Alternative Power sources - Run a furnace from a battery?

Author

Run a furnace from a battery?

Bob Dirndl

2006-09-23, 1:25 pm

If I kept a battery, or several of them, charged, could I run the battery
output into an inverter and use it to run my gas furnace?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This message was posted via one or more anonymous remailing services.
The original sender is unknown. Any address shown in the From header
is unverified.

Vaughn Simon

2006-09-23, 1:25 pm

Yes you could, but only for a relatively short time, depending primarily on
the load from your blower and the battery capacity you choose to purchase. A
small generator would probably be a much cheaper and superior solution. In
your portable generator choice you can choose cheap, loud thirsty, and readily
available (at your local Home Depot) on one extreme, or a more expensive, much
less loud, gas-sipping high-tech inverter-generator from Honda or Yamaha
represents the other extreme. There is not really much in the middle.

Perhaps it is just me, but if I lived in the frozen north, I would have a
way (perhaps a propane space heater) of keeping at least one room livable if my
furnace were not available. I guess the risk of freezing just looks more
fearsome from my vantage point in S. Florida.

Vaughn

empress2454@wowway.com

2006-09-23, 8:25 pm

batteries arn't quite up to a point where this is economicly feasable,
there are some electrical heaters that make claims to e efficient
enough for this to work, but they are pricy.

Empressess #124457

The best Games

<a href=http://www.gamestotal.com/>Multiplayer Online Games</a> <a
href=http://www.gamestotal.com/>Strategy Games</a> <a
href=http://uc.gamestotal.com/>Unification Wars</a> - <a
href=http://uc.gamestotal.com/>Massive Multiplayer Online
Games</a> <a href=http://gc.gamestotal.com/>Galactic Conquest</a> -
<a href=http://gc.gamestotal.com/>Strategy Games</a> <a
href=http://www.stephenyong.com/runescape.htm>Runescape</a> <a
href=http://www.stephenyong.com/kingsofchaos.htm>Kings of chaos</a> 

Bob Dirndl wrote:
> If I kept a battery, or several of them, charged, could I run the battery
> output into an inverter and use it to run my gas furnace?
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> This message was posted via one or more anonymous remailing services.
> The original sender is unknown. Any address shown in the From header
> is unverified.

Ron Rosenfeld

2006-09-23, 8:25 pm

On 23 Sep 2006 18:00:28 GMT, Bob Dirndl <pugwashers@bleecker.org> wrote:

>If I kept a battery, or several of them, charged, could I run the battery
>output into an inverter and use it to run my gas furnace?
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>This message was posted via one or more anonymous remailing services.
>The original sender is unknown. Any address shown in the From header
>is unverified.
>
>

Yes. That's how my house runs. We have a Weil-McLean propane fired
furnace, with a hydronic heating system and a Boilermate for DHW.

-- ron (off the grid in Downeast Maine)

Soundhaspriority

2006-09-24, 1:25 pm

"Vaughn Simon" <vaughnsimonHATESSPAM@att.FAKE.net> wrote in message
news:3YeRg.208367$5i3.25906@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Yes you could, but only for a relatively short time, depending
> primarily on the load from your blower and the battery capacity you choose
> to purchase. A small generator would probably be a much cheaper and
> superior solution. In your portable generator choice you can choose
> cheap, loud thirsty, and readily available (at your local Home Depot) on
> one extreme, or a more expensive, much less loud, gas-sipping high-tech
> inverter-generator from Honda or Yamaha represents the other extreme.
> There is not really much in the middle.
>
> Perhaps it is just me, but if I lived in the frozen north, I would
> have a way (perhaps a propane space heater) of keeping at least one room
> livable if my furnace were not available. I guess the risk of freezing
> just looks more fearsome from my vantage point in S. Florida.
>
> Vaughn
>
There certainly is a middle ground.

The low: noisy conventional generator with lawnmower engine lacking iron
sleeve, good for around 400 hours, ie., Coleman. DO NOT BUY:
http://www.colemanpowermate.com/gen...s/premium.shtml

The middle: Same technology as above, with an industrial engine. See, for
example, http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/t...productID=3229,
which uses a Honda industrial motor:
http://www.honda-engines.com/engines/gx240.htm

The middle ground is viable if you live in a location where neighbors will
not be driven insane by the noise.

The high: inverter generator, as Vaughn mentions. See, for example,
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor...444/0/home.aspx ,
which has a somewhat customer experience with repair than the equivalent
Honda product.

If you have gas/hot air, considerable power is required to run the blower.
If you have gas/baseboard hot water, a really tiny generator will do. Only a
couple hundred watts is required to run the circulator pumps and controls.

wmbjk

2006-09-24, 1:25 pm

On Sun, 24 Sep 2006 12:01:50 -0400, "Soundhaspriority"
<nowhere@nowhere.org> wrote:

>
>"Vaughn Simon" <vaughnsimonHATESSPAM@att.FAKE.net> wrote in message
>news:3YeRg.208367$5i3.25906@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>There certainly is a middle ground.
>
>The low: noisy conventional generator with lawnmower engine lacking iron
>sleeve, good for around 400 hours, ie., Coleman. DO NOT BUY:
>http://www.colemanpowermate.com/gen...s/premium.shtml

I don't know about that particular one, but readers shouldn't assume
that low-end generator engines don't have cast iron sleeves. I think
that most do, and should last much longer than 400 hours. For example
http://tinyurl.com/zkh3thttp://tinyurl.com/zkh3t

>The middle: Same technology as above, with an industrial engine. See, for
>example, http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/t...productID=3229,
>which uses a Honda industrial motor:
>http://www.honda-engines.com/engines/gx240.htm

Honda small engines are good, but really aren't very special IMO, and
often not worth the premium over their competition. One thing you
sometimes get with premium generators like this one
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor...449/0/home.aspx
is a larger muffler and auto-idle. Those two features can be nice in
some applications, but aren't necessarily included in many
Honda-powered models such as this one
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...00124_200200124

Wayne

Robert Bates

2006-09-24, 9:25 pm

Your best bet would be a generator. www.northerntool.com has some that will
run on natural gas which would eliminate trips to the gas station while the
power is out and also the issue of old gas in a generator that sits for a
couple of years between outages.

Another thing to consider, they also have auto start, auto switch systems
that switch from public power to generator and then back to public power
when it is restored. If you where out of town, could your wife drag the
generator out of the garage, start it, and switch the furnance over to
generator power?

LinkBot