Power Outage

[kieth4548]

I have a england 28-3500 wood furnace add on and i'm wondering what I should do if the power goes out. There is talk we may get a lot of ice tommarow and wasn't sure what I should do with the stove. Should I kill the fire or let it go?

Thanks
kieth

 

[wdc1160]

I always think another intersting question is how to put it out. I don't think throwing water on the 500F metal is normally a nice thing todo to your pretty furnace

 

[kieth4548]

I always think another intersting question is how to put it out. I don't think throwing water on the 500F metal is normally a nice thing todo to your pretty furnace

Confused??? Why would someone throw water on the stove?

 

[Eric Johnson]

Presumably to keep it from overheating when the fan quits dissipating heat.

I would either let it go out or build a series of small fires so that it won't overheat quite so bad if the power does go out. You might be able to unscrew the side panels which will theoretically allow air to flow naturally up through the plenum and into your ductwork. If you have a small fire going and the power goes out, I bet you can do that with the panels and keep everything under control.

Other things to consider include opening up some doors and windows to try to get the thing cooled off, or figuring out a way to remove as much burning material as possible and toss it out into the snow. I don't recommend doing that except as a last resort, since you run the risk or burning your house down, but I've done it on more than one occasion.

At least with a boiler, when it overheats the pressure relief valve opens up and cold water from the tap can flow into the system. There's no equivalent safety mechanism for a furnace, unfortunately.

 

[begreen]

I have a england 28-3500 wood furnace add on and i'm wondering what I should do if the power goes out. There is talk we may get a lot of ice tommarow and wasn't sure what I should do with the stove. Should I kill the fire or let it go?

Thanks
kieth

Good question, if the wood furnace keeps running, the ductwork is going to get hot. How are your plenum clearances over the wood furnace supply plenum, 6-12"? How are the supply duct clearances for the first 10' - 6"? Is there a pitch to the ductwork that slightly elevates it toward the takeoffs and vents?

If clearances are good (> 6" for the first say 10') and the ductwork is set up to assist natural convection, then it might work. Unfortunately most systems aren't set up this way. In that case, prolly much better to let the fire die out, keeping it on a low fire until it does.

 

[Eric Johnson]

And I should add, shut the air down as much as possible to keep the fire subdued. The main problem is going to be coals giving off heat with no place for it to go; you don't need an active fire going, too, so cut off as much air supply to the fire as you dare.

I'm with BG in that your best bet is probably to let it go out. But it pays to have a plan (and maybe a little experience) since power outages usually arrive unannounced.

 

[kieth4548]

I figured letting it go would be the best. I really don't want to start taking off pannels. My luck would be getting the pannels off and the electric would come back on..LOL Anyway i think the best would be to kill the air and let it snuff out. I know when I cut off the air pretty much everything dies out pretty quick. I just want to see what people have done in this situation.

 

[Shipper50]

Buy a small cheap generator and use it for the furnace only. You can keep the house warm that way and not worry about it over heating and having the house get really cold if its days before the electricity comes back on.

Shipper

 

[Nofossil]

I have a couple of deep cycle marine batteries and an inverter. I figure that should carry me for 24 hours. I have a generator if it goes beyond that.

 

[reaperman]

I always wondered if someone could get by only taking the top panel off. Of course its probably the hardest to remove because of the ductwork. I'm not sure how all furnaces are designed. But I believe the front and the back of the furances are not insulated, at least mine aren't. Only the sides and top are insulated. So if the top panel was removed, I'd think between the front, back, and top exposed, this may be enough to dissapate the heat. At least while the dampers were closed down to slow the fire. Think??

 

[Eric Johnson]

Ideally, you could depend on gravity (convection) to move the hot air into your ductwork during a power outage. Removing the top panel would seem to negate that effect. In other words, hopefully you could get the heat into the living space, instead of dumping it into the basement or furnace room.

 

[kieth4548]

I have a couple of deep cycle marine batteries and an inverter. I figure that should carry me for 24 hours. I have a generator if it goes beyond that.

I thought about this. Actually I was thinking of that for my sump pump in my basement. I wonder how long you have go on a few batteries for the blower mowter. My runs all the time once it gets going. I gues worse case if you have an inverter you could hook that up to your car and start it up to recharge the battery.

 

[Gooserider]

You might try calling Englander, and ask them what contingency plan they have designed into the system - I would think that they have some sort of failsafe (at least if I was a UL tester I'd be asking about that...) whether it's something that reduces the draft on the fire, or just being designed to "take it"...

The other thing I'd suggest is doing a "simulated" power failure at some point - IOW pull the plug on the unit or turn off the breaker, and SEE what happens, and test out whatever contingency plan you might have - far better to see if it works when you can do a quick power restore if things don't work as intended.

Gooserider

 

[kieth4548]

You might try calling Englander, and ask them what contingency plan they have designed into the system - I would think that they have some sort of failsafe (at least if I was a UL tester I'd be asking about that...) whether it's something that reduces the draft on the fire, or just being designed to "take it"...

The other thing I'd suggest is doing a "simulated" power failure at some point - IOW pull the plug on the unit or turn off the breaker, and SEE what happens, and test out whatever contingency plan you might have - far better to see if it works when you can do a quick power restore if things don't work as intended.

Gooserider

good point on the testing. I will call them and see what they say and post the result.

thanks
kieth

 

[laynes69]

We keep ours going, just keep a small fire and let it radiate. It will work just fine as long as clearances are okay.