What do i need ?

[newguyjoe]

Hey everyone,
So we had an ice storm on thursday night and had no power/heat/water till sat night. i bought a generator and tried to power up my pellet stove and it would not run on the power produced. I was thinking that the electonics dont like the "dirty power" ?? ? am i right ? what do i need so that next time i can burn pellets ? is there a filter or something ? thanks for any help.
Joe

 

[imacman]

Hey everyone,
So we had an ice storm on thursday night and had no power/heat/water till sat night. i bought a generator and tried to power up my pellet stove and it would not run on the power produced. I was thinking that the electonics dont like the "dirty power" ?? ? am i right ? what do i need so that next time i can burn pellets ? is there a filter or something ? thanks for any help.
Joe

Hey Joe, didn't know people in Orange Cty still were without power....sorry to hear that.

What size generator did you get? (KW ?) Most any kind of gas powered generator that has enough KW output should run a pellet stove. Did the stove do anything? Any lights come on? Did you have a surge protector on the stove before the power went out?

 

[pete324rocket]

Yes,as it has been mentioned before,those cheapie generators do not produce clean enough power to run the microprocessor based controls used by a pellet stove.I have one of those as well but also have a deep cycle battery with an inverter and a battery charger that completes the package....more bucks you are saying but the alternative is to buy a generator that produces cleaner power but there is added cost there.Deep cycle battery,inverter and charger will run probably 2-300 bucks and some wiring on your part....but you then have all the bases covered.I have heard mentioned using an isolation transformer to clean up the waveform.An interesting idea but unsure what is readily available or the cost.Maybe someone else has some practical experience here.

 

[pete324rocket]

Another thought if you were desperate I suppose,with an inverter,you could tap the 12 volts coming from a vehicle and run it indoors with an extension cord.Just don't let the power reduce so that you couldn't start the car occasionally to charge the battery up.

 

[newguyjoe]

hey mac,
Yeah i have a surge protector on the stove.i got a 20amp 3250watt 6.5 hp generator... i ran my furnace on itand even a shop vac but it wouldnt run the stove.

 

[imacman]

Just off the top of my head, it would seem that you should have no problem running that stove with that generator. You didn't answer my other question...does the stove power-up at all? Any lights? Or is it completely dead?

EDIT: just curious...what brand/model generator do you have?

 

[newguyjoe]

sorry, yes the exahust fan was trying to run and the blower would not run at all. will get back to you on the brand name.

 

[imacman]

Joe, BTW, what brand/model stove do you have? Buy it new, or used?

 

[newguyjoe]

Mac,
The Brand is All-Power model# APG3012. Cheap from BJ's...200$

 

[imacman]

Joe, IMO, if that genny will run your furnace, i see no reason for it to not run the stove. There has to be something else. How many fuses are there on the stove? Did you check them? Was the stove running OK before the power went out?

I don't know what stove you have, so can't help much more. Next time you post, put more info into the subject line, like include the name/model of the stove....you should get more responses...good luck.

 

[Xena]

His previous posts say he has an Enviro EF2 Macman.

 

[newguyjoe]

my stove is an Enviro EF2. it was running fine before power failed and now its running fine that the power is back on. i will try to be more detailed from now on. Thanks again

 

[pete324rocket]

sorry, yes the exahust fan was trying to run and the blower would not run at all. will get back to you on the brand name.

Yes ,these are the same symptoms that I experienced when I tried using a generator on my stove. Microprocessers run by an internal clock signal,the frequency is dependant on a steady frequency from the power source.Deviation will cause a error in the signal transfer.

 

[Xena]

What stove do you own pete?

 

[pete324rocket]

What stove do you own pete?

A drolet eco-45 built by Stove Builders International....45,000 btu I believe

 

[hoverfly]

You need a generator that has a modified sine(sp?) wave, in simple terms aka clean power. If you don't have one maybe running it through a UPS will clean it up. Other than that, your generator is useless for pellet stoves.

 

[kofkorn]

You need a generator that has a modified sine(sp?) wave, in simple terms aka clean power. If you don't have one maybe running it through a UPS will clean it up. Other than that, your generator is useless for pellet stoves.

Just to add to that, if it's not good for your pellet stove, it is quite likely to damage many of the other items in your house. Most of your household items (refrigerator included) have circuitry that could be damaged by improper voltages or cycles.

Keep that in mind for future use.

 

[imacman]

You need a generator that has a modified sine(sp?) wave, in simple terms aka clean power. If you don't have one maybe running it through a UPS will clean it up. Other than that, your generator is useless for pellet stoves.

Hoverfly, I respectfully disagree with you. A "modified" ( or square wave) sine wave output is what you get from a 12v battery, that has been run through a power inverter. While is probably won't hurt the electronics, it is NOT good for electric motors, causing them to get hot, and at worst, burn out. There are ways to "clean up" modified waves, but it ends up being costly.

It has been discussed quite a few times on this forum before. For a diagram and more info on pure vs modified sine waves, see this thread:
www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/29672/#312494

 

[hossthehermit]

hey mac,
Yeah i have a surge protector on the stove.i got a 20amp 3250watt 6.5 hp generator... i ran my furnace on itand even a shop vac but it wouldnt run the stove.

Joe, just a thought, did you have the furnace and shop vac and other things running when you're pellet stove wouldn't run? Rule of thumb, start your generator, let it warm up for a couple minutes, then add load one piece at a time. If you had two or three other things running, and then your stove tried to light, start, very likely you wouldn't have enough juice. BUT, that's just my opinion.

 

[imacman]

Good catch there, Hoss......I didn't think of that possibility.

 

[MButkus]

How about a decent UPS.. with AVR (automatic voltage regulation) on the power out from the generator.
I have one on my wife's computer.. when the voltage goes to 106V the UPS ups the voltage without draining the battery.
I have a bad line (220V) that sometimes (summertime) the voltage drops pretty good.
Another UPS I had would just drain the battery... this one went all summer without that problem.
Ultra UPS 1025AV

 

[imacman]

Another thought i had....I wonder if the generator is putting out 120v to start with? I know some of them have an adjustment.

Most of the pellet stoves won't work correctly if the voltage is more than +- 5%. I'd run a voltmeter across it with a load on it.

 

[atvdave]

I personally think there was some kind of power drop issue. How long where the extension cords, and how many other devices where ran on the the one outlet/cord from the generator that also supplied your stove?

When I have power outages, I also run a crappy old cheap generator. I have no problem running 2 TV w/ dish network system, My fridge & freezer, My saltwater fish tank with all the bells & whistles, and my Internet & 3 computers.

I really don't think it was a "dirty power issue". I don't know what type of power supply the stove has but it can't be much different than a PC or TV power supply.

Now that your power is back on, try to run just the stove on it's own outlet with a short cord.

 

[newguyjoe]

Hoss,
No i didnt have all that stuff running at the same time. i only tried the shop vac when the stove wouldnt fire up...just to see if the generator was working. after the stove didnt want to work i wired the generator to the furnace. i guess it really doesnt make sense to use the stove in a situation like that when the furnace does the heating job faster. and for a day or two just burn the propane. Thanks guys.