Battery backup.......again

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ylomnstr

Feeling the Heat
Hearth Supporter
May 28, 2008
348
Staatsburg, NY
I know this has been discussed before, but would a basic computer type battery backup prevent my stove from reigniting even during a quick power flicker? On Thursday during the ice storm, before we lost power for good, the power was flickering. Each time it did so, my stove restarted the start up cycle, dropping pellets for 2 minutes into an already burning pot, thus making a huge flame. It was fine, and I didn't have any problems, but this happened a few times within a few minutes and I don't think it's healthy for the stove. If I had something like an APC 350, would that prevent the stove from shutting off for that split second during the power flicker? I know it won't let me run it for too long, but just to prevent what was happening above. I have a 5600 watt generator for the extended period. My pellet stove and fridge were running on that generator from 10pm Thursday night until about 8pm tonight (Saturday).
 
ylomnstr said:
I know this has been discussed before, but would a basic computer type battery backup prevent my stove from reigniting even during a quick power flicker? On Thursday during the ice storm, before we lost power for good, the power was flickering. Each time it did so, my stove restarted the start up cycle, dropping pellets for 2 minutes into an already burning pot, thus making a huge flame. It was fine, and I didn't have any problems, but this happened a few times within a few minutes and I don't think it's healthy for the stove. If I had something like an APC 350, would that prevent the stove from shutting off for that split second during the power flicker? I know it won't let me run it for too long, but just to prevent what was happening above. I have a 5600 watt generator for the extended period. My pellet stove and fridge were running on that generator from 10pm Thursday night until about 8pm tonight (Saturday).

That UPS is under rated and not a pure sine wave, you would need one that can handle more watts that one is rated for 200-210 watts.
 
swalz said:
ylomnstr said:
I know this has been discussed before, but would a basic computer type battery backup prevent my stove from reigniting even during a quick power flicker? On Thursday during the ice storm, before we lost power for good, the power was flickering. Each time it did so, my stove restarted the start up cycle, dropping pellets for 2 minutes into an already burning pot, thus making a huge flame. It was fine, and I didn't have any problems, but this happened a few times within a few minutes and I don't think it's healthy for the stove. If I had something like an APC 350, would that prevent the stove from shutting off for that split second during the power flicker? I know it won't let me run it for too long, but just to prevent what was happening above. I have a 5600 watt generator for the extended period. My pellet stove and fridge were running on that generator from 10pm Thursday night until about 8pm tonight (Saturday).

That UPS is under rated and not a pure sine wave, you would need one that can handle more watts that one is rated for 200-210 watts.

Yup, I just burnt one of those out in about two months, woke up with a loud squealing noise of the battery alarm going off, and my stove leaking smoke.
 
UPS is designed for computers to be able to shut down safely in an outage. UPS = Uninterruptible Power Supply ( overstating the obvious, just in case). It provides the opportunity to shut down safely, in the case of a computer, without any significant data loss. In the case of your stove, it would provide you the opportunity to shut down properly, without smoke billowing into the house. By the time the alarm is sounding, it's too late for safe shut-down. Read the owners manual; UPS is rated for 30 minutes of back up.

kast, how did you manage to burn this UPS out in 2 mos?
 
ylomnstr said:
I know this has been discussed before, but would a basic computer type battery backup prevent my stove from reigniting even during a quick power flicker? On Thursday during the ice storm, before we lost power for good, the power was flickering. Each time it did so, my stove restarted the start up cycle, dropping pellets for 2 minutes into an already burning pot, thus making a huge flame. It was fine, and I didn't have any problems, but this happened a few times within a few minutes and I don't think it's healthy for the stove. If I had something like an APC 350, would that prevent the stove from shutting off for that split second during the power flicker? I know it won't let me run it for too long, but just to prevent what was happening above. I have a 5600 watt generator for the extended period. My pellet stove and fridge were running on that generator from 10pm Thursday night until about 8pm tonight (Saturday).


The uninterupted power supply would work if it was rated for the stove but is it not easier and cheaper to just unplug the stove from the wall during a storm if you know the power is comming on & off??

Just common sense , but you may need the combustion fan to evacuate the smoke from a full of pellets, burning fire cup.

