Harman Battery Back-Up

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Mjhco6

Member
Jan 29, 2018
35
VIRGINIA
I have a Harman P43 and have a question about battery backup. If my power goes out, will natural draft take the combustion smoke up and out my vertical pipe run? Does the stove rely 100% on the combustion blower to exhaust the smoke? I have a home generator and wonder if I can eventually hook up the generator while in the meantime natural draft takes care of the exhaust smoke. Thanks.
 
It is different for all stoves. Sometimes stoves have enough natural draft to pull the smoke up and out and others don't have enough. The best way to test is to pull the plug during one of your fires and see what happens. This will simulate a power outage and answer the question for your situation. I am one of the lucky ones and don't have a problem if the power goes out. I have plenty of time to get my generator going.
 
What is the minimum requirements for a battery backup system similar to APC? Could I get away with a cheap one from Walmart?
 
Battery back up is to allow you to time to shut the stove down. Check your manual for the amount of watts the stove uses with out the igniter. That would be the minimum size apc to buy. Dont get a cheapie
 
The manual lists the APC version recommended. I have one on both my Harman stoves but not at home at the moment. When power goes out it will cycle the combustion blower on and off in bursts to expel the smoke. It will not just start back up as it will complete the shutdown once power is back on. You can turn the stove off and back on on the dial and it will restart if their is still a fire if power comes back on right away.
 
The Harman stoves using the recommended backup UPS's will automatically go into shut down mode with a loss of power to save the stove from overheating and smoke filled room and possibly your home if away. One if the key selling points with me along with the ability to burn any quality of pellet with ease.

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I have a Harman P43 and have a question about battery backup. If my power goes out, will natural draft take the combustion smoke up and out my vertical pipe run? Does the stove rely 100% on the combustion blower to exhaust the smoke? I have a home generator and wonder if I can eventually hook up the generator while in the meantime natural draft takes care of the exhaust smoke. Thanks.
If you have any vertical flue,most stoves will shut down with no smoke smell in house,unless is a windy day,on the side of your house the flu is on.An OAK also helps.It is not as big a problem that lots make it out to be,except in rare cases.
 
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The Harman stoves using the recommended backup UPS's will automatically go into shut down mode with a loss of power to save the stove from overheating and smoke filled room and possibly your home if away. One if the key selling points with me along with the ability to burn any quality of pellet with ease.

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No,overheating is not a problem,in a pellet stove,when power goes out.When the combustion blower stops,the flame/burn will drop at least 80% immediately,and continue to get less.Walk over to your stove and unplug it,see what happens.
 
No,overheating is not a problem,in a pellet stove,when power goes out.When the combustion blower stops,the flame/burn will drop at least 80% immediately,and continue to get less.Walk over to your stove and unplug it,see what happens.
I have done this with a heat gun at various points on the stove. Because the distribution blower also is not running to dissipate the heat the temp goes up. If you are running on low then probably no damage but if you are pushing the higher limits the temps do go up.

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If you have any vertical flue,most stoves will shut down with no smoke smell in house,unless is a windy day,on the side of your house the flu is on.An OAK also helps.It is not as big a problem that lots make it out to be,except in rare cases.
This is a valid point also with heat dissipation. My vent is direct out so probably why my temps go up with no power.

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I have done this with a heat gun at various points on the stove. Because the distribution blower also is not running to dissipate the heat the temp goes up. If you are running on low then probably no damage but if you are pushing the higher limits the temps do go up.

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Ya.it will go up a little,but,as the flame has went to nothing,no more heat is introduced,The steel,and cast steel stoves would see no damage whatsoever.
 
I have had power outage and have not had a smoke issue. Seems like when fan stops flame reduces to nothing and it just goes to "coals". I have not seen smoke as long as door is shut. Kinda looks like a charcoal grill ash with coals underneath.
 
If I'm understanding this discussion correctly, when your pellet stoves are running and no one is at home and the power fails and then power comes back on the pellet stove will not start back up to normal operation leaving your house cold when you get home.

Why can't the pellet stoves memory start the stove back up when power is restored?
 
Pellet stoves do not have memory. They have preprogrammed IC chips. Each mfg. has thier own code and parameters but they pretty much resort back to the off position for safety reasons. Some may restart if they are on a thermostat.
 
What is the minimum requirements for a battery backup system similar to APC? Could I get away with a cheap one from Walmart?

I use an APC Back-UPS 750 on our P-43. If the power goes out, the P-43 (which "senses" it's now on UPS power) cycles the exhaust fan on-off for 10-15 min. By that time fire pot has gone out but cycling the fan gets any smoke up and out the exhaust rather than potentially coming back into the house. Also by that time I can check our power company's web site on my phone to see what the outage looks like and estimated time till power is restored to decide if I need to fire up the generator.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Z80ICM/?tag=hearthamazon-20

Sam
 
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If I'm understanding this discussion correctly, when your pellet stoves are running and no one is at home and the power fails and then power comes back on the pellet stove will not start back up to normal operation leaving your house cold when you get home.

Why can't the pellet stoves memory start the stove back up when power is restored?
You are not understanding correctly,lots of stoves will restart,when power returns.
 
You are not understanding correctly,lots of stoves will restart,when power returns.

Do you happen to know what models would restart after power is restored? Seems that would be an important feature to look for when shopping for a pellet stove. I called a Harman dealer and they said Harman pellets would not restart but he really did not sound to confident in his answer.