OWB backup power

[nathandrews]

Well I've been been tossing around the idea for awhile, now it's time to see what happens. I have a generator that has served me well during the occasional power outage, but I really hate using it when it's only to keep the pump running on the OWB. I installed baseboard radiators as a part of the package, so there's no blower to run. I've been keeping my eyes open for good deals and have put together a 400 watt power inverter, a maintenance charger and a HI-LO battery for under $75.00. The idea is that the charger willl keep the battery charged and ready. When the power goes out and I'm not running the generator, I will plug the OWB into the power inverter. My estimates vary fairly wildly about how much time this will buy me, but I'm about to find out.

Has anyone else tried this kind of setup?

 

[Jredsjeep]

not all battery chargers are meant to be left on the battery all the time if that is what you are thinking. you would probably be better off with a battery maintainer with a floating circuit to keep it topped off.

and a side note, don't know about you but battery prices have about doubled by me.

 

[atlarge54]

I just did some ballpark calculations and get little over 3 hours run. Assumptions are for a taco 009 with a 100 amp/hp battery discharged to 50%.

 

[nathandrews]

The charger is a schumacher 1.5A battery maintainer I found on sale at TSC. If it performs like advertised it should do the trick. The assumption on the pump is correct, but the battery is a 200 ah battery out of a big joe forklift. I'm hoping to be able to squeeze a nights worth of sleep out of it and charge it up with bigger charger when I start the generator in the morning. I suppose I may need to find a few more amps to make it work like I want. I'm going to give it a try this weekend and see what happens.

 

[Scootermsp]

December

I was out for 4 days in Dec and did not want to run the Gen. all night long. I shut it down at 10:30PM each night and fired it up again at 6AM. It was very cold those nights but I got the house cranked up to about 75-77F before shutting the generator down. Try to plan it so your fire isn't ripping in the OWB when you do shut the Gen down. During the off time the OWB will smoulder. Add wood in the AM when you re-fire the Gen. and you'll be back in business. It was 65F or so in the house in the AM. Don't worry the OWB will be fine all night w/o juice.