Power went out today with stove on.

[Tonyray]

well, finally happened.
power went out for 3 hrs ..
stove shut off of course and the box was filled with smoke..
my outside exhaust goes out and up 5 -6 ft so that helped not getting any smoke in the house.
I was surprised that even after 2 hrs when i opened the door to take a peak, there was still smoke in the
stove... than i realized it was the embers still smoldering since the power went out.
I have a Generac 7500 house generator but thought i would wait till evening to fire it up if power didn't come back on. But I don't run the pellet stove on generator due to dirty or erratic power... I run my oil furnace during power outtages . Less sensitive electronics.

 

[railfanron]

When you say house generator do you mean the automatic type or a regular portable generator? I have a Generac Gas/Propane 7K/8K automatic and I run all the electronics on it. Pellet Stove, Tv, Computers and network and it runs them all just fine. It take a little less than a minute to transfer and I run a UPS on the tv, satellite and computers to keep them up and running until the power transfers. That way the satellite doesn't take 5 minutes to come back on. The tv keeps going as if nothing has happened. The Generac and others that are automatic stand by generators are designed to give reasonably clean power to your house.
Ron

 

[Tonyray]

When you say house generator do you mean the automatic type or a regular portable generator? I have a Generac Gas/Propane 7K/8K automatic and I run all the electronics on it. Pellet Stove, Tv, Computers and network and it runs them all just fine. It take a little less than a minute to transfer and I run a UPS on the tv, satellite and computers to keep them up and running until the power transfers. That way the satellite doesn't take 5 minutes to come back on. The tv keeps going as if nothing has happened. The Generac and others that are automatic stand by generators are designed to give reasonably clean power to your house.
Ron

No...
I have a portable 7500 Generac and a 10 circuit Transfer switch in the basement it connects to....
that ugly 30 amp wire plugs into my genny and then into a 30 amp outlet on back porch which runs to that transfer switch. u can see it coming in on top left of transfer box.

.
we have no Natural gas here on my street so I would have had to get a propane tank to run a whole house unit... but this works fine,,,, run most of the hardwired rooms and pretty much all we need.
box was 350.00, wire with plugs was 70.00 and about 4 hrs my time to hook up.

 

[railfanron]

Yes that generator isn't designed for clean power. It may or may not work for electronics. My unit is Propane powered and fully automatic. It's 5 years old and cost 2100 complete with me installing it. Your way was the setup I wanted but the lady in charge said Absolutely not! She says every time the power went out for an extended length of time I was hundreds of miles away. She said no buttons to push no switches to switch and no plugs to plug in. Who was I to argue with that as the part about me not being home when the power goes out was true. Once in and installed I have to say it's pretty neat. We came home twice to a power failure and my first thought was who is cutting my grass. Then I realized there was no power but everything was running. No worries about the freezer and fridge or heat.
Ron

 

[Cory S]

The Generacs are very stable. I ran a Generac 6500 for three years duting MANY outages.. Voltage and current was super stable. Ran every piece of electronics in the industry with it also. A Harmon board isn't any more sensitive than a TV/Laptop/Router/etc..... Just make sure the electronics/appliances are shut OFF when powering up/down a generator.

 

[MButkus]

I have had a UPS on my Whitfield since 1999. It protects the control panel from zaps and will keep it running for 10 hours. It a self made setup using a standard 24V UPS system. Takes care of the little blips (3 min. and blinks) of power. It has run for 8 hours, and still had 2 lights of power left.
Just had someone write to me stating after the power went out, his Profile 20 will only blink. He's trying to figure out what's wrong.
This control panels have very little circuitry in them.

 

[Tonyray]

Yes that generator isn't designed for clean power. It may or may not work for electronics. My unit is Propane powered and fully automatic. It's 5 years old and cost 2100 complete with me installing it. Your way was the setup I wanted but the lady in charge said Absolutely not! She says every time the power went out for an extended length of time I was hundreds of miles away. She said no buttons to push no switches to switch and no plugs to plug in. Who was I to argue with that as the part about me not being home when the power goes out was true. Once in and installed I have to say it's pretty neat. We came home twice to a power failure and my first thought was who is cutting my grass. Then I realized there was no power but everything was running. No worries about the freezer and fridge or heat.
Ron

funny you should mention that.
the day the power went out here,
it sounded like someone was mowing the grass outside..
we have a business property next door[not ours] and they have a Generac like you do and it must have kicked on within a few minutes as they
are on the same grid as we are.

 

[railfanron]

Yes it sounds like a lawn mower. The way the automatic start works is 20 seconds at power below 65% I believe and the unit starts and runs 20 more seconds and if power isn't restored it makes the switch. So in less than a minute you have power. It then monitors the line and when the power comes back on it waits about 20 seconds and then bang it makes the switch so smooth and swift that the TV doesn't even flicker. The switch has a pretty good spring in it so there isn't any arc generated when the switch happens.
Ron

 

[Tonyray]

Yes it sounds like a lawn mower. The way the automatic start works is 20 seconds at power below 65% I believe and the unit starts and runs 20 more seconds and if power isn't restored it makes the switch. So in less than a minute you have power. It then monitors the line and when the power comes back on it waits about 20 seconds and then bang it makes the switch so smooth and swift that the TV doesn't even flicker. The switch has a pretty good spring in it so there isn't any arc generated when the switch happens.
Ron

yep.. deff a good way to go if your not around like I am to hook up the portable rig type..

