day the room was warm, and the whole fireplace was radiating heat a bit more than usual .
That was 5 years ago...no harm done!

 

[ironworker]

I run my insert without the fan all the time, not a big deal. I don't think it does much to keep it from over firing. If your that worried just run cooler fires.

 

[seabert]

We have a wood burning insert with a glass door pretty flush with the surround and with an integrated fan.

Can I keep the insert running if there is an extended electrical outage?

We have, but never use, a wire screen door to replace the glass door. Would this be a better option? More air up the chimney but I am worried about damaging the insert by overheating. Thanks.

The blower on my VC Montpelier insert uses very little power. A small generator placed outdoors with a cord running in to power the fan will easily do the trick. I tried the 900 watt unit from Harbor Freight (was $89 on sale) and it powered a few lights and my blower during a storm without a problem. As others have said a battery backup would also work. Run the fan at slow speed and you will get a nice long run. As for a screen I doubt that would be of much use at all as all your heat will just get drawn up the chimney.
I also run my unit with the blower off when the room with my insert gets too hot, eg; Christmas Party we had 25-30 people in the house so it was quite warm.

 

[velvetfoot]

Worse case scenario is you put on a full load and the power cuts.

That happened to me, but the load wasn't fully engulfed yet, so I just turned the air down and it never got blazing. Now, if the power had gone out a little later, and it was doing the startup blaze, I'm not that comfortable about that.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/bad-timing-for-a-power-outage.136930

 

[bholler]

That happened to me, but the load wasn't fully engulfed yet, so I just turned the air down and it never got blazing. Now, if the power had gone out a little later, and it was doing the startup blaze, I'm not that comfortable about that.

I have installed allot of hamptons and they work fine without the blower running Most inserts will do just fine with out a blower in fact it is an option on many of them so at least on those it is obviously not necessary. There are provably some flush ones that could over heat but if there was that much of a danger the manufacturers would have to install battery backups on them

 

[WoodpileOCD]

I too run my insert without the fan regularly especially in shoulder season. I use it w/o the fan anytime the room gets to hot as well. Can't see that it could hurt anything as long as you keep control of your air. I also have it installed w/o the surround though.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I open the door to my insert during the coaling cycle, I get a tremendous amount of heat then, kind of like using a screen without the screen that nobody likes...... The problem is, how cold is it outside when you lose the electricity..........

 

[weatherguy]

I used to run my insert a lot with the blower off. The one time I lost power for a week I just turned it down quicker to make sure it didn't overheat. After a couple fires I had it down pat.