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Poll: Emergency power and heating
XyloSesame:
--- Quote from: divemaster127 on December 14, 2007, 04:14:30 pm ---In tulsa last night on the news over 100 people went to the hospital for running generators inside their home or building fires in their home(people are getting desperate & short tempered). BOTH of these ARE big no no's. A friend of mine purchased a $1,000 dollar generator & after a hour he & his wife could not figure out why the house was still cold. They could hear the unit running so he opened the front door to check the generator & there sat a $20.00 lawn mower running.
dm
--- End quote ---
I've got a friend who has power but his neighbor does not (separate transformers). He pigtailed an extension cord from his neighbor's blower fan to his powered house so the neighbor could use their central gas heat... Desperate and short tempered is exactly correct.
nostrebor:
--- Quote from: divemaster127 on December 14, 2007, 04:14:30 pm ---A friend of mine purchased a $1,000 dollar generator & after a hour he & his wife could not figure out why the house was still cold. They could hear the unit running so he opened the front door to check the generator & there sat a $20.00 lawn mower running.
dm
--- End quote ---
This happened regularly last January during the ice storm here. The first three days someone was stealing the generators from the railroad crossings. After the Sheriff caught the first guy (literally red-handed) and put his name, address, and picture all over the news, people stopped stealing the RR generators. We were double chaining our generator to a 500 gallon propane tank with log chains and kryptonite brand padlocks. It just didn't make sense to pay $1000 for a gen and not go ahead and drop $50 on some good locks.
knave:
This thread has been a good read. My question is, for those who might know...
How would I get my Gas heat to function in a power outage...
I know it has an electric ignition, so could I use a car battery, 9 volts etc...?
Or would I have to build something more dedicated?
With no pilot is there still has to be some sort of thermocouple or heat sensitive shutoff?
Anyone here good a HVAC?
It would be possible but not plesent to use our fireplace.
And a note about the 72hour kits...I've thought about building something like this before but I always look at the shelves full of canned goods in our pantry and forget it. I'm much more concerned about water, we have at least a week or two worth of food not counting what's in the freezer.
BobA:
If you have forced air gas heating you will need to provide power for your control circuits and your fan. If you have a newer unit with a pilot that ignites when heat is required then the fan and controls must have 120V probably from a portable gen to run. I suggest a portable gen because your fan motor requires quite a bit of power to run. If you have the older style forced air heat with a constant pilot your controls are not as complex but you will still have to power your fan motor with 120Vac so an aux gen is probably required again.
A 1/4 HP fan motor can easily require 600W to run and much more to start. This is considered a small furnace motor.
If you have a constant pilot then the thermocouple keeps the valve open as long has you have flame. It does not require external voltage to operate. This is why a gas fireplace will operate without 120V. If the thermocouple has flame then the on switch will open the gas valve without any other voltage. A gas fireplace can provide alot of heat if supplemented with a 12V fan.
tommy:
--- Quote from: pinballjim on December 14, 2007, 11:35:41 am ---
--- Quote from: shardian on December 14, 2007, 11:32:16 am ---Apparently someone here has never heard of heat stroke. ::)
--- End quote ---
Apparently someone here thinks air conditioning has been around forever.
I sat around every day, all day, in 90+ degree weather for years. Somehow I survived.
--- End quote ---
This guy has never been in any situation other than sitting in his basement waiting for his mommy to ring the bell for him to come up and eat, obviously.
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