 

[alternativeheat]

No...
I have a portable 7500 Generac and a 10 circuit Transfer switch in the basement it connects to....
that ugly 30 amp wire plugs into my genny and then into a 30 amp outlet on back porch which runs to that transfer switch. u can see it coming in on top left of transfer box.View attachment 188558 .
we have no Natural gas here on my street so I would have had to get a propane tank to run a whole house unit... but this works fine,,,, run most of the hardwired rooms and pretty much all we need.
box was 350.00, wire with plugs was 70.00 and about 4 hrs my time to hook up.

I wish I had that ten circuit transfer switch, Tony. When I wired in my portable transfer switch I could only get the 6 circuit locally and it was winter with a storm coming etc etc.... But it's in and no complaints, just be nice to have just even 2 more circuits.

My generator has an electronic voltage regulator on it, my wife actually blew that by shutting down the generator and not cutting the power to the house. I got a new regulator online and put it in, then took it to a generator repair guy locally to check the system out. He said the voltage is very stable and that it doesn't wander when put under load and suddenly taken off load, hardly any movement in readings. Seems to be that since it's own regulator is electronic, it ought to run electronics but I'd had to plug the pellet stove into it and have it blow the board to find out. Some people say that the later Harmans just won't run if the power is dirty anyway though. Well, so far , like yourself, I run the oil heat when we lose power. I need a sine wave reader LOL !

 

[Tonyray]

I wish I had that ten circuit transfer switch, Tony. When I wired in my portable transfer switch I could only get the 6 circuit locally and it was winter with a storm coming etc etc.... But it's in and no complaints, just be nice to have just even 2 more circuits.

My generator has an electronic voltage regulator on it, my wife actually blew that by shutting down the generator and not cutting the power to the house. I got a new regulator online and put it in, then took it to a generator repair guy locally to check the system out. He said the voltage is very stable and that it doesn't wander when put under load and suddenly taken off load, hardly any movement in readings. Seems to be that since it's own regulator is electronic, it ought to run electronics but I'd had to plug the pellet stove into it and have it blow the board to find out. Some people say that the later Harmans just won't run if the power is dirty anyway though. Well, so far , like yourself, I run the oil heat when we lose power. I need a sine wave reader LOL !

yep...agree with that.....fell better running oil when power goes out.. gotta burn some eventually.. right/?

 

[BigJohnfromCT]

well, finally happened.
power went out for 3 hrs ..
stove shut off of course and the box was filled with smoke..
my outside exhaust goes out and up 5 -6 ft so that helped not getting any smoke in the house.
I was surprised that even after 2 hrs when i opened the door to take a peak, there was still smoke in the
stove... than i realized it was the embers still smoldering since the power went out.
I have a Generac 7500 house generator but thought i would wait till evening to fire it up if power didn't come back on. But I don't run the pellet stove on generator due to dirty or erratic power... I run my oil furnace during power outtages . Less sensitive electronics.View attachment 188464

Tony, not sure how old your oil furnace is but most new heating plants have some kind of circuit boards in them. Even refrigerators and dishwashers are smart devices with some computing capabilities in them. I've run my Quad Mt. Vernon AE any number of times on my Generac portable with no problems. I do have a surge protector on it though.

 

[BigJohnfromCT]

I wish I had that ten circuit transfer switch, Tony. When I wired in my portable transfer switch I could only get the 6 circuit locally and it was winter with a storm coming etc etc.... But it's in and no complaints, just be nice to have just even 2 more circuits.

My generator has an electronic voltage regulator on it, my wife actually blew that by shutting down the generator and not cutting the power to the house. I got a new regulator online and put it in, then took it to a generator repair guy locally to check the system out. He said the voltage is very stable and that it doesn't wander when put under load and suddenly taken off load, hardly any movement in readings. Seems to be that since it's own regulator is electronic, it ought to run electronics but I'd had to plug the pellet stove into it and have it blow the board to find out. Some people say that the later Harmans just won't run if the power is dirty anyway though. Well, so far , like yourself, I run the oil heat when we lose power. I need a sine wave reader LOL !

I recently pulled my 6 circuit manual transfer switch and had an interlock kit installed. Now I can run anything I want in the house as long as I do not exceed the limits of my genny. IMO definitely worth the investment. I think the kit was around a hundred bucks and the electrician charge me about another buck and a half to install it

 

[alternativeheat]

One thing about the 6 circuit transfer switch is I can't exceed the genny capability LOL ! I would like one more outlet and a few more lights is all. All appliances, heat and hot water are covered this way though. And we do have oil lamps as well. And we have a gas stove. I can either use the coffee maker in the downstairs bathroom or use a percolator.