Excellent point - always make sure you get enough power!! With the numbers you
estimated two batteries should give 5-6 runtime hours, probably enough for two
days
of intermittent heat (run a half hour or so every few hours), at least enough to
keep the place livable if not toasty.
Our failures are rarely for that long and I can get the couple of pumpouts I
need
with a single battery. And for when I get scared - I'll pull a battery out of
one
of the cars.
Mark.
Randall Young wrote:
> Good idea, but you need to carefully analyze your needs before buying
>equipment.
>
> A run-of-the-mill middle-aged car battery is only good for maybe 4-500 watt
> hours. A brand new group 27 marine (deep cycle) battery might make 1000 watt
> hours. It depends on the size of your furnace, but a typical blower draws
> around 250 watts, and 12v inverters are notoriously inefficient. So, unless
>you
> use multiple batteries (and marine batteries get expensive), you'll likely
>only
> get a few hours runtime. Don't forget to size your inverter for the startup
> current of your blower.
>
> Randall
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Susan and Mark Miller
> >
> > If what you want is for your gas heater to work without AC power or a fussy
> > generator you might consider getting a power inverter. You only need
> > a few amps
> > and can get one that will run off of a car battery or two (better
> > though if you
> > get a real deep cycle battery) for a fairly long time. Then recharge the
> > batteries in/on a car or wait till the AC returns. Good enough to
> > run the heater
> > intermittently for your two days every couple of years. (but you
> > have to keep the
> > batteries on a trickle charge or they'll be dead the only times you
> > want them).
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