Wonder what happens if you put the propane tank in front of the hot exhaust (couple inches away) and use the exhaust to warm the LP tank?
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Some people here say it's wrong to have a cord & plug on a furnace, but they never say why. When I bought this house in 1998, it had cord & plug on the furnace. When I got a new furnace a couple of years ago, that was installed the same way. It could be very useful during a power failure in the winter (ice storm?).
That might work. You'd have to be sure it didn't get too hot and trigger the relief valve in the tank.
It's a violation of NEC. Eqpt is to be permanently wired, with exceptions for eqpt that needs to be cord&plug to facilitate maintenance. That kind of equipment typically comes listed with it's own cord and plug.
When I bought this house in 1998, it had cord & plug
It's allowed in some places. And it's certainly not the worst NEC violation and could be fine if it's done right. But I don't see the point really. With a panel lockout kit and an inlet, you can hook your generator up to the whole house and power anything you want, not just the furnace.
It would help - would likely work, but not exactly recommended, particularly when using rubber hoses from the tank.
For some reason the NEC says the furnace should be hard wired. No idea why, a plug and socket make so much more sense. Works for refrigerators, washers, dryers, window AC. Why not furnace?
Anyone know?
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Would take some experimenting, to find the right distance, wind flow, etc. Still, a good use of otherwise wasted heat.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Because those other items are portable, not permanently attached] to the structure and they came with UL listed cords and plugs. Ever see a furnace come with one? And the install instructions typically say that it's to be installed consistent with NEC, etc.
Might be possible to put a thermometer on the tank, and regulate how much heat is applied. That way, you won't over pressurize the rubber hoses you mention.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Let me inject idea that perhaps most of you will doubt about it, many years ago when I was boat Operator we, have use two types of batteries 4 x 8 volt and 3 x 12 volt, or 6 x 6 prospectively to make 36 volts however. The standard require for boats at that time was 32 volts. So we tried to use
4, 8 volts each for better results. So you can check with OEM of Inverter what would be Max voltage input, if Possible 2x8=16 volt Batteries would give longer life and lot longer sustainable power output, but then you will need SPECIAL CHARGER. Just the Idea, Note: TWO 12 VOLT in Parallel would be Idea Marin Battery or some truck batteries, which are more rugged but are also more expansive. Good Battery are not cheap!!!!I had a recent power outage that lasted for 3 days. Not having a generator on hand, I decided to try using what I did have for short term power purposes. The items consisted of the car, 500 watt inverter, and I had an extra car battery available.
I hooked up the inverter directly to the car battery in the car. With the car running, I was able to run the 46" LCD TV, and a couple of CFL lights which was all I really needed to do. However, I ran into some problems. If the car wasn't running the entire time, the items connected to the inverter would start flickering on and off after a period of time. If off of the car battery inside the car, this might be within an hour, but with the separate battery, maybe 10 minutes unless it was coupled to the car battery in the car with the car running.
All in all, I was disappointed. I'm wondering why the items wouldn't operate correctly unless the car engine was running. There certainly wasn't a lot of wattage being drawn.... the TV uses like 100 watts with the lights maybe 10 watts each, and there were 2. I had hoped to just use the battery in the car to occasionally "jump" and charge the separate battery when it got too low, but never got to that point as the attached items would start flicking on and off.
I see portable power packs with internal battery and inverter at places like Walmart. The inverter is usually 400 watts or so, so I know this method should have worked. Any ideas as to why my set up didn't work well would be welcomed. If it had worked this time, I had planned on maybe a 1000 watt inverter at some point which I had hoped maybe if this happened in the future to be able to run the house refrigerator from the inverter/ car battery set up, but not if I have to have the car running the entire time.
Thanks for your help.
Pete
Well, you've been reliable and steady in the past, no reason to doubt.
12 volt marine trolling batteries can take some deeper discharge than motor starting batteries. Also, not cheap.- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
I don't know why NEC says it has to be hardwired, but I know many inspectors allow a twist-lock cord to serve as the emergency disconnect instead of a switch.
Pressure isn't the concern - temperature is. You don't want to have to "babysit" the generator either.
Actually, 2 heavy sixes in series is a MUCH better solution than 2
12s in parallel.A "battery" is a series of cells in series - which is what you maintain when installing 2 6 volts in series. Two slightly mismatched
12 volts in parallel can cause charge and discharge inballances which are not "good".
A plug can be accidently pulled out. That could be a serious problem under the right circumstances. Twist lock, of course, prevents that.
The natural gas furnace that came in my house (built 2000) has a plain old cord and plug. Further the single electrical socket it's plugged into is mounted on the ceiling so only the socket contact friction keeps the cord from falling out. And it never has.
Then when I had my water heater replaced I got one with an electric igniter instead of a pilot light like the old one. The water heater is right next to the furnace and the furnace was taking up that one and only socket. So the guy just used a 3 way plug to plug both into the one socket. The city inspector passed it so I guess he didn't care and I was glad.
Don't know nor do I care.
When some treehuggers half-dead maple tree falls on the power lines, I need a quick way to hook a generator to the furnace to keep the house from freezing.
Maybe the NEC should address the real problem of trees and power lines. Aren't downed power lines a bigger safety issue than furnace receptacles?
OK, don't do that, then. Go back to freezing tanks like you always do.
. Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Asking Wash DC to make sense is a bit much, don't you think?
I do agree with you, the time and effort is wasted on things that don't much matter.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
With 2 tanks it will never freeze - and I am set up to use Natural gas as my primary backup fuel. So i don't know where you get "Go back to freezing tanks like you always do."
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