I thought I had that link included but I guess I didn't. This is a different site but same product. Since I found it, I've also found a myrid of other space heaters. BUT will they run for days and days nonstop? How will I know?

Here is a link that might be useful: eden pure

Those things have been the subject of numerous threads. Do a search. They are just marketing hype. By law, plug in heaters in the US cannot use more than 1500 watts of power.

Electric resistance heater are 100% efficient. The cheapest 1500 watt electric heater will put out the same amount of heat as the most expensive brand.

You can get a fairly well made 1500 watt electric heater at the box store for well under $50.

We have a kerosene heater for emergency backup use. They are relatively inexpensive for the amount of heat they put out, about triple what a 1500 watt electric heater provides. Fortunately, we have never had to use ours.

I own a kerosene heater that's easily 20 years old but kerosene isn't so readily available here. I also have parrots in the house. Fumes are an issue. Would any space heater be capable of running for several days non stop? I can go several directions with this. I have a generator so space heater and a light bulb. Possibly small tv, too? OR pellet stove and generator for lights and tv. The past two outages were boring beyond belief once it got dark. I won't do another winter like that. Pellet stove would be much easier to fill but more expensive counting installation. Generator has to be outside and filling it during a blizzard is a PITA.

If you still have a propane or natural gas furnace to supplement your heat pump why couldn't you have set your t-stat on emergency and ran the furnace like you used to? I would think your generator should be able to run in that configuration.

I don't have anything any more. Sold everything when I changed to the heat pump. Regret the heat pump weekly.

If your electricity is that unreliable, and you do not have sufficient generator capacity to run enough electric heaters, then you probably should put in a small wood stove.

It's a little late now, but your best bet with an unreliable electricity supply would have been a dual fuel heat pump with propane backup.

My first mistake was listening to the "salesman" who sold me the heat pump. My second mistake was not shopping around. My third mistake was doing it. Now I'm stuck between the rock and the hard place. Typically we wouldn't have these kinds of power outages because we would have snow instead of ice. Thank you global warming. So lines go down and poles go down and it's always in horrible weather. I feel real bad that anyone has to be out there working on it.
I am leaning toward a pellet or wood stove. I am also going to search ventless propane. I need to think 10 and 20 years down the road. I can do the generator now. I can do it next year.....but for how long? I hope I can stay here until I'm at least 80 but I know for sure I won't be doing the generator then! So, would it be wood or pellet now?

If you are all electric I would go with a used pellet stove that is a brand that people have few issues with. I would do some searching on craigslist. I plan to grab a good used pellet stove sometime in the future for just what you are describing along with some added cozy times in the basement.
Wood pellet stoves take a small generator to run and the pellets will store for an extended period with no bugs to worry about.

Why are you so regretful about the heat pump or is it regretful for going all electric? I am very happy with my new heat pump now that I have something better than builders grade.

I wouldn't have a clue how to buy one. There's this one listed.

Here is a link that might be useful: wood burner

I don't know where you live, but have you considered a coal stove? It's very cheap heat. A typical Pennsylvania winter will cost about $800 and that includes domestic hot water if you have a boiler, which I know you don't.

I've tried to answer twice and gardenweb server tells me I already answered so maybe you will see this in various forms eventually.
I don't recall the last time I even saw coal. I'm in Iowa.

countryboymo - My Amana heat pump shelled out after one heating season. My first mistake was listening to the salesman who sold it to me. My second mistake was not shopping around but I have dealt with this firm for 40 years. I bought in March. They sold out in April. The new company said Amana sold and shipped a defective product but out of the goodness of their hearts they'd take $200 off my repair bill. Amana covered the part. I wonder how much that cost. Amana said NOT Our Problem. But eventually did offer me $300 toward the labor bill. IF I would sign off and go away. And the money would be here in three months. SO I got stuck with a $600+ labor charge that I'm still paying off. I haven't seen any cost savings using the heat pump instead of LP. I'm paying off an $8000 heat pump. It cost me $2500 for the electrician to wire it. And then there's the $600+ repair charge. When the power goes out I'm cold and dark. Any other questions?

