Power Vent Question

Thanks for this site. There is a whole lot of valuable info here. Last year I wanted to add a coal stoker but some medical problems with the wife put that on hold until this coming spring. I'm considering putting a stoker in our dining room with a power vent. What happens if there is a loss of electricty and the power vent can't work for a couple of hours?

You would have to hook up a Generator or a U.P.C. Battery back up to power the vent and stoker you would have Fumes & CO2 filling you house up not good

As coalberner said there could be fumes, but chances are if the run from the stove to the power vent is short enough the gases will escape. Remember the fire will go out since the stoker and combustion fan are not working as well.

I have an Alaska stoker in the kitchen using a SWG power vent located on the wall right above the stove. We had a couple power outages last year, both times the stove went out and the CO detector did not register alarm levels. This year I have a digital CO detector and I purposely shut off the stove and watched for CO right by the stove. It only went up to 14 ppm.

So bottom line, a inverter with a built in battery charger and deep cycle battery is a good idea but probably not essential. Just count on relighting the stove if the outage is more than an hour or so.

Thanks for the info. I'm chomping at the bit to cut my oil useage way down. This summer I paid 2.39 a gallon and was p*ssed. A guy I work with just paid 3.06. Enough is enough. I'm tempted to go back to the future and install a coal central heating system like we had growing up. I don't remember filling the 55 gallon drum hopper and emptying the ashes being that much work. If I keep reading all of these threads by spring I'll be tearing the oil burner out and installing a coal fired system.

Just Do it Oil is never going to come down to what it was in the past it will only being going up Coal is the answer

billw wrote:Thanks for the info. I'm chomping at the bit to cut my oil useage way down. This summer I paid 2.39 a gallon and was p*ssed. A guy I work with just paid 3.06. Enough is enough. I'm tempted to go back to the future and install a coal central heating system like we had growing up. I don't remember filling the 55 gallon drum hopper and emptying the ashes being that much work. If I keep reading all of these threads by spring I'll be tearing the oil burner out and installing a coal fired system.

With the price of common fuels (gas/oil) rising everyday, the cost of our coal burners will rise too. Don't wait too long.

Just make sure you have a coal supplier in your area. This is my 2nd season with coal and I'm loving it.

Never had a problem with the power outage with our power vent, the stove pretty much goes out as soon as you loose combustion air.

I do have a UPS on it now for short periods of time (15-20mins).

the Keystoker has a safety fume switch. if the DV fails , the switch will detect the fumes and shut the unit down. you would think most stoves with DV have the same setup. some kind of UL rules?

ken wrote:the Keystoker has a safety fume switch. if the DV fails , the switch will detect the fumes and shut the unit down. you would think most stoves with DV have the same setup. some kind of UL rules?

No not UL rules, but NFPA rules used by UL and all the other testing laboratories. See pdf attachment for a bit of the rule contained in NFPA 211: Standard for Chimneys, Fireplaces, Vents, And Solid Fuel-Burning Appliances.

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Lets say someone istalls a a rheostat on a DV and it's set to low. Will the fume switch shutoff the stove down or could the co2 leak out into the house?

Possibly both, the fume switch has a hole in the back of the stove, when the heat start excapes to the switch, it will shut it down, the fumes could leak thru the hopper or around the door (if not sealed good), etc....

The stove should be under a slight vacuum so it is always pulling air into it and exhausting it out, if you have too much combustion and the DV is not pulling enough, it will find a way out.

You really need to measure with a Draft Gauge and not to got too slow on the fan.

DON'T Take any chances with CO.

Never install a Rheostat on a DV or PV stove unless you have a manometer hooked up and can check it once a day. Fly ash will collect and the draft WILL go down if you aren't measuring it CO WILL leak out of the stove before the fume switch shuts it off. I have to tweak mine an average of once per month during the burn season to account for fly ash build up and motor slow down due to lubrication use.

As many have already said, "better safe than dead".

is a Dwyer Mark 11 Model 25 a good unit ? thank you , ken

Yes, I believe that is what most of us are using. As long as you can read 0-1 Inches of water that is good. These don't read much on the scale, since the scale goes up to 3.0, You are only concerned around .02-.05 approx.

Picture Here's one on Ebay, not a bad price.
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