Pellet Stove Battery Backup

[wjmst]

I have a pellet stove and am looking for some type of battery backup. I am not looking to run the stove on a UPS rather I just want to give it 15 mins or so of run time to shutdown so the smoke doesn't fill up the house.

I was thinking of a 1500watt pure sine wave UPS for computers. The stove operates at about 130 watts, 1.1 amps.

Stove is a Harmon P68.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

 

[charlz]

Problem with a UPS is that stove is not going to know to start the shutdown routine. It will just continue to run on the UPS until it drops. Maybe if it has an input to take a signal from a UPS like some servers do to start shutting down but unless your stove was built with UPS in mind I doubt it would have anything like that.

I have not had a problem with smoke in the house in a power outage. Mainly I think because the stove doesn't smoke except during startup. There are very few pellets in the firepot at any given time. Also there may be enough of a draft from the warm exhaust pipe to draw what little smoke there would be out of the stove.

 

[Tollster]

We I put our Harmon in, we had to glue each pipe joint, this was required to have the stove operate a maximum efficiency. Its fully enclosed and I only get some smoke if any during the starting process. None when the power goes out....no matter what you choose be sure to get the sine wave as you could fry a board.

 

[wjmst]

Yeah, the stove won't know to shutdown when on a UPS. I was just hoping that the UPS would give me enough time to go downstairs and shut it down.

When the power goes out the stove just stops, we get a little smoke back in the house which really isn't a big deal. The problem is the smell. It has a very strong odor to it and seems to linger in the house for a few days.

I have narrowed it down to two options.

CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD Pure Sine Wave UPS
Tripp Lite SU750XL Smart Online 750VA UPS with Extended Runtime (6 Outlets)

I figure if the ups idea doesn't work I'll connect it up to my tv and at least have some entertainment when the power is out.

 

[cropdusting]

I guess I was always going to use a UPS as well. Granted I know there is no way for the UPS to communicate with the stove but I was thinking more for protecting the circuit board and other electrics durring breif outages and also being able to shut down manually when the power is out when I am home to shut it down or the outage seems to be longer than a minute or two as I live in an area where the power rarely goes out for hours. I am not looking for an "automatic shut down" solution as with computers/servers.

On the smoke point. My stove never smokes into the room. the pipe is sealed and I use a FAK (or OAK as some know it) so it is nearly impossible for smoke to enter the house unless it would migrate up the augar shaft through the hopper and out a tiny passage/gap in the lid to the hopper, but that would have to be an extreme situation.

 

[charlz]

I doubt you would wake up soon enough to go down and use the UPS to keep it running for bit... and then what happens if you are not home.

I wonder how long of a power interruption your stove needs. I know when the power is cut to my stove it runs the exhaust fan for a while when power is restored. Not sure if it will try to re-fire immediately if the thermostat is calling for heat.

What you need is not so much an 'uninterpretable' power supply but another power supply that can be switched in after a pause. Same concept as an automatic transfer switch for a generator. I am sure you could rig something up using time delay relays and magnetic contactor to switch over to a ups to run the exhaust fan for a bit ... but is it worth the effort and cost?

 

[cdaigle430]

I have a pellet stove and am looking for some type of battery backup. I am not looking to run the stove on a UPS rather I just want to give it 15 mins or so of run time to shutdown so the smoke doesn't fill up the house.

I was thinking of a 1500watt pure sine wave UPS for computers. The stove operates at about 130 watts, 1.1 amps.

Stove is a Harmon P68.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

I'm looking to get this someday-provides around 12 hours of pellet stove use. the only way you can tell your stove to shut down normally after a power outage is to hook it up to a computer. That complicates things and adds more expense because then you have to power the computer from it as well.

 

[Dmace]

The problem with using a typical UPS is the Output Frequency which can vary from 45-65 Hz. A Harman Pellet Stove's circuit board is pretty picky when it comes to the power input frequency and can be damaged easily if not right at 60Hz or VERY close to it.

There is only one battery backup approved by Harman that will not void the warranty and that's the Surefire units available at Harman dealers.

 

[tglass]

I have a pellet stove and am looking for some type of battery backup. I am not looking to run the stove on a UPS rather I just want to give it 15 mins or so of run time to shutdown so the smoke doesn't fill up the house.

I was thinking of a 1500watt pure sine wave UPS for computers. The stove operates at about 130 watts, 1.1 amps.

Stove is a Harmon P68.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

If you get any type of smoke inside the house with a loss of electricity, you have a stove problem that needs to be addressed. If thru the auger the seal to the bin or is leaking somewhere else, and could cause a major burn problem at any time. If not the auger another seal is leaking and could produce carbon monoxide while burning. Please look at this problem before you go further.

 

[wjmst]

For some reason I wake up when the power goes out, I guess it is the total silence that awakens me! Plus I am sure I would hear the UPS beeping.

Looking into the Harmon manuals they do list a couple of "computer" UPS that are approved. These are just for shutting down the machine to avoid smoke in the house. Yes, this is what the manual says,

"Harman strongly recommends installing battery back-up to minimize entry of smoke into the
room in the event of power loss.

Your pellet/biomass burning appliance relies on a combustion blower to remove exhaust. A power failure will cause the combustion blower to stop. This may lead to exhaust seeping into the room. Vertical rise in the venting may provide natural draft. It is, however, no guarantee against leakage. "

My stove is a direct vent and I get some leakage. Don't think there is a problem, working as designed (maybe not a good design, but working).

The UPS I ordered should arrive today, so I'll be charging it up tonight. Rain, Sleet, and snow on the way tomorrow so it may get put to the test!