I run my stove on low feed setting, most of the time , so there is barely enough burning pellets in the fire cup to sustain combustion. ( about 20 % full)

If I ran my stove on high feed rate then I probably would have a 2/3 full fire cup.

maybe your battery inverter back up isnt such a bad idea.

Next time I buy a pellet stove , it is going to be 12 vdc opperated, so I can run it direct off a car battery for 2 hours. Then I can recharge that spair battery from my car's altinator.

the 500 watt 2 cycle 2 hp generator that www.harborfreight.com sells for $140.oo seems more suited to the task of providing all day stove usage as well as 2 lights for the house at the same time & can be switched off to other appliances as well and this seems a better use of your money than a ups at about the same price. great for power while camping or in the woods,too.
 
lass442 said:
UPS is designed for computers to be able to shut down safely in an outage. UPS = Uninterruptible Power Supply ( overstating the obvious, just in case). It provides the opportunity to shut down safely, in the case of a computer, without any significant data loss. In the case of your stove, it would provide you the opportunity to shut down properly, without smoke billowing into the house. By the time the alarm is sounding, it's too late for safe shut-down. Read the owners manual; UPS is rated for 30 minutes of back up.
kast, how did you manage to burn this UPS out in 2 mos?


Lass the UPS mentioned in this post (APC350) will not last 30 minutes but at a 100 watt load only 6 minutes. Also as swalz mentioned this ups (APC350) is a stepped approximation wave, which isn't a true sine wave
A good UPS also acts as surge protection.
 
Check your normal stove operation wattage, but also check what your stove requires during ignition which will be much higher. Then get a ups rated for even higher. You still will not get much backup time. My UPS is surge protection, battery backup, and automatic voltage regulater (AVR) to handle the fluctuations. It's probably cheaper to get a generator though if you want longer backup time. Also, battery and inverter is cheaper then a UPS that will last for hours.
 
lass442 said:
UPS is designed for computers to be able to shut down safely in an outage. UPS = Uninterruptible Power Supply ( overstating the obvious, just in case). It provides the opportunity to shut down safely, in the case of a computer, without any significant data loss. In the case of your stove, it would provide you the opportunity to shut down properly, without smoke billowing into the house. By the time the alarm is sounding, it's too late for safe shut-down. Read the owners manual; UPS is rated for 30 minutes of back up.

kast, how did you manage to burn this UPS out in 2 mos?

That is the weird thing, not sure what exactly happened. I took another chance after the first time, thought perhaps the cats walked on it and shut it down (wishful thinking). So I plugged it back in, two days later came home to the same thing, no smoke had escaped (from the smell in the house) but the replace battery light was red so I think its either a faulty battery, or the consent draw from the stove wore it out. I purchased the unit brand new.
 
I was using a APC Smart UPS 1000XL and when I tested it on my stove I was able to run it for over 4 hrs with maybe 30 - 40% battery drain this included lighting the stove. This is a server UPS with pure sine wave, the server that it is hooked up to now will stay on close to 4 hrs before being drained as long as the monitor if off.
 
swalz said:
I was using a APC Smart UPS 1000XL and when I tested it on my stove I was able to run it for over 4 hrs with maybe 30 - 40% battery drain this included lighting the stove. This is a server UPS with pure sine wave, the server that it is hooked up to now will stay on close to 4 hrs before being drained as long as the monitor if off.

You got 4 hrs out of that UPS on the stove?? WOW

I must be doing something wrong..I have a 1300VA XS and the longest I have
gotten out of it was about an hour with the stove running on low.
 
tinkabranc said:
swalz said:
I was using a APC Smart UPS 1000XL and when I tested it on my stove I was able to run it
for over 4 hrs with maybe 30 - 40% battery drain this included lighting the stove.

You got 4 hrs out of that UPS on the stove?? WOW

I must be doing something wrong..I have a 1300VA XS and the longest I have
gotten out of it was about an hour with the stove running on low.

Not surprised after seeing the price of the the UPS he's using: Clicky-linky
 
I have two of these... they go about 8 hours.
http://www.butkus.org/ups/ups.htm

One of the $200 UPS backups would do you for a half hour, easy. Plus it protects the $400 control panel from voltage spikes and brown outs.
 
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