I stumbled on this while sitting on my ass instead of doing the things I need to be doing and thought I would share it.
This guy basically shows you how to run your gas furnace off of a 12 volt battery with a power inverter.
He specifically mentions the long cold snap in Texas last year that saw people who were unprepared die from the cold
Might be good to know if it’s freezing outside and the power goes out .
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You have to bang your head wondering why you never thought of this. Makes perfect sense and is pig simple.
Surprising it will run it for days. Of course the furnace doesn’t run continuously and the only thing using electricity is the blower motor and the ignitor briefly.
Thanks much for posting this !
I’m thinking you could use this setup to run a refrigerator also. Plug the fridge right into the inverter.
Gas valve takes power also.
Excellent idea. My personal opinion on the inverter would be to go with at least a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. The 1000 may be big enough for his furnace, but may not be for yours. I tried using a 1200 watt inverter on my fridge, but it wouldn’t handle the startup current and kept tripping, so I went with a 3000 watt unit from Renogy.
I have a 2000 watt jupiter inverter. The downside to the jupiter inverter is it is a modified sine wave and not a pure sine wave, which could make some electronics have issues. But i did run a second fridge on it for several months with no issues.
As cheap as they are, if you are a prepper and you don’t have an inverter (a decent one of at least 3000 watts) then you are not well prepped.
I mean, you can get a decent one for less than 200 bucks.
Excellent, thanks!
I have my system for my outdoor wood furnace system set up for that and used it for just over 20 hours last winter. I also bought a dedicated battery that I keep on a charger. I recommend that highly. —ken
Maybe 10 years ago I wired a 110v outlet plug (has prongs) to the box on our propane fired furnace. A friend gave me a 100′ 10ga construction grade cord the needed new plugs, which I installed. I can cut the breaker to the furnace then run the cord from the furnace to my vehicle, and using a 500 watt invertor, power that furnace. It’s one of the various back-up heat supplies I have set up. In essence, my vehicle acts like a generator.
Nice, I use a standalone system for my sump pump just in case we lose power, I have a portable 12-volt inverter in my truck I could rig up in about twenty minutes. Thanks for sharing.
Two things to consider when running generators, UPS’s, or inverters:
1) Electric motor-powered devices use a LOT of wattage (briefly) when starting up. use 3X the rated wattage in your calculations.
2) High wattage (current) appliances such as refrigerators, electric heaters, electric ranges, washers, and hair dryers suck power like mad.
Years ago I went to natural gas for just this reason. I have gas-powered furnace, stove, clothes dryer, water heater, and gas fireplace which can run for a week after the power goes out (If not longer!), I have a 2000W UPS for my backuppellet stove, security system, Starlink, and water heater. I can energize a 3500W inverter (12V battery power) if I need more power, but I have the 6500W Onan generator on the motorhome I can tap into. I really need to fix that 3500W Honda Genset I picked up for $50…
I’m set. Getting a (gas) furnace running on an inverter is child’s play for me. And, yes, I can design and build an Automatic Switching Unit that will start up the generator and switch over the A.C. feed for the house from commercial power to the generator – I used to FIX the ones on a Minuteman site! Being an EE helps a wee bit.
Need some way to recharge the battery. It won’t run a furnace for very long.
Plug a battery charger into the inverter and connect it to the battery…
LMFAO!!!
Seriously though, you could run some wire from your vehicle to the battery from outside and charge it that way.
Trickle charge it with a 100 to 200 watt solar panel. Put a battery charger on it with a decent float setting. I have one on my motor home for the engine battery, and a smart one for the Coach battery set.
as soon as I saw this, I sent the link to a few friends who could use something like this. about the size of the inverter, I go with something a little bigger. say, 1500 and up. what might be a good add on to something like this would be a old one wire Gm generator setup with say 1/3 horse motor to keep the battery topped off.
there a idea for a video for ya Phil. I keep a inverter around just in case of,,
they handy items I used camping at car shows in the past.
remember one thing, they tend to get warm rather fast when under a load.
or at least all the ones I have used in the past did.
Brilliant, thanks for that.
many thanks
do not understand a word but will show with all your comments to engineering brained offspring
as long as our gas is available this would set my mind at rest
again, many thanks!