A wood burning stove needs to installed correctly. That means someone who really knows what they are doing, or someone very handy with tools who can read and follow directions explicitly.

An improperly installed wood stove is an accident waiting to happen. The same applies to pellet stoves. If you go either route, make sure you line up a competent installer.

There are additional costs beyond the stove. Check out the link got more information.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://woodheat.org/

How many watt generator do you have? I am just trying to brainstorm as to available options.

I'm going to stop at the fireplace store within the next month to see and learn. Call the local heating and cooling to ask if they install/sell/install what I buy elsewhere. I don't have a good place to put one so I need someone to come and look. The only place I can do a straight up flue is my breezeway. Not ideal but the lesser of any of the other evils. Still need to decide pellet - is it possible to feed them by hand? or wood or propane or electric space heater or baseboard and my generator. If I have to hook the generator up to feed the pellets it defeats the purpose of pellets. I don't want to stand outside filling the generator every 4 hours. So that leaves wood stove or electric. Again, electric I'm standing outside. If I go woodstove I have to find/buy wood. I have a tree that needs to come down but I need the wood next year, not two or three years from now. And I'll need someone to split it for me. IF I have my own wood and someone to split it, I can have it any lenght I want? So I wouldn't have to be concerned about a box that takes 16, 18 or 24 inch length? But eventually I will run out of my wood and have to buy it. What is the length of cut wood? Now a propane heater is starting to look real good. No generator to fill. No figuring out how to vent it/where to put it. I've seen propane ventless that can be hung on the wall! Seems like I might have answered my own question!

My generator is in the barn right now and it's really dark out. It's big enough to run a furnace that heats a two story house. I think I could have run lights, too but I never did. I didn't want to push my luck.

There is no free lunch. The last option I would recommend would be anything vent free. If you went propane and have a propane tank there I would check into converting the generator to propane so there is no 4hr fill ups to deal with and now you have lights and heat.

I would say if you do not care about a propane tank sitting around there or if its still there this is your best back up option.

If you have access to wood or someone who will cut it to your liking and don't mind messing with it this might be a very cost effective option.

Pellet stoves are a great back up but require batteries or a small generator to operate. Pellets are easy to store and bug free option to deal with. The stoves require more maintenance than just shoveling out the ashes but its not a huge headache.

No matter what the choice there will be something additional to deal but the most set it up and forget it option looks to be the propane tank, vented fireplace, and possible propane converted generator.

I live in town now so my only sensible option is pellet stove in the basement and generator outside.

Hm. propane generator. I didn't know you could do that. I don't have my tank any more but no matter what I do I'm going to have to buy something. I still have my account at FS so could get a tank.
Yes. Nothing is going to be as easy as getting power from the electric pole. The maintenence part isn't forever, only a week a year, I hope. I wish they'd bury them. Then the ice storms wouldn't matter.

You can do a conversion that will allow dual fuel or propane only. If interested I would do some research about it. It isn't very involved and most small engine shops will install it for you if need be.

The engine oil will stay a lot cleaner running on propane also and the engine will probably last longer.

**The average cost of our most popular kits is between $130.00 and $250.00. For exact prices and product availability, please call toll free 1-877-425-8383** from the one website I checked.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propane conversion

Thanks, countryboymo. You've given me a lot of options. converting the generator sounds like an idea. As long as you are here and answering my questions anyway. Do they make propane generators? I'm thinking if I bought an LP generator to begin with, I'd be spending roughly the same money......maybe. $250 would put me quite a ways toward a new one. Just thinking. In the olden days the LP supplier would have done the conversion and they still may. I will get with them and pick their brains.

Propane powered generators are readily available. Home Depot and Amazon, among others, list them. They go from roughly $400 on up. $400 will get you a 3,000 watt portable generator, which may not be enough for your needs.

Larger fixed propane powered generators are a better solution for power outages. However, they are considerably more expensive. An 8,000 watt unit is a couple of thousand dollars. Bigger units cost more and can require a 500 gallon or bigger propane tank be in place in order to be useful.

Well, I know I won't get one big enough to power the heat pump. It would be nice if it could run the well pump but then I'd be looking at a big one again. So I'm thinking something that would run an electric heater and some lights. Maybe a small tv? If I can keep a room or two warm enough to live in, it will be fine. I've done a week before with just the furnace and candles. Not pleasant but doable. It looks like this is going to be a repeating event so I may as well get something set up for the rest of my life here. I'll grit my teeth and get by like I've done up until now. It's just a drop in time.
How does this sound? Get my old kerosene heater out and see if it still works. BUY the kerosene in October. Get a small LP tank and a small space heater. Possibly get a wood stove. Convert my present generator to LP and use it to run some lights and the tv. I can haul the generator around now but in a few years it will be a real challenge.

It might be something to look into speaking of a generator big enough to run the heat pump and or air and a decent portion of other amenities. We in the midwest are not immune from spring or summer storms that knock out power for long periods either. I still think that a smaller generator to run lights and fridge along with a tv with the freezer on through the night on propane would be hard to beat. Throw a wood stove pellet stove or safe propane heat source in the mix and even though all the lights and gadgets wouldn't be on I would still be living large considering. I agree that making gas runs or swapping propane bottles would get very old and expensive.

One other bonus is If a bad storm hit and there was no power for 10 days or so and the tank was full and was solely for the backup system you wouldn't have to pay immediately out of pocket to keep the generator going like with gas can trips or small propane bottle runs.

If your heat strips are not staged and you do not have the strips locked out above moderate temps I would put that high on the priority list. This can all be controlled via thermostat and the thermostats with this capability are from $75-200.00. Mine paid for itself the first winter.

If only you lived next door and could take me shopping. The big generators run thousands of dollars. I can't do that. If the power goes out in the summer, not a big deal. And it rarely does. I think once for several house. I don't use the air conditioner but a few days if ever so I don't care about that. Refrigerator, maybe. It's those winter ice storms that do me in. I'll get busy with these ideas and see where I end up. I'll likely come knocking on your door again.

You can lock the heat strips out with a thermostat mounted in the outdoor unit. They cost about $40 plus installation.

A more sophisticated indoor thermostat with an outside temperature sensor is the better way to go, but costs more, especially if it is professionally installed.

As an alternative, you can disable the heat strips until it gets cold enough that you have to have them. This requires that they be on separate circuit or have a separate breaker at the unit. The downside, other than having to remember to the throw the breakers at the appropriate times, is cold air out of the registers during the defrost cycles.

One other possibility is putting a separate switch in the thermostat wire that controls the heat strips. That would disable the heat strips if the thermostat tried to turn them on, but would not interfere with them during defrost.

It's doable, but kind of Mickey Mouse.

creek_side, You'd have to come here and do it for me. It's getting way too complicated! I'm happy if I can plug something in and it works. Electrical things are not my cup a tea! (And electrical workings only interest me if I have to know) I'll be calling the professionals to do electrical work and if I end up with a wood stove, someone who's done it before will do it here! I'm more comfortable with animals than machines. I'll print this whole thing and take it with me when I go to the plumbing and heating guys.

Best of luck with whatever you go with. From where I sit, something that requires no electricity makes the most sense. Probably a small wood stove and a cord of wood or two in standby for when the power goes out.

That's where my thoughts are going, too. I'd like to get by as cheap as possible next year while I regroup from the heat pump repair and also test whatever I do get set up. I can always do more. But in the long run, ease of use and cash outlay, small stove seems to be the answer.