Power was out from about noon to 8pm and it was in the teens outside, and dropped to 58° inside. The gas water heater works fine without power but the furnace has an electric fan to move the heated air. Do they make dual voltage fan motors I could connect a 12 volt car battery to in order to run it? Or does anyone make a heater that could work off the hot water?
Do they make dual voltage gas furnaces?
- Thread starter atikovi
- Start date
Use an inverter to run the furnace fan from 12V. Nobody makes a 12V motor in that size, let alone a dual voltage one.
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
You've got 50 cars and not 1 generator? Need to fix that.
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Depending on how you decide to go about wiring your furnace to your generator - you might need a neutral / ground bonding plug. Do a google search on that. If you do wire it properly via a transfer switch in the panel, you don't need it probably.
I measured my furnace - the inrush for the fan motor / controls when it kicks in is close to 2000 watt (16.5A @ 120V). The running fan is under 700W - just for one datapoint.
I measured my furnace - the inrush for the fan motor / controls when it kicks in is close to 2000 watt (16.5A @ 120V). The running fan is under 700W - just for one datapoint.
dnewton3
Staff member
Assuming it's a modern furnace and not so old it runs off a pilot light ...
No duel voltage systems are common; I've never even heard of one. Essentially, ALL modern furnaces run 120V in North America. It will need that voltage to run not only the inducer motor, but also the fan motor, the circuit board, the ignitor, the flame sensor, and the transformer which steps down to 24vac to run the control circuit).
No single car battery would do. Perhaps a bank of a LOT of car batteries in parallel would work for a while, feeding into an inverter. Not worth the grief, IMO. Go get a generator and wire up a separate secondary dedicated (safety first!) circuit to the furnace. Generally any of the 2000w (or bigger) invertor generators will suffice.
No duel voltage systems are common; I've never even heard of one. Essentially, ALL modern furnaces run 120V in North America. It will need that voltage to run not only the inducer motor, but also the fan motor, the circuit board, the ignitor, the flame sensor, and the transformer which steps down to 24vac to run the control circuit).
No single car battery would do. Perhaps a bank of a LOT of car batteries in parallel would work for a while, feeding into an inverter. Not worth the grief, IMO. Go get a generator and wire up a separate secondary dedicated (safety first!) circuit to the furnace. Generally any of the 2000w (or bigger) invertor generators will suffice.
This looks like a really nice generator for emergencies for the price and isn't a high watt gas hog.
4WD
$50 site donor 2024
When I saw gas water heater 
- what are other gas heat sources ?
We have a gas fireplace & cooktop + DynaGlo ceramic wall heater in the utility room …
(and the same DynaGlo in my shop) …
I’m more likely to run the fridge with my gens …
- what are other gas heat sources ? We have a gas fireplace & cooktop + DynaGlo ceramic wall heater in the utility room …
(and the same DynaGlo in my shop) …
I’m more likely to run the fridge with my gens …
Actually scratch what I said and just get this.
I just finished break-in on a new Predator 9500 Inverter when the power went out last night for 6 hours. It's hooked up to a transfer switch and it powers the boiler, refrigerator, chest freezer, a backyard light, the kitchen lights and outlets, the living room outlets, my bedroom outlets, and the stove is propane. We were having early Christmas last night with lots of cooking and festivities when the power went out and the festivities continued - even the Christmas tree was powered.
Heat is my biggest concerns and as I said it easily powers the boiler but it was also nice to still be able to cook with the air frier and toaster oven too. We don't lose power often but a genator is really nice when we do and over the past 20 years I've lost power for >5 days three times - twice in the winter.
Heat is my biggest concerns and as I said it easily powers the boiler but it was also nice to still be able to cook with the air frier and toaster oven too. We don't lose power often but a genator is really nice when we do and over the past 20 years I've lost power for >5 days three times - twice in the winter.
A 1400 w inverter will do the trick off one of your vehicles. My father in law did that yesterday with his F150 idling in 1.5 feet of seat water to run a lamp , boiler, coffee out and tv.
True, but it won’t run much. Lights and some fans. But you can leave it running indefinitely doing that—a big generator will slurp gas but fire the furnace and well pump with ease.
I have a gas insert and and thinking for now of using the invertor to run some fans, a low buck solution just to sweat out a day or two. No running water though.
Actually I have 50 generators but at 12 volts, hence the question. And how come I can have all the hot water I want with the power off, but no heat? Seems like someone could come up with a radiator type device that could be connected to a faucet and circulate hot water through it to give off heat. An optional 12V fan could boost the output. You could stay inside a bathroom indefinitely like that no matter how cold it got outside.
Not sure I follow?
FWIW, if I have heat I have hot water. Recirculating hot water for heat, three zones are for the house, with one for hot water. Nice and simple setup. No hot water tank electrodes to ever deal with.
I guess the pipes could freeze in a long outage, but the regular plumbing would be in the same boat, so no real loss. No dusty ductwork, no hvac filters either.
But no easy air conditioning, so I guess that is a major downside.
I mean there is no electrical connection to my gas water heater so I have unlimited hot water during a power outage. Isn't there some way to heat at least one room in the house, like an interior bathroom, with the hot water?
Sure. Get a pump and some baseboard registers, otherwise known as recirculating hot water heating. Not much more that some copper piping.
A 2kw will easily run his furnace blower. That was the only thing he was interested in running.
Yes, a bigger generator will run more of a load at the cost of consuming more gas.
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