Market Farming

["marcy" <marcy AT aculink.net>]

One idea I came up with through this mess is a way to keep the blower going
if (when) we have a power outage again.  Don't know if it would work for
continuous power supply on a double layer blower or not if you're off grid.
Last Tuesday after the storm hit I noticed I had an inverter that I didn't
realize we still had. I didn't think much of it and put it back. The next
day while feeding chx I was contemplating someone's comment about even if
the blower actually had the air intake open and was functioning as it
should, if the power went out it wouldn't be working. In this particular
storm the damage was done before the power went out, but that wouldn't
necessarily be the case. I remembered that inverter and realized all I need
to do is have a battery charged up and I could hook up the inverter to the
battery and plug in the blower - which is currently hardwired and will have
to get a plug put on it.
Anyway, yesterday I checked the blower and it says 1/125 Hp and I found an
equation that 1 Hp=746 watts, so 746 divided by 125 is 5.968 or 6 watts. I
suppose batteries vary depending on the charge and capacity or whatever, but
I'd had a # someplace of 400 watts for a battery which would mean the
battery could run the blower for 66 hours - or thereabouts.
Anyway, this seems like a lot more workable backup for me than and $$$
generator or something. Of course it's not an automatic switch either, but
it's something I can afford.  This particular inverter is a 700 watt (1400
watt peak) and I know they're pretty reasonable these days. I think I've
also heard that the marine batteries are better for situations where they'll
be drained all the way and then recharged.
Maybe others know better...
Marcy