Running a pellet stove with an inverter and solar

The longest we have ever been out was 4 days and it was in the single digits at night.

We took shifts keeping the generator fueled.

The Quad did not like the Widdle Coleman 1750 much and did the wa wa wa wa wa wa thing.

Still runs fine, so obviously no worries

 

A basic PC UPS will clean up the power like a filter to make a nice sine wave that is safe for electronics, it does this by using the standby battery and transformer to clean the dirty ac to dc, then convert the pure dc to clean AC.....

Read this too

 

Makes sense

Having a good scope would certainly show what sort of wave is coming through.

 

Be careful with putting large batteries in containers and near the stove. When those batteries charge (if you are using car batteries) they off gas and it can be explosive. Sealed lead acid or Gel Mat like optima car batteries should be better for this.
Why the need to charge this rig with solar? instead of shelling out for the solar panel, use more batteries and charge them by keeping them plugged in. You already have a generator so when the batteries get low it can be recharged from the generator.

If the power goes out when its cold and nasty, either there wont be any sun or there will be a pile of snow on your solar panel.

 

regarding the UPS thing. I own a computer repair business - so I get to play with a lot of toys that pass through my shop. I see a lot of UPS's both small and cheap and large and expensive. The best output pure sine but also need to be charged with pure sine, or output stepped or square and charged with pure sine.

I have yet to find one that will accept being connected to my dirty power genset and output pure sine. So far any that i've tried refuse to acknowledge they have power coming in unless its pure sine.

 

So, I guess I can add to this...

We use a somewhat large (2200 VA) APC UPS designed to be a backup power unit for a server. It produces pure sine wave power, can run continuously for days, and is deigned to accept "dirty" power found in 3rd world countries or from modified sine wave generators (many UPS's are not designed for this, and may become useless when the power fails because of it because they can't be recharged by the generator).We had it for a business we owned, and when we moved to the cloud and it was fully depreciated tax wise I moved it to the house after the batteries failed. It has 48V input, so I wired together four deep cycle marine batteries (110 ah each) into the unit, put it out in the garage for ventilation (no open flames out there) and created a special circuit in the house that has the pellet stoves, security system, Fios box, router, Tivo and a tv connected to it (all together well under 15 amps max).

The UPS keeps the marine batteries fully charged on utility power. When we suffer an outage, the UPS keeps the pellet stoves and the rest of that circuit powered (never skips a beat). We then tuen on the generator during the day, and I use four regular 12v battery chargers to charge each of the four batteries from the generator. But at night we turn off the generator after dinner (last opening of the refrigerator) , and the battery system keeps everything going all night, without taking the batteries below about 50% (to keep them healthy). It effectively doubles our gas supply for the generator, and we have gone just under a full week like this once, and over three days on multiple occasions.

Now, Snowy, I am also getting ready to try another little experiment to power my old Whitfield Quest out in the new shed by using a single 12V marine battery and a cheap Harbor Freight inverter. Power quality should be similar to that produced by the generator, which has been fine for several days before I switched to the battery system described above so I'll let you know how it goes. Worst case, I figure, is that I fry the board and will just build one of your controllers to replace it. I ultimately want to keep that battery charged with solar on the shed, but let's see how the inverter and battery work, first. Hopefully I'll get this hooked up over the next couple of weeks and report back.

 

What is the model # of this ups if you dont mind me asking?

 

Well, I will need to check and report back. Want to find a other one on ebay for when this one finally gives up the ghost. Give me a day or so to get out there and slide it out.

 

My system was designed around my needs. I used to work 12 hr shifts and wanted to make sure I came home to a warm house. Hydro wasn't a trusted source in these part of rural living. I got a generator to take over if power is out for any extended times. Now those big UPS mentioned above are a cat's a** to reckon with. Very unaffordable for the regular folks but by replacing batteries yourself and having a source for a thrown away system becomes a reality for SOME.