On May 28, 12:47*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On May 26, 11:44*pm, Joe wrote:

I had a 90 minute power loss last week and I noticed that my Weil
McLain oil fired boiler did not going on for the entire period. Up
until then I was under the foolish assumption that if there was a
blackout in the middle of winter my hot water boiler would continue to
heat the house. How can I protect against an extended power outage in
the middle of winter leaving me without power. Even if I had a
portable generator my electric oil pump is hard wired so there is
nothing to plug in. What do other people do in this situation?

Other's have offered suggestions...I'll just offer a story.

Many years ago, my old Perfection furnace had a lever on the gas valve
that allowed the user to turn on the gas manually during a power
failure. Since the blower would obviously not work, the manual said to
use a 10 minute on - 30 minute off duty cycle to avoid damaging the
furnace. *I guess they trusted people to follow instructions back
then.

One year I noticed that my furnace would not kick on consistantly and
had to have it repaired. It turned out to be a sticky gas valve which
they replaced. Unfortunately, new codes did not allowed gas valves
with manual controls since people must have gotten stupid since the
furnace was originally installed.

The following winter we had an ice storm that left us without power
for 5 days. Kerosene heaters kept the house barely livable since the
weather cooperated to some extent, but had I not had a furnace problem
the year before, I would have had a much more comfortable experience.

Running any modern furnace to heat without a blower is plain ol, as
stupid as it gets, moron dumb.