Battery backup

What would be a good back up battery pack for a St. Croix pellet stove? We dont lose power often, but a couple days age we lost it for eight hours. It started to get chilly!

 

Maybe I worded it wrong. I'm looking for recommendations to buy a battery for backup. Thanks for any help you can give!

 

get a lifepo4, the largest you can afford. make sure you get a lifepo4 charger as well.
without knowing the energy requirements for your pellet stove, I don't know the AH to recommend. Or if you need an inverter to hook stove and battery together.

 

You would need at minimum 1,048 wh battery back up.I like my EcoFlow battery stations. I use Delta 2 Max (D2M) to back up the main floor pellet stove in the winter. I solar charge it during summer and use it to run my microwave, dishwasher and coffee maker (and a few other things). At 50# and 2,048 wh, it is pretty much the perfect balance of capability, functionality, portability etc. Up to two extra batteries could be attached if you decide you want to later. This station has been out for 3-4 years and is tried and true. I have 2 of these. The app is pretty good, and still ahead of Bluetti's similar new offerings.

If you don't think you would use it for anything else and don't need extra battery potential or the total solar charging capability of the D2M, a cheaper and somewhat lighter 2,048 station is the EcoFlow Delta 3 Max (not the Plus). It is one of the newer offspring of the D2M. I have one and have found it very capable, for my use. It has an upgraded app that has some cool features (storm guard is the most useful).

If you want a lighter station that is perfect for "dipping your toes in", a Delta 3 Plus (D3+) is a great station for that. At 1,024 wh, and being the newer generation it has nice app capability, great solar input, one EB can be attached (but you can attach a HUGE battery to it), and weighs about 35 pounds (IIRC). It is my second favorite station of all of them that I own. There are other itterations of that, which can be very confusing. The Delta 3 1500 (1,500 wh, but fewer actual capabilities), Delta 3 Classic and probably a few others. DO NOT get a Delta 3 Air - you will not be happy or impressed (the only whiff that I truly dislike).

There are also Delta 2 stations that are the older generation, but are tried and true. They also tend to be on sale for fantastic prices.

I am not a fan of Bluetti, even though my first 2 stations were from them. They are behind, in everything as far as what I've seen and I'm not impressed with their support. But, there are plenty of people that like them, so they aren't all bad. All I'll say is that both AC180's have fubarred screens. They run fine, but the app is disappointingly simple and you don't even know how long it will take to charge the unit unless you look at the screen on the station (which, when the screen is fubarred, is impossible - and I wouldn't need the app if I were next to the station). It can only attach to blue tooth - not wifi - so range is is very short. As a comparison, I am 1300 miles from home and am monitoring all of my EcoFlow stations set as backup right this minute.

 

I just looked at the delta 3 prices. Yikes! $800 for the 2048wh. $400 for the 1024wh. And for the 1024 I would need an extra battery. I remember you had the same stove so I'm using your number of 1048wh. Gonna have to give this some more thought. The stove is only for super cold temps, and we very rarely loose power. Thank you for the info.

 

1048 watt hours equals 88 amp hours (rounded up)
you can get a 200 AH battery for around 300 a 2k watt inverter for around 200 and you're done.
500$ ~ if your stove electronics are 12v you could tie directly into that and eliminate (the inverter) any inefficiency the inverter naturally has.

 

As a fairly new pellet stove user I have wondered what happens when the power goes out? The exhaust fan stops and the stove smokes in? Thankfully the stove is in a room that I can close off and dosnt need heat. The last few night I have been shutting it off and closing the door.

 

We only lost power once when the stove was running and smoke did escape into the house. It was during the day and I was home so took care of it. The last thing I want is the smoke alarms going off in the middle of the night, or if we're not home.

 

If you have a Harman, you should be able to get an APC UPS that will gracefully shut down the stove in the case of a power outage. Gracefully shut down = shutting the stove off and pulsing the exhaust fan to ensure the smoke goes outside where it belongs (the distro fan is shut off during the process). It will last long enough for the stove to be completely shut down.

Not all UPS will work for that, but I know for a fact that the APC BE850G2 will perform beautifully (I keep those between my battery station and the stove in case the battery station is depleted). The APC BE750G comparable UPS used to be in the older Harman manuals (2013/2014) but for whatever reason no longer are mentioned. If you decide to go that route, make sure to get either the specific APS mentioned above, or make sure whatever UPS you get is a MODIFIED sine wave when using battery (but you want pure sine wave when the power is on).

Note also that some of the newer Harmans (IDK when it starts) would need the dip switches adjusted for that feature. Older ones, 2010 thru at least 2015, should just be set that way unless the board has been replaced/upgraded.

The only reason I didn't mention that before is that I don't know it works for a St. Croix (and my belief was that BHags is looking for something to run his stove, not shut it down).

From the P-series manual dated 2013:

 

AND, the prices have come down drastically in the last 2-3 years. The below prices are for new, but there are times you can find really good prices on the EF official Ebay refurbished site (many of them are basically brand new) - you can probably find similar on Bluetti's refurbished site.

I bought my original Bluetti, the AC180 (1,115 wh), in June of 2023 and it was $800 (on sale). I bought the second one not to long afterwards, and it was the same price. Now it is $500 on Amzon.

My first Delta 2 Max (2,048 wh), bought late July of 2023 was $1,900 with a 220w folding panel - and I had a coupon code that took off $123. I bought my second D2M October of 2024 at $999. now days it is usually around $870.

My first OG Delta Pro (3,600wh), bought in July 2024 was a screaming price on Amazon's Deal of the Day of $1,850 (original buyers had been paying upwards close to $3k). That was a huge discount at the time. In July of this year, I jumped on a great deal at $1,600. Ever since Halloween of this year, it regularly goes for $1,400.

 

You are a wealth of information. Thank you.

 

I second the ecoflow delta 2. I dont have the max version just the delta 2 with the extra battery. Will power the stove for quite a while. I also use this for my overactive sump pump since the deltas can power things off AC power and then auto switch to battery should the power go out.

 

My set up is stove>UPS>Delta 2>100ah lifepo4 battery plugged into the 12v/solar input to the Delta 2.

If i were to lose power, the UPS keeps it running until the Delta takes over. It's a split second before the Delta feeds. The UPS may be unnecessary as the Delta is pretty quick. The Delta will charge from the battery soon after the power is lost. It chargers at about 100 watts, and my stove uses about 100 watts while running. This gives me 20ish hours of continuous run time in the event of an outage.

 

Since I last responded, I've had a Manual Transfer Switch (MTS) installed and the circuits for both pellet stoves are the main one's I would activate (each stove is on separate circuits).

So now my set up for each stove is (closest to furthest): UPS (capable of gracefully shutting down stove if needed), Detlta 3+ at 1,048 wh (changed out from the larger D2Ms that I had set up while I was on vacation). Those would give me 5-6 hours of run time minimum. So, if I'm out and about doing errands, I have plenty of time to return and set the MTS up for longer outages if needed.

For extended power outage, I would switch over to the MTS which can be hooked up any of my other stations; Delta Pro at 3600 wh, Delta 2 Max at 2,048 wh, Blueitti AC180 and down to even smaller stations.

Yes, I have a ridiculous amount of power stations . I have turned it into a hobby spring thru fall of solar charging the stations using panels separate from my grid tied solar. I run nearly anything that is plugged into a wall outlet with the stations. That allows my household solar to return even more power to the grid those months (I get $$ credited that don't expire) while ensuring that I keep the stations exercised and in top shape.