What do wood boiler guys use for back up electricity?

[atlarge54]

A few years ago during a nasty cold windy storm the power went out-----not really a big deal since I keep two marine batteries and an inverter in the crawl space just in case. Well at 3:00 AM and not really awake I hooked up the batteries wrong and fried the inverter. Luckily Wally World wasn't too far away and open 24 hrs so a major crisis was averted. If you've never had a wood boiler loaded and burning hard in a howling wind with a power outage let me tell you it ain't fun.
After that boo boo I bought a Tripplite inverter/charger that will automatically switch to battery power to run the pump(s) plus keep the batteries charged. Whenever you start to feel smart is a good time for a little slap in the face. I just bought a fresh battery just to be safe, in the summer the batteries go in the boat. Well when I hook everything up it does absolutely nothing---aw s##t. I normally don't have great success repairing electronic stuff but in an effort to save a few hundred $$$ the inverter got torn apart and I was lucky to find a wire came off the circuit board, a dab of solder and she's good to go.

I really wish I'd checked thing out BEFORE our first big winter storm.

 

[wvwoodchuck]

Do you have a pic of your setup? That sounds like a great idea.

I've got a portable generator.

 

[Butch(OH)]

We have several choices depending on how long the power is off. One is the ever popular big box store gasoline genny. Ours is about 5500 watt. If the power is out for very long we have a 6HP slow speed diesel/5KW set up that sips fuel. Either of them will fed through an interlocked panel set up just for the generators.

 

[bayard]

wood oil boiler

fire up the small gen set.k

 

[lfnh]

A few years ago during a nasty cold windy storm the power went out-----not really a big deal since I keep two marine batteries and an inverter in the crawl space just in case. Well at 3:00 AM and not really awake I hooked up the batteries wrong and fried the inverter. Luckily Wally World wasn't too far away and open 24 hrs so a major crisis was averted. If you've never had a wood boiler loaded and burning hard in a howling wind with a power outage let me tell you it ain't fun.
After that boo boo I bought a Tripplite inverter/charger that will automatically switch to battery power to run the pump(s) plus keep the batteries charged. Whenever you start to feel smart is a good time for a little slap in the face. I just bought a fresh battery just to be safe, in the summer the batteries go in the boat. Well when I hook everything up it does absolutely nothing---aw s##t. I normally don't have great success repairing electronic stuff but in an effort to save a few hundred $$$ the inverter got torn apart and I was lucky to find a wire came off the circuit board, a dab of solder and she's good to go.

I really wish I'd checked thing out BEFORE our first big winter storm.

Any idea what the run time is for your battery setup, with the boiler under full demand ?

 

[atlarge54]

Any idea what the run time is for your battery setup, with the boiler under full demand ?

Just guessing with 250 amp hrs of battery available should be able to just run the taco 007 for maybe 20 hours. With the 007 and 009 for floor loop less than half that. I know you guys running forced air systems wouldn't get much time with a blower running.

It's far from a perfect backup but it allows me a fair amount of time to allow the boiler to cool down or charge some batteries if the outage looks like it might last a while. At least when the power goes out now I can just stay in bed.

I borrowed the neighbors generator once to use as backup and didn't really like that approach. The generator seemed like quite a hassle.

 

[milkie62]

I use a generator---5500 watt but sometimes a pain to use meaning by the time I hook it up the power comes back on.I also have a 1000 watt honda for lights and TV.Will be getting a battery/inverter setup just for the furnace

 

[ropensaddle]

Not a boiler odwf but use the jenny for it and house.

 

[7sleeper]

I believe a mix as backup is best. Generators usually only idle so are actually wasting energy. Like every engine they are designed to run at a certain max rpm for their optimal workload. Usually smaller gen's are sufficient if you have a battery system. Let the batteries get low on power and start up the generator. Let the gen run full power for a short time and then when the batteries are full again turn it off again. Much more energy efficient.

7

 

[rx7145]

Here is my inverter/charger setup. You can also see the 15kw diesel gen set to the left. This runs my 4436 and three pumps.

 

[mikenc]

Neat set up. I use generac propane generator. I think it is 18KW. Have OWB and Ahu Fan wired to one circuit.

 

[gwiley]

We have a 13Kw auto-start generator connected to the house that is fueled from a 500gal underground propane tank. Used to use a "portable" generator (500lbs - not sure who thought that was portable).

I have been trying to figure out how to wire up a set of batteries to keep the generator from running on short outages.

My wife really wants solar charges batteries as a backup but I just can't afford that sort of setup.