Thelin Parlour 3000
Just bought it in January. Apparently, just in time for the untimely failure of my 15 year old heat pump, and the Great East Coast blizzard. We got the bad news about the heat pump on Friday afternoon, and by evening we were on the "emergency power" feature of our heating system (the feature where it barely keeps up, and causes your electric meter to spin wildly), when it began snowing. We were using the Thelin to supplement the electric heating system. Then, we lost power at 4:00 AM. Even though the Thelin has a battery back-up system, I had not yet purchased the necessary cables from the company, so I had a car battery and 300 watt voltage inverter standing by. Fortunately, I got it switched over before the house got smoked up, and before the flames went out. This gave me time to fire up the ...
Honda EU2000i Generator
We bought the generator last summer for when we go camping in our little Airstream trailer. One of the best investments I've ever made. It has always started on the first pull, quiet, and dependable. In fact, right now, it's powering the Thelin (only 27 watts), a light, the heater in the Airstream, and the laptop w/air card I'm using to type this. Earlier, I even had the HDTV hooked in for the Super Bowl.
Now, we're in our third day without power, and I haven't even seen a snow plow. We live well outside of civilization (in more ways than one), so we're not exactly a priority with the road crews or the utility company. Having plenty of time on my hands, I decided to make up my own cables for the Thelin's back-up system, using two battery clamps, three feet of # 10 wire, and two banana plugs. After I connected the battery to the stove, I tested it by unplugging the Thelin from the generator. It worked flawlessly. It came to the real test when some idiot (me) forgot to fuel up the generator, and woke up in the dark, but with one fully functioning pellet stove.
I'm glad I made these two investments. Both have made surviving this ordeal comfortable.