My Backup Power Inverter Setup For My Harman

[4UGod]

Hello sirs! I have seen a lot of threads with people asking about what inverter to get for a power outage or what size battery etc... but it's hard to find people to share actual results after receiving advice here on the forums, so I thought I'd share my setup. I hope someone may find some of the information useful. I'm no expert, but the setup works for my needs. (Power goes out here two or three times a year for usually less than 4-5 hours).

I bought a new Harman P43 for $2,800 to heat my family's small 2 bedroom/3 bath 1500 sqft home. I built the pad myself and installed it with my dad and some help from the Good Lord. I had a few 12v 35ah deep cycle batteries on hand and bought a 1000w pure sine wave inverter on Amazon for $108. I tried my regular 2000 watt inverter, but because it was not pure sine wave, the Harman would not run on it (this was before I did forum research and found I needed a pure sine wave inverter).

After hooking up the inverter after receiving it in the mail, it ran the pellet stove on the stove's lowest setting (maintenance burn) for a solid 6 hours before running the battery down to 11v. Temperature outside was 20F and the stove kept the house about 70-71F all evening. The stove pulls about 70w an hour on low, which I was pleasantly surprised with. So my three 35ah batteries will last me a good 18 hours before needing to be charged. I contemplated getting an inverter that switches over to battery power automatically when the power goes out, but before obtaining my inverter setup, the power went out here for about 3 hours and the house never got smokey inside like many people have said has happened to them. Not sure why, maybe the way I have it vented? Thanks for reading everybody.

Link to inverter ($139.99 at the time of this edit)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F4TP3AE/?tag=hearthamazon-20

 

[johneh]

Nice install where is the surge protector ?

 

[4UGod]

Thanks Johneh, in the second picture you can see the surge protector. It's plugged into the wall. It was just before I switched over to try the inverter set up. Inverter was just laying there, but it was the only pic I had taken at the time.

 

[jmb78blue]

thanks for the info, I am in the mist of doing the same and was just looking for info on what type of inverter to purchase! did you run into any real problems during the inverter install? Also I am thinking about hanging my batteries right underneath my floor in my basement directly below my stove and running the power cord up through the floor to my stove. I am thinking about making a hanging tray that will hang about 12" or so off of the joices. Where did or where are you storing your batteries? Thanks!

 

[gfreek]

Take a look at this for a automatic power transfer switch..
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/xantrex--prowatt-sw-auto-transfer-switch--14567903

 

[4UGod]

thanks for the info, I am in the mist of doing the same and was just looking for info on what type of inverter to purchase! did you run into any real problems during the inverter install? Also I am thinking about hanging my batteries right underneath my floor in my basement directly below my stove and running the power cord up through the floor to my stove. I am thinking about making a hanging tray that will hang about 12" or so off of the joices. Where did or where are you storing your batteries? Thanks!

I think putting your system in your basement would work well. I've kept my batteries in the garage on a piece of wood the last three + years and they are in excellent condition. I bought this inverter for $108 a few weeks ago...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0131L8NLM/?tag=hearthamazon-20

But now it's not on Prime anymore and is like $150+. Might find it on EBay. Installation was extremely simple. Positive to positive, negative to negative, plug in pellet stove to inverter. I'm pleased with the set up.

 

[MButkus]

Why don't you just get a used UPS and hook it up the same way. It's always on, if you are not home the UPS kicks to the battery. You can hook them up with multiple batteries, but mine was for 24V and I just got two of the biggest batteries for cars I could find. Been using that for 15+ years.

 

[Lake Girl]

Thanks for the photos and details on inverter ... The largest power draw is initial start-up with the igniter. Since you would have to retrieve battery from garage, you would have to relight. Manual stove light would save on your battery draw... may want to practice

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Oregun]

Will a generator work in place of an inverter on a pellet stove or do they need the sine wave output?

 

[Lake Girl]

I would suggest a search of the forum about generators and pellet stoves. IIRC, need a pure sine wave generator for the pellet stove...

 

[4UGod]

Thanks for the photos and details on inverter ... The largest power draw is initial start-up with the igniter. Since you would have to retrieve battery from garage, you would have to relight. Manual stove light would save on your battery draw... may want to practice

Welcome to the forum!

Thank you Lake Girl. I went ahead and lit it manually with my MAPP Torch I keep in the garage. A little tricky, definitely a bit harder than I thought it would be, but conserves that bit of battery power vs. using the igniter. :thumbsup:

 

[Lake Girl]

Haven't tried this but apparently hand sanitizer on the pellets gets them to light easier. There are starting gels for manual lights too.

 

[Pete Zahria]

apparently hand sanitizer on the pellets gets them to light easier

You need to compare all of the different brands on the shelf, and get the one
with the highest percentage of alcohol...
The really weak ones don't work well..
I bought some... was not that good... so I bought a bottle of
91% rubbing alky, and mixed some into the hand sanitizer.
It brought the % up some, and did work better...
Better plan is to just buy the higher % sanitizer OR
by some starting gel made for the job.
If you don't manually start your stove very often,
it will last a long time..

I use the mix, and map gas torch, and it is up and flaming in about a minute.

Dan