Mt Vernon run time

[Caribfan]

Does anyone out there have any experience using the battery backup set up for the Mt Vernon? How long will the average deep cell marine battery last? I am going to make sure it is fully charged this weekend. I'm not sure if anyone has heard, but some people are saying there is storm coming.

 

[LMPS]

Sorry no, I think you will find most people on this site run a generator back up

 

[smoke show]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...stove-back-up-power.91702/page-2#post-1204849

this guy does.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

I haven't had to run my Mt Vernon AE for a power outage, but I did hook up to battery and measured the current draw. The Mt Vernon AE won't autostart on battery, so I got it started on AC line and unplugged the line. The stove then goes into a power conserving mode with lower blower speeds and autoclean cycles postponed. The current draw was 1.5A (18W) at 12V so on my 100Ah battery I expect to get (100/1.5)x0.80 hours=50 hours. The 0.80 factor is because you cant fully deplete the charge on a battery, 80% is a realistic amount.
A tech at the shop where I bought my Mt Vernon told me that after two days on battery (October 2011 snow storm) the controller decided that a clean was needed and the stove shut down. So my 100Ah battery seems an appropriate size. I may add another battery, but those things are expensive.
By comparison the stove pulls about 24W when running on AC, but that doesn't include running the starter.
I did add an inverter (pure sine wave) to my system so that if I am not at home my wife can flip to inverter mode get the stove started and then go back to battery mode. The penalty for starting the stove is approximately 300W for 10 minutes = 4.6Ah of battery capacity. That is a big hit (three hours run time) for not starting it with gel.
As I said, these numbers are based on some quick measurements. I don't know if the current draw will increase as the battery depletes and its Voltage drops. I don't expect that the results are far off from what the actual performance will be.

 

[Caribfan]

Good answer. I would love it if you could provide a few more details though. - Just kidding. I have heard alot of "estimates"and they have been all over the board. I appreciate the back-up documentation you gave and I now feel pretty confident that I should be able to make it through a reasonable period of time without power. Lets just hope I don't have to test it next week.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

Lets just hope I don't have to test it next week.

I'm charging a spare 24Ah battery just in case. Last year in October we were without power or heat for a full seven days. To make matters worse, there were trees or power poles down across every road leading out of our area. I couldn't even get to our local downtown area. If there had been an emergency I don't know what they would have done to get to us. I know at least that we will have heat and water this time.