Well here in Ohio its -15° with wind chills @ 30-40 below. I woke up at three am to find our power was out. No big problem I've got a generator to plug into the owb to run the fan and pumps. So I went outside to check the wood burner and pipes still warm, so I figured power must have just recently went out. At this point I'm pretty happy. Went out to the barn to fire up my generator and must have pulled and ethered that thing for 20-30 minutes and nothing. So cold hardly wants to even turn over. At this point I'm starting to worry some, but I've got an awesome neighbor with a generator. I wake him out of bed @330 to tell him the powers out and I'm worried my pipes will freeze on my owb can I borrow your generator for a spell. No problem I pick him up go to his barn and his won't start either. This whole time I had the door to my owb cracked and a fire is just a blazing, but I'm still worried the line that goes to the garage and goes above grade to enter the garage is going to freeze. In the hour or so it took messing around with the generators the power came back on and not all was lost. The water in my owb had gotten up to 208 and no pipes froze, but what a wake up call this has been for me. I'm bringing my generator in where its warm and will probably get a back up today. For a guy that likes to be prepared I sure got caught with my pants down, and this could have ended a lot worse had the power not come back on so soon.
First close call with owb
- Thread starter ash man
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hangfirew8
ArboristSite Operative
Synthetic oil and efree gas will help as well.
HF
HF
Cheesecutter
Addicted to ArboristSite
Your neighbor sounds like a awesome guy for getting up and going out into the cold. Glad everything worked out.
4seasons
ArboristSite Guru
Stories like these make me wonder if an OWB is worth the trouble. It sure is nice to get the mess out of the house but my wood stove couldn't care less if the power is on or not. Of course I would like to have a whole house backup generator but funds are limited so I make do with what I have, but I can heat my house and cook my food without power for all winter if I needed although I would start to worry about the food in the fridge and freezer if we lost power for more than a day.
OH_Varmntr
Burner of stored sunlight
Glad to hear you caught it before you boiled over. Just goes to show one can never be too prepared.
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rms61moparman
Addicted to ArboristSite
As long as you don't open the door, the freezer will remain frozen for several days. Put the refrigerator contents in a cooler and set it in a cold room or outside.
Mike
zogger
Tree Freak
It's winter. Your food won't rot if it is outside in the shade in like a cooler or something, it should stay frozen. Clean metal trashcan maybe.
Storm of the century in 93, I lost power for..don't recall, 4-5 days. I just kept moving frozen rocks into the freezer and rotating them out two or three times a day.
I keep a tripplite charger/inverter in the crawl space that runs the boiler and pumps. I've got a couple of decent sized boat batteries that go there in the fall/winter. Summer doesn't matter too much. My first winter or two there were some pretty dramatic moments with a raging fire and high winds. I'd hate to have a OWB without some form of backup and the automatic switching of the inverter/charger is really nice.
sunfish
Fish Head
Sorry to hear that!
I sure am glad I have a wood stove in the house! We are set for power outages, just need a generator to pump water and it stays in the heated shop...
I sure am glad I have a wood stove in the house! We are set for power outages, just need a generator to pump water and it stays in the heated shop...
zogger
Tree Freak
Spend five figures plus for an owb that absolutely needs electricity, I would have an additional nearby shed with a gennie with an automatic switch on and eloectric start etc, and most likely run it from a big propane tank.
We absolutely positively have to have electricity here for the broiler houses, (5-10 minutes no juice you are looking at losing a LOT of money in lost birds) There are three separate whopper diesel gennies set up that way, and they are phone and net connected as well. They get run once a week or so automatically to make sure they work.
Small scale, electric start genny with backup yank start. In it's own small heated building, the owb keeps that little building warm as well.
You just can't trust a typical little gas engine anything that is frozen solid to yank start in wicked extreme cold temps. If you have to go cheap, at least in a little building and keep an infra red heat lamp shining on the thing so it stays over all warm. 15-20 bucks for a heatlamp and rated clamp light or ceramic fixture.
We absolutely positively have to have electricity here for the broiler houses, (5-10 minutes no juice you are looking at losing a LOT of money in lost birds) There are three separate whopper diesel gennies set up that way, and they are phone and net connected as well. They get run once a week or so automatically to make sure they work.
Small scale, electric start genny with backup yank start. In it's own small heated building, the owb keeps that little building warm as well.
You just can't trust a typical little gas engine anything that is frozen solid to yank start in wicked extreme cold temps. If you have to go cheap, at least in a little building and keep an infra red heat lamp shining on the thing so it stays over all warm. 15-20 bucks for a heatlamp and rated clamp light or ceramic fixture.
Nosmo
Addicted to ArboristSite
Made toast and coffee on top of my wood burner a few years back when we had no power for 3-days. Took everything out of the freezer and put it all in an ice chest. There was plenty of ice on the ground and ice around fallen tree limbs to put in the chest and leave it outside.
Nosmo
Nosmo
beerman6
Addicted to ArboristSite
This is why I store my generator in the walkout basement for the winter.
I once parked my car next to the OWB and let it idle for 2 hours with just the pump wired into a small 12vdc-120vac inverter
I once parked my car next to the OWB and let it idle for 2 hours with just the pump wired into a small 12vdc-120vac inverter
My woodstove is lousy when it comes to cooking anything on it. I've got camping gear for that.
This thread is why I've wondered why OWBs are so popular. A good reason for having a woodstove is that it will work when the power goes out. If you are in an extended
outage, and the roads are cut off (flooding here) the gas stations run out of gas quickly.
This thread is why I've wondered why OWBs are so popular. A good reason for having a woodstove is that it will work when the power goes out. If you are in an extended
outage, and the roads are cut off (flooding here) the gas stations run out of gas quickly.
F
fuzz1500
Guest
Glad it all worked out....I bet you make the proper adjustments !!
zogger
Tree Freak
I understand why they are popular. thermostat control, even heat throughout multiple buildings, does your domestic hot water, you can burn oddball questionable wood, all the crap dirt and bark pieces etc stay outside, long burn times, etc.
Anyway, no law says you can't have both an indoor regular heater and an outdoor boiler.
I still like the russian masonry heater idea better. To me, best of both worlds. large thermal mass, even heat around the house, plus no electricity required, nothing to wear out, and you can incorporate an oven for cooking.
F
fuzz1500
Guest
My father , who is a mason , would say..."how many back-up systems does a fella need !" I had this very idea . The OWB would be there for most of the time....then the fuel oil furnace for back-up..then a woodstove in the house for another back-up . Then I guess solar would be next !!
John R
Addicted to ArboristSite
Get a kit so you can run LP or Nat gas in your generator, never a gummed up carb going this route.
And with this kit you can still run gasoline if you wish.
And with this kit you can still run gasoline if you wish.
It's not just OWBs that may need B/U Pwr.In the basement add on wood furnace units wheather forced air,hot water or steam are all going to be in trouble if power goes out for an extended time and there is a fire in the hole!
A few things went wrong here.
1. when was the last time the generator was run
2. is it gas or diesel => fresh gas or winter diesel in the generator
3. when was the last time someone checked if it is producing electricity? Sometimes the generator needs a flashing to work again.
Good that everything is ok again.
7
1. when was the last time the generator was run
2. is it gas or diesel => fresh gas or winter diesel in the generator
3. when was the last time someone checked if it is producing electricity? Sometimes the generator needs a flashing to work again.
Good that everything is ok again.
7
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