I had a 90 minute power loss last week and I noticed that my Weil McLain oil fired boiler did not going on for the entire period. Up until then I was under the foolish assumption that if there was a blackout in the middle of winter my hot water boiler would continue to heat the house. How can I protect against an extended power outage in the middle of winter leaving me without power. Even if I had a portable generator my electric oil pump is hard wired so there is nothing to plug in. What do other people do in this situation?
Joe wrote in news:7ae01607-64b1-4759-81b9- snipped-for-privacy@x41g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
Assuming you need 120v to run your furnace?...
You feed power from the generator outlet into your house by plugging it into an house outlet. That outlet will feed the breakers through the panel box. Make a 20A cord with two male ends.
IMPORTANT and LEGALLY REQUIRED. ALSO MORALLY SANE. You are required to have a "TRANSFER SWITCH". This disconnects your panel box from the meter while your generator is running. Besides the generator feeding your house, it will feed power back to the "pole" or wherever. If someone is working on the line trying to restore power and thinks the line is dead, your generator could hurt/kill them. You would be liable. And even if the lineman scenario didn't happen, I think things would get nasty when the power came back on and the generator was running too.
For 120v, the generator must be plugged into an outlet that is on the same side of the panel box bus (not physical side of breakers) as the furnace. Power will be supplied to all house outlets/hardwired things on that side of the bus. Make sure everything is turned off so it doesn't bog down the generator. Someone running like a hair dryer will bog it down and maybe trip generator breaker.
No personal experience but I've heard you can't plug the generator into a house GFCI outlet like say in a garage.
DO NOT have anything on in the house that is 220v. It will only get 120 and burn stuff up.
I've never done this part but if you do this with a generator that has
220 output and can plug into a 220 house outlet, you should get power to both sides of the panel box and all house outlets.
Hopefully some more savy electrical people in this group will shoot holes or add good info to this post. This is welcomed from my POV so no one gets hurt and you don't cause any damage on your end.
The simplest and least expensive remedy is to install a double pole double throw switch as the oil burner service switch. That is the switch located quite close to the oil burner that the service technician would use to cut off the power supply to the equipment during servicing. The common contacts of the switch supply the oil burner. The switch can be center off, thrown to a flanged inlet that will except a regular extension cord from the generator, or thrown to connect to the supply conductors coming from the panel were the branch circuit Over Current Protective Device is installed. A flanged inlet is a plug blade assembly rigidly mounted for installation in a box.
There are problems with portable generators; they have to be regularly maintained and the fuel kept fresh. (People have a tendency to store them away and forget about them).
So the alternative is a portable kerosene or propane heater.
You dont plug it into a house outlet-backfeed a house, a transfer panel has its own exterior box and plug. My 7500w uses 4 prong, 8ga wire, weatherproof box, Look at a Generac Transfer Panel kit, its all included at about 2-300. But if you want real cheap put the boiler on a plug in outlet and unplug the boiler and gop to the generator with an extension cord. Backfeeding a house is dumb and probably illegal
I agree. A lot of people fail to handle those generators, even fixed units, properly and either have serious safety issues or spend a lot of money and find it will not work when needed.
BTW be very careful of those portable heaters. Follow all the instructions.
ransley wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@x41g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:
Illegal? Not where I was anyway. Power company said as long as I was disconnected from the meter it was not illegal. I was in northern VT just south of Montreal in the January 1998 ice storm. No power for 5 days. Few miles north and they were out for weeks. Montreal had huge transmission towers dropping.
I had limited power backfeeding. Enough to keep furnace running, some lights, frig, microwave, etc. Dumb? Maybe, maybe not. You try no power for a week in the middle of winter in that location.
If you live in an area that gets at least one 24hr outage a year then it might be a good option in just the food you could loose in your frige and other apliances needing power. But I wonder on the life and cost to maintain these basicly lower grade exterior units. They automaticly cycle every month or so, there is an added cost for that, and oil changes, battery. Having a generator and all the electronics stored outdoors cant be good over a period of 10 years for the relays, bearings, connections, and any component that will over many years be affected by weather and corrode. I imagine alot of no starts after
5-10 years where a repairman is necessary. I keep my portable in a garage where its not affected by rain and high humidities. If it does not start one day there is no provision to plug in a portable to an exterior box on the auto units, I bet its alot extra. I just have a simple weatherproof exterior box any portable could be plugged into if my gen breaks, and a 6 circuit with 2 V meter transfer switch. At least getting a 2-300$ transfer switch and box instaled might be a better idea to do now rather than buying a Gen first. I can always borrow one for a few hours or get a cheap 400$ one at 3am at wallmart.
4000 is alot and I guess maintenance and testing could cost 50-200$ a year, and how long do those units realy last or cost over 10-20 years, with salt air not long, but for many they are great.
Other's have offered suggestions...I'll just offer a story.
Many years ago, my old Perfection furnace had a lever on the gas valve that allowed the user to turn on the gas manually during a power failure. Since the blower would obviously not work, the manual said to use a 10 minute on - 30 minute off duty cycle to avoid damaging the furnace. I guess they trusted people to follow instructions back then.
One year I noticed that my furnace would not kick on consistantly and had to have it repaired. It turned out to be a sticky gas valve which they replaced. Unfortunately, new codes did not allowed gas valves with manual controls since people must have gotten stupid since the furnace was originally installed.
The following winter we had an ice storm that left us without power for 5 days. Kerosene heaters kept the house barely livable since the weather cooperated to some extent, but had I not had a furnace problem the year before, I would have had a much more comfortable experience.
ransley wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:
That was impossible during the storm.
or get a cheap 400$ one at 3am at wallmart.
Absolutely no store had any. HD had some scheduled to come in. The day people were told the truck would arrive, there was a large crowd and a couple of local police cars to discourage any issues.
Good hearted people/businesses were donating some to the farmers in NY to keep their animals alive & milked.
Many scumbags were going way out of the northeast where they were able to latch on to a bunch, load on a truck and drive back to these desparate farmers to offer them like $500 generators at rumored $4000-5000 because they knew farmers losses without them was much more costly.
On a blowerless unit, 40-55% efficency is the best you would get out of those " tanks" , they are best in the garbage. Today aint yesterday in utility prices, its all new as in a babys ass